True Meeting Cost Calculator (with refocus tax)
Calculate what a meeting really costs: attendees times rate times duration, plus the refocus tax everyone pays after, annualized by recurrence.
6 people at $75.00 an hour in a 30 minute meeting costs $225. Add the refocus tax of 23 minutes per attendee afterward and the real cost is $398 per meeting. Held weekly across 48 occurrences a year, that meeting costs $19,080 a year and consumes 254.4 person hours of work time annually.
Overview
A meeting's true cost is attendees times hourly rate times duration, plus a refocus tax: every attendee also loses a stretch of focus getting back to what they were doing before the meeting interrupted them. A 30 minute meeting with 6 people at $75 an hour costs $225 in room time alone, but $398 once the refocus tax is added, and $19,080 a year if it recurs weekly.
How it works
- 1Enter how many people attend the meeting.
- 2Enter the average hourly rate across those attendees, whether that is wages, contract rates, or a rough estimate.
- 3Enter the meeting's duration in minutes.
- 4Enter the refocus minutes each attendee loses afterward getting back to what they were doing before the meeting interrupted them (default 23, a widely cited average).
- 5Choose how often the meeting recurs: once, daily, weekly, every two weeks, or monthly.
- 6Read the live results: room time cost, refocus tax, the real cost per meeting, and the annualized total in dollars and person hours.
- 7Copy the plain-text summary to share with whoever schedules the meeting.
Worked example
A weekly 30 minute standup with 6 people
At $75 an hour, 6 attendees, and a 30 minute meeting, room time alone costs $225. Every attendee also pays a 23 minute refocus tax afterward, adding $172.50, for a real cost of $397.50 per meeting, shown as $398 once rounded. Held weekly across 48 occurrences a year, that one recurring standup costs $19,080 and consumes 254.4 person hours of work time annually, all from a meeting that looks free on the calendar.
Methodology & privacy
The calculator adds two costs together. Room time cost is attendees times average hourly rate times duration in minutes divided by 60, the same formula every generic meeting-cost calculator uses. The refocus tax is the part they skip: attendees times average hourly rate times refocus minutes divided by 60, the cost of every attendee needing time to get back to full productivity on whatever the meeting interrupted, not just the time spent in the room. The two add up to the real cost per meeting. Annual figures multiply that per-meeting total by a fixed occurrence count for the chosen recurrence: once is 1, daily is 230 (a roughly 46 week, 5 day work year), weekly is 48, every two weeks is 24, and monthly is 12, all netting out typical holidays and time off rather than a raw calendar count. Person hours annually is attendees times meeting-plus-refocus minutes divided by 60, times that same occurrence count. The 23 minute default refocus time is not meeting-specific research; it is the widely cited average from Dr. Gloria Mark's work at UC Irvine on how long it takes people to fully return to an interrupted task, the same figure used across interruption research generally and applied here to the interruption a meeting causes. Treat it as a reasonable default, not a fixed law, and change it if your own team's refocus time runs faster or slower. Dollar amounts round to the nearest whole dollar once they reach $100, so a raw total of $397.50 displays as $398.
- Source: "How am I supposed to get work done with so many meetings?" (r/ExperiencedDevs)
- Source: "Meeting Cost Calculator: uncover the true cost of..." (r/ProductivityApps, demand evidence for this exact tool)
- Source: Context switching costs for developers (Super Productivity), citing Dr. Gloria Mark's UC Irvine refocus-time research used here for the refocus tax default
Every attendee count, rate, and duration you type into this calculator stays in your browser. There is no upload, no account, and no server call; the results exist only on your screen, and nothing is saved unless you copy the summary yourself.
FAQ
How much do meetings cost?
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Multiply attendees by their average hourly rate by the meeting's duration in hours for the room-time cost, then add a refocus tax for the time each attendee loses getting back to their prior task afterward. At 6 people, $75 an hour, and 30 minutes, that is $225 in room time and $398 once the refocus tax is included. Enter your own numbers above for your actual meeting.
Is this meeting worth it?
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This calculator does not hand down a verdict; it makes the number visible so you can decide. A meeting that costs $19,080 a year because it recurs weekly is a different decision than one held once, even if both feel routine on the calendar. Comparing the annualized cost against what the meeting actually accomplishes is the useful question.
What is the true cost of meetings?
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Most calculators stop at attendees times rate times duration, the room-time cost. The true cost also includes the refocus tax: every attendee needs time afterward to get back to full productivity on whatever the meeting interrupted, and that refocus time is valued at the same hourly rate. Skipping it understates the real cost of every meeting on the calendar.
How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
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Room time cost is attendees times hourly rate times duration in minutes divided by 60. Refocus tax is attendees times hourly rate times refocus minutes divided by 60. Add the two for the real cost per meeting, then multiply by how often it recurs in a work year (48 for weekly, 12 for monthly, and so on) for the annualized total.
How can I cut down on too many meetings?
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Making the cost visible is usually the first lever: a recurring meeting's annualized cost, shown in dollars, tends to prompt harder questions than the meeting itself ever did on a calendar invite. From there, the common fixes are cutting attendees to only who is decision-critical, shortening the default duration, and converting status updates into an async note instead of a live meeting.
Can this calculator track my actual meeting costs automatically?
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No, this calculator only works from the numbers you type in; it does not read your calendar or watch your screen. Counting how much of your day meetings actually take is the manual version of what recal, a local-first Mac assistant, observes automatically on device with your approval.
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