The simple calculation
The basic cost of a meeting is the number of people, multiplied by their average hourly cost, multiplied by the length of the meeting. For example, six people at an average cost of $40 an hour in a one-hour meeting costs $240. That is the starting point, and it is already larger than most people expect, because we tend to think of a meeting as one hour, not six person-hours.
Hourly cost here means the full cost of a person’s time, not just their pay. Salary is only part of it — a reasonable estimate adds the cost of benefits, equipment and office space on top. You do not need an exact figure for the calculation to be useful; even a rough hourly rate makes the cost visible, and visible costs get questioned in a way invisible ones do not.
The hidden costs around the room
Preparation is the first hidden cost. If three people each spend 20 minutes preparing slides or reading a document for a meeting, that is another hour of work before the meeting even starts. Travel between rooms or offices, waiting for late starters, and the minutes lost at the beginning while everyone settles are all part of the same bill.
The second hidden cost is the recovery time afterwards. After a meeting, most people need a few minutes to get back into the work they were doing before it. A meeting in the middle of a focused morning can break a long stretch of deep work into two short ones, and the lost focus is a real cost even though it never appears on any invoice.
Recurring meetings are where the money goes
One expensive meeting is a rounding error; a recurring one is a budget line. A weekly one-hour meeting with eight people costs about 400 person-hours a year, which is roughly ten working weeks of one person’s time. Multiply that by an hourly rate and the yearly figure is large enough to deserve a decision, not just a habit.
That is why recurring meetings deserve a regular review. For each one, ask who actually needs to be there, whether it could be shorter, and whether it could happen every two weeks instead of every week. Removing one person from a recurring meeting saves their hour every single week, and shortening a weekly meeting by 15 minutes saves a full working day per person over a year.
When a meeting is worth it
Not all meetings are waste. A meeting is worth its cost when it does something that written messages cannot do well: resolving a genuine disagreement, making a decision that needs everyone’s input at the same time, building trust in a new team, or handling a sensitive conversation. If the outcome needs real discussion, a meeting is the right tool.
A meeting is usually not worth it when the same result could come from a short written update, a shared document with comments, or a quick decision by one person. A good test is to write down the decision the meeting needs to produce before you book it. If you cannot name one, the meeting probably does not need to happen.
How to make the next meeting cheaper
Start with a smaller guest list. Most meetings have people who are there “just in case” or to stay informed, and both groups can usually be covered by a short summary afterwards. Then set a clear end time and a single decision to reach, and stop when the decision is made, even if time remains.
Try a standing agenda with a time limit per item, and try 25- or 50-minute meetings instead of 30 or 60 — the shorter slot forces a faster start and leaves a gap for the next thing. And keep a simple rule for yourself: before accepting any meeting, ask what it will decide. If nobody can answer, decline it, and spend the hour on the work the meeting would have delayed.
Try it yourself
Use the free Meeting Cost Calculator to see what your meetings cost as the minutes tick by. Enter the number of people, an hourly rate and the length, and watch the live cost counter — it makes the cost hard to ignore.
Try the related tools
Try the Meeting Cost Calculator on Daily Tools. Try the Timestamp Converter on Daily Tools. Try the Countdown Timer on Daily Tools.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
Multiply the number of people by their average hourly cost, then by the length of the meeting in hours. Six people at $40 an hour for one hour costs $240, before preparation and recovery time.
What is the hidden cost of a meeting?
Preparation time, waiting for late starters, and the minutes needed to get back into focused work afterwards. A meeting in the middle of a deep-work morning can also break concentration for longer than the meeting itself.
When should a meeting be an email instead?
When the result is just sharing information or a decision one person can make alone. Book a meeting when you need live discussion, a joint decision, or a sensitive conversation that written messages cannot handle well.