Meeting Cost Calculator
See the true cost of your meetings. You might be shocked.
Meeting Attendees
Tips to Reduce Meeting Costs
Cut the guest list
Every additional person increases cost. Invite only essential attendees.
Default to 25 minutes
Parkinsons Law: work expands to fill time. Shorter defaults = focused discussions.
Require an agenda
No agenda = no meeting. This alone kills 50% of unnecessary meetings.
Make attendance optional
Let people opt out and catch up async. Trust your team.
Cancel recurring meetings
Audit recurring meetings quarterly. If you skip it twice, delete it.
Try async first
Could this be a Slack thread, Loom video, or shared doc instead?
Why Calculate Meeting Costs?
Meetings are the hidden tax on productivity. While they feel free, every meeting has a real cost: the combined hourly rates of everyone in the room, multiplied by the time spent. A simple 1-hour weekly standup with 8 engineers can cost over $100,000 per year.
This meeting cost calculator helps you visualize the true expense of your meetings. By understanding the financial impact, you can make better decisions about which meetings are worth having, who really needs to attend, and how to make every minute count.
How Meeting Costs Are Calculated
The formula is straightforward: for each attendee, we calculate their hourly rate (annual salary divided by 2,080 working hours per year). We sum up all attendee hourly rates and multiply by the meeting duration. For recurring meetings, we multiply by the number of occurrences per year.
The opportunity cost estimate (1.5x) accounts for additional hidden costs: context switching time, meeting preparation, travel between meeting rooms, and the cognitive load of returning to deep work after interruptions.
The Meeting Epidemic
Research shows that the average knowledge worker spends 23 hours per week in meetings. Executives spend even more. Yet studies consistently find that over 70% of meetings are considered unproductive by attendees. This calculator helps quantify that waste.
Make Every Decision Count
Meetings are just one part of the equation. IdeaLift helps product teams capture customer feedback from Slack, Discord, and support tickets - so you can make data-driven decisions without scheduling another meeting.
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