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Meeting Cost Calculator

A one-hour weekly meeting with eight people is not "one hour of your time." It is a recurring line item. This calculator puts a number on it, with the arithmetic shown so you can verify every step.

Published August 27, 2026Reviewed August 27, 2026By Max

Direct Answer

A weekly one-hour meeting with 8 attendees across New York, London, and Tokyo — at loaded rates of $70–$90 per hour — costs roughly $650 per meeting, about$33,800 per year. Cut it to 30 minutes and that drops to$16,900 per year.

Server-rendered worked result

Worked example: 8 people × 3 cities × 1 hour/week

CityAttendeesAnnual salaryBase hourlyLoaded hourly (×1.3)Cost per meeting-hour
New York3$128,000$61.54$80$240
London3$144,000$69.23$90$270
Tokyo2$112,000$53.85$70$140
Total8$81.25 blended$650

Per meeting: 8 people × blended $81.25/hour × 1 hour = $650.

Weekly: $650 × 1 meeting = $650.

Monthly: $650 × 52 ÷ 12 ≈ $2,817.

Annualized: $650 × 52 weeks = $33,800 per year — enough to matter in any headcount conversation.

Halve it: at 30 minutes instead of 60, the same meeting costs $16,900 per year.

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Loaded rate helper — convert a salary to a loaded hourly rate

Loaded rate = $128,000.00 ÷ 2,080 working hours × 1.3 =  $80.00. The multiplier is an assumption covering payroll taxes, benefits, tools, and overhead; 1.2–1.5× is a common planning range.

Cost per meeting
$640

8 attendees × $80.00 × 1 hours

Annualized cost
$33,280

$640/week · $2,773/month

Figures are rounded to the nearest dollar. Loaded rates and salary assumptions vary by role, market, and organization — treat the result as a planning range, not an invoice.

Formula & assumptions

Cost per meeting = attendees × loaded hourly rate × duration in hours. Annualized cost = cost per meeting × meetings per year.

Loaded hourly rate = annual salary ÷ 2,080 working hours × overhead multiplier. The 1.3× multiplier in this page's examples is an assumption, not a fact: it approximates payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, and overhead. 1.2–1.5× is a common planning range, and your organization's real figure may sit outside it. Treat any output as a range, not an invoice.

Salaries in the worked example ($112,000–$144,000) are illustrative planning values for mid-market roles across the three cities — use your own loaded rates for a figure that reflects your team.

Plan the meeting well

Once you know the cost, make the meeting count. The recurring meeting planner finds timezone overlap, flags DST drift, and exports the calendar invite.

Open the meeting planner →

Cancel it instead

The cheapest meeting is the one you cancel — check if it even needs to be synchronous. The async handoff predictor shows when a message will be seen and acted on without a live call.

Check the async handoff →