Meeting Cost Calculator

Meetings are one of the largest hidden costs in any organization. While everyone complains about having too many meetings, few companies actually quantify the expense. Our meeting cost calculator makes the invisible visible by showing you exactly how much each meeting costs in real dollars.

The calculation is straightforward but eye-opening. We convert annual salaries to hourly rates (based on 2,080 work hours per year), multiply by the meeting duration, and sum across all attendees. A one-hour meeting with 8 people averaging $100,000 in salary costs your company approximately $385. Do that weekly, and you're looking at $20,000 per year for a single recurring meeting.

This perspective changes how you think about meeting invitations. Every person you add to a meeting isn't just taking up a seat—they're adding real cost. That "quick sync" you're scheduling with 12 people? It might cost more than a month of your SaaS subscriptions. Understanding this helps you make more intentional decisions about who actually needs to be in the room.

Meeting cost awareness also helps justify investments in meeting optimization. If your leadership team spends 30% of their time in meetings, and your meeting cost calculator shows that's $500,000 annually, suddenly a $50,000 investment in better meeting practices or automation tools looks like an obvious win. The ROI becomes crystal clear.

For operations leaders and HR, meeting cost data provides ammunition for culture change. It's one thing to say "we have too many meetings" and another to show that your company spends $2.3 million annually on meetings. Hard numbers drive action in ways that complaints never will.

The best organizations use meeting cost awareness not to eliminate meetings, but to make them more valuable. When everyone knows a meeting costs $500/hour, there's natural pressure to have agendas, start on time, make decisions, and end early when possible. The goal isn't fewer meetings—it's better meetings that justify their cost.