Meeting Cost Calculator
What does this meeting actually cost? Find out and share the number.
Cost of a 30-minute meeting
$8/min · 5 people · 1.4× loaded
Fullscreen the ticker and share your screen. Loss aversion does the rest.
Who's in the meeting?
One row per role. Saved in your browser, never uploaded.
Total annual payroll in the room: $750,000.
How long is the meeting?
Cost basis
Base salary understates actual cost. Most orgs use 1.25×–1.4× to cover benefits, payroll tax, tools, and overhead.
More free tools
Shorter meetings. Better rituals.
Halftime is a 2-minute game your team plays together each workday. Cheap enough to replace a recurring status update, fun enough that people actually show up.
Free for teams up to 8 · No credit card · 30-second setup
Why calculate the cost of a meeting?
Meetings feel free. No one writes a cheque at the start. So teams fill them, extend them, and invite more people than they need. The marginal cost looks like zero, so the marginal discipline is zero too.
Putting a dollar figure on the calendar changes the default. When a recurring 45-minute meeting with 8 senior people costs roughly the same as a mid-tier annual SaaS contract, the question “do we need this meeting?” gets answered differently. The number isn't precise, and it doesn't need to be. It just needs to be visible.
How the math works
Each person's hourly cost is their annual salary divided by 2,080 working hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). The fully-loaded multiplier accounts for what the company actually pays beyond the salary line: benefits, payroll tax, equipment, software licences, office overhead, paid time off. 1.4× is a common conservative estimate; some finance teams use as much as 1.5× for senior employees in high-cost locations.
What to do with the number
- Cut attendees first. Halving the head count halves the cost. Most people invited to a meeting don't need to be there, they just need the outcome.
- Shorten recurring meetings. A 30-minute weekly costs about one-third less than a 45-minute weekly. Over a year that compounds to real money.
- Kill meetings that don't decide. If the meeting produces a status update but no decisions, an async doc is cheaper in both money and time.
- Share the ticker during the meeting. A visible, growing number puts gentle social pressure on the room to stay focused.
Is the number precise?
No. You're using averages, an estimate of fully-loaded cost, and guesses at attendee salaries. The calculator is a decision-making tool, not an invoice. “Roughly a thousand dollars” is a useful signal; chasing the exact dollar figure misses the point.
Is my data safe?
Yes. Everything happens in your browser. The roster is saved to local storage on your device and never sent to our servers. There is no account, no tracking of salary inputs. When you close the tab, the calculation goes with it.