In short
A meeting costs the number of attendees times its length in hours times their average hourly cost, plus preparation time. For a recurring meeting, multiply by how often it happens. Six people in a weekly one-hour meeting at 50 an hour cost 300 a week, about 15,600 a year.
A meeting cost calculator is one multiplication: attendees × hours × average hourly cost. Six people in a one-hour meeting, at an average of 50 an hour, cost 300. Held every week, that is 300 × 52 = 15,600 a year. Add preparation time if people prepare, and the result is the cost of that meeting in whatever currency you use.
This guide gives the formula, a worked example for a set of recurring meetings, a spreadsheet version, and the costs the formula leaves out. It uses round, invented numbers; use your own.
The formula
Cost of one meeting = attendees × length in hours × average hourly cost
Cost per year = cost of one meeting × meetings per year
Each part has a choice in it:
- Attendees means everyone invited who attends, including the optional people who come anyway.
- Length is the time actually taken, not the slot booked. A meeting booked for 30 minutes that runs to 45 costs 45.
- Average hourly cost is the cost of an hour of the attendees' time. The section below covers which figure to use.
How to work out a meeting's cost
- Pick the meeting. Start with a recurring one; that is where the numbers add up.
- Count the attendees. Use a typical week, not the invite list.
- Measure the length. Use how long it usually runs, in hours: 30 minutes is 0.5, 45 minutes is 0.75.
- Choose an hourly cost. An average across the attendees, from finance if you can get it; otherwise salary divided by working hours.
- Multiply. Attendees × hours × hourly cost is the cost of one meeting.
- Add preparation. If each person spends 15 minutes preparing, add attendees × 0.25 × hourly cost.
- Annualise it. Multiply by the number of times it happens a year: 52 for weekly, 26 for fortnightly, about 250 for daily on working days.
A worked example
A fictional product team at Harbour has four recurring meetings. Every figure below is invented for the example, with an average cost of 50 an hour for everyone.
| Meeting | People × hours | Per meeting | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily standup (15 min, 250 a year) | 7 × 0.25 | 87.50 | 21,875 |
| Weekly planning (1 hour, 52 a year) | 6 × 1 | 300 | 15,600 |
| Weekly status review (1 hour, 52 a year) | 9 × 1 | 450 | 23,400 |
| Monthly all-hands (1 hour, 12 a year) | 40 × 1 | 2,000 | 24,000 |
The status review is the most expensive recurring meeting after the all-hands, and it is also the one that only shares information. Replacing it with a written status update that takes each person ten minutes to write and read would cost 9 × 0.17 × 50, about 75 a week, or about 3,900 a year instead of 23,400.
The standup looks cheap per meeting and turns out to be one of the larger costs over a year, because it happens every day. Short and frequent adds up.
Which hourly cost to use
There are three common choices, from lowest to highest:
| Figure | What it includes | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Salary ÷ working hours | Pay only | When you have nothing better; say it is an underestimate |
| Fully loaded cost | Pay plus employer taxes, benefits, equipment and space | For internal decisions; ask finance for the figure |
| Billing rate | What a client pays for an hour | For consultancies and agencies, where a meeting displaces billable time |
To get an hourly figure from an annual one, divide by the working hours in a year. Full-time contracts differ by country and employer, so use your own: for example, 37.5 hours a week for 46 working weeks is 1,725 hours.
Use an average across the group rather than each person's pay. It is accurate enough for the decision and keeps individual salaries out of a calendar discussion.
A spreadsheet version
Put one recurring meeting per row, with these columns:
| Column | Contents |
|---|---|
| A | Meeting name |
| B | Attendees |
| C | Length in hours |
| D | Meetings per year |
| E | Average hourly cost |
| F | Cost per year: =B2*C2*D2*E2 |
Sort by column F. The top few rows are where reducing meetings should start, but only for meetings whose job can be done another way.
What the formula leaves out
The multiplication counts time in the room. It misses several things, in both directions:
- Switching time. A meeting in the middle of a morning splits it into two shorter blocks. The formula does not count the time it takes to get back into focused work afterwards.
- Waiting and overrunning. Five minutes late to start and ten over to finish adds a quarter of an hour for everyone, every time.
- Meetings that save more than they cost. A one-hour decision meeting that stops two weeks of work in the wrong direction is cheap at any price. Cost is only half of the comparison; the other half is what the meeting produced.
- The cost of the replacement. A written update, a document or a recording still takes time to write and read. Compare against that, not against zero.
For that reason, the useful output of the calculation is a comparison, not a verdict. It tells you which meetings are expensive enough to be worth questioning.
Making meetings cheaper without cancelling them
Most of the cost is people × length, so there are two levers:
- Fewer people. Invite those who decide or whose input an item needs. Send notes to everyone else. Dropping from nine attendees to five cuts the cost by almost half without changing anything else.
- Shorter slots. A 50-minute default instead of 60 saves a sixth of every meeting. How long should a meeting be has lengths by type and the calendar settings that shorten meetings by default.
An agenda helps both: it shows who each item needs, and time boxes that add up to less than the slot. The meeting agenda template has the format.
Measuring how long meetings really run
The calendar shows the slot, not the meeting. For a few weeks, write down when each recurring meeting actually starts and ends, and use those numbers. If you record meetings with everyone's agreement, most recorders show the length of each one; in Notey it is the Length figure in a meeting's stats on the Notes tab. Either way, use actual lengths in the calculation.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
Multiply the number of attendees by the meeting's length in hours by the average hourly cost of their time. Add preparation time if people prepare, and multiply by the number of times a year for a recurring meeting.
What hourly rate should I use?
The honest figure is the fully loaded cost of employing someone for an hour, which includes more than salary. If you do not have that figure, use salary divided by working hours and say the result is an underestimate.
How much does a one-hour meeting cost?
It depends entirely on who attends. Eight people at an average of 40 an hour cost 320 for one hour; the same meeting held weekly costs about 16,640 a year. Work it out with your own numbers rather than a general figure.
Should I show people the cost of a meeting?
A cost figure is useful for deciding which recurring meetings to keep or shorten. Use averages rather than anyone's individual pay, and present it as the cost of a format, not of the people in it.
Does a daily standup cost more than a weekly meeting?
Often, over a year. Seven people for 15 minutes on about 250 working days add up to more hours than six people for an hour once a week. Short and frequent meetings are worth costing too.