Meeting Cost Calculator

See the true cost of your meetings. Calculate how much time and money your organization spends in meetings.

Number of Attendees

Average Annual Salary

Used to calculate hourly cost per attendee ($36/hour)

Meeting Duration60 min

15 min3 hours

Overhead Time15 min

0 min60 min

Time spent preparing for the meeting (reading docs, context gathering) and recovery time to get back into flow afterward.

Frequency1x per week

1x/week10x/week

This Meeting Costs

$225 🤑

per meeting

Weekly cost$225

Monthly cost$976

Annual cost$11,719

Total hours/year325 hrs

Based on 5 attendees at $36/hr for 75 min (60 min meeting + 15 min overhead), 1x/week

Is this meeting really worth it?

The Hidden Cost of Meetings

Meetings are expensive. Not just in terms of time, but in real dollars.

When you put 10 people in a room for an hour, you're not spending one hour—you're spending ten hours of collective productivity.

And that doesn't account for context switching, the time it takes to get back into flow after a meeting, or the opportunity cost of what else those people could have been doing.

Not All Meetings Are Bad

Some meetings are essential. Brainstorming sessions, critical decisions, team bonding—these need face-to-face (or screen-to-screen) time.

But many meetings could be replaced with better async alternatives: a quick poll, a shared document, or a Slack thread.

When to Replace Meetings with Async

Status updates don't need meetings. Use a simple weekly check-in form or Slack poll instead.

Quick decisions can often be made with a poll in Slack. "Should we go with option A or B?" doesn't require 30 minutes of everyone's time.

Gathering feedback is actually better async—people have time to think, and anonymous polls get more honest responses than asking in a room.

How to Run Fewer, Better Meetings

Before scheduling a meeting, ask: "Could this be a poll? Could this be an email? Could this be a shared doc?"

If you do need a meeting, cut the invite list. Every person you remove saves their hourly rate in costs.

Try defaulting to 25 or 50 minutes instead of 30 or 60. Parkinson's law applies—work expands to fill the time available.

For recurring meetings, regularly ask: "Do we still need this?" Use an anonymous suggestion box to get honest feedback about which meetings people find valuable.