Meeting Cost
Six people, one hour, every week — that's not a meeting, that's a five-figure annual line item. Price it, then decide if it earns its keep.
Anyone with the link can see the numbers included in it.
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Last reviewed: July 20, 2026 · Formulas verified by automated tests before every release.
How much does a meeting cost?
Multiply the number of participants by their average hourly cost and the duration: six people at $50/hour for one hour costs $300 — five dollars every minute. Held weekly, that single recurring meeting costs roughly $13,800 a year, which is why the honest question is rarely "was it useful" and usually "was it worth its price".
The math nobody runs before clicking "recurring"
cost = people × hourly cost × (minutes ÷ 60) · yearly = cost × occurrences per year
One calendar click creates the yearly number, and that's the one that matters: a daily 15-minute stand-up for five people at $60/hour looks tiny ($75) until the year view shows ~$17,000. The calculator prices the late start too — because "let's give people five more minutes" is the most casually purchased item in corporate life.
How to use the number without being insufferable
Don't weaponize it in the meeting — put it in the invite. "This costs us ~$300; agenda attached so we spend it well" reads as respect, not sarcasm. Two structural fixes beat any guilt: a written agenda (no agenda, no meeting) and a default length of 15 or 30 minutes with a visible timer instead of the calendar-default hour. And when the review shows a meeting that's really a status update — that's an email, and everyone secretly knows it.
Sources, assumptions and limitations
- Formula: cost = people × hourly cost × hours; per-minute = people × hourly ÷ 60; yearly uses honest occurrence counts
- Assumptions: Weekly = 46 occurrences/year, daily stand-up = 230 workdays, monthly = 12 — vacations and cancellations included rather than inflating the drama. Same average rate applied to all participants.
- Not included: Context-switching cost before and after (research suggests it's substantial — our number is the floor, not the ceiling), preparation time, meeting-room and tooling overhead.
- Last reviewed: July 23, 2026 by the CalcNotebook team
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate the cost of a meeting?
People × average hourly cost × duration in hours. Six people at $50/hour for one hour = $300. Pick a frequency and the calculator annualizes it: that same meeting weekly is roughly $13,800 a year.
What hourly cost should I use?
For a quick estimate, annual salary ÷ 2,000 gives the base hourly rate; fully loaded cost (benefits, office, tools) typically runs 1.25–1.4× that. Using the base rate makes your number conservative — the real figure is higher.
Is this an argument to cancel all meetings?
No — it is an argument to price them. A $300 decision meeting that ends a week of misalignment is a bargain; a $300 status readout that an email could replace is not. The number does not judge; it lets you.
Why do you count 46 weeks for a weekly meeting, not 52?
Honesty: vacations, holidays and cancellations mean a weekly meeting really happens about 46 times a year. Inflating to 52 would make our number more dramatic and less true.