Meeting Cost Calculator
How much are your meetings really costing? Enter the details below to see the true price of meetings in dollars and lost productivity hours.
Quick set average hourly rate by role:
This meeting costs
That's $8/min with 6 people in the room
Time Impact
What $117.0k/year could buy instead
The Hidden Cost of Meetings
Meetings are one of the largest hidden expenses in any organization. While individual meetings seem cheap, the cumulative cost is staggering. A company with 100 employees spending an average of 15 hours per week in meetings burns through over $7 million annually in salary costs alone — before accounting for the productivity lost to context switching.
Research from Microsoft found that the average worker spends 57% of their time in meetings, emails, and chats, leaving only 43% for actual focused work. Every unnecessary meeting directly competes with deep work time — the kind of sustained concentration that produces your most valuable output.
The solution is not to eliminate all meetings, but to be intentional about them. Use this calculator to put a dollar figure on your meetings, then ask: is this meeting worth its cost? Could the same outcome be achieved with an email, a Loom video, or a 15-minute standup instead of a 60-minute brainstorm?
Protect your focused work time with Focusmo for Mac. Block distracting apps, schedule deep work sessions, and reclaim the hours that meetings steal. Check our Distraction Cost Calculator to see the full picture of lost productivity.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the average meeting cost?
A typical 1-hour meeting with 6 mid-level employees costs around $300-$500 depending on salaries. When you factor in preparation time and post-meeting recovery (it takes an average of 23 minutes to refocus after an interruption), the true cost can be 2-3x higher.
What percentage of meetings are considered unproductive?
Research by Harvard Business Review found that 71% of senior managers say meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Executives spend an average of 23 hours per week in meetings, up from less than 10 hours in the 1960s.
How can I reduce meeting costs?
Start by auditing which meetings are truly necessary. Replace status updates with async tools (Slack, Loom). Keep essential meetings short (25 or 50 minutes instead of 30/60). Reduce attendee lists to only decision-makers. Use agendas and end with clear action items.
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
Multiply the number of attendees by their average hourly rate, then multiply by the meeting duration in hours. For example: 5 people x $75/hour x 1 hour = $375. For a more accurate picture, add 15-30 minutes of context-switching time per person.
Reclaim Your Meeting Time with Focusmo
Focusmo helps you protect deep work time by blocking distractions and tracking focused sessions. Make every hour between meetings count.