WinnieMeeting Cost Calculator
See what a meeting costs from the people in the room and their rates, per meeting and per year. Or start the live timer and watch the cost add up.
Who is in the meeting
- €/ h
- €/ h
How long and how often
Length
Reading up before, writing notes and action items after.
Repeats
This meeting costs
€298each time
Per year (weekly, 52×)
€15,470
- Meeting time (60 min)
- €255
- Prep and follow-up (10 min each)
- €43
- Cost per minute
- €4.25
- People
- 4
- Person-hours
- 4.7 h
Live cost timer
Start it when the meeting starts.
How the meeting cost is calculated
Meeting cost = Σ people × hourly rate × (meeting minutes + prep and follow-up minutes) ÷ 60
Every person in the room costs their hourly rate for every hour they sit there. Add up all attendees, multiply by the length and you have the price of the meeting. The calculator also counts the time each person spends before and after the meeting, because that is part of the cost too.
Hourly rates or salaries
Freelancers and agencies usually think in hourly rates, so the calculator starts there. If you only know salaries, switch to Yearly salaries: each salary is divided by 2,080 hours, the hours of a full-time year. Keep in mind that a company pays more than the salary. Taxes, benefits, equipment and office space put the real cost at roughly 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, so the result is a conservative number.
The hidden part: prep and follow-up
A one-hour meeting rarely costs one hour. People read up before, someone writes the notes after, and everyone spends a few minutes figuring out what they agreed to do. Ten minutes per person is a cautious estimate. For client calls where someone has to write a proper recap with action items, it is often thirty.
What recurring meetings cost per year
Recurring meetings are where the money goes, because the cost repeats without anyone deciding again. A few examples with an average rate of €60 per hour and 10 minutes of prep and follow-up per person:
| Meeting | Per meeting | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Daily stand-up, 6 people, 15 min | €150 | €39,000 |
| Weekly team meeting, 5 people, 60 min | €350 | €18,200 |
| Biweekly client call, 4 people, 45 min | €220 | €5,720 |
| Monthly review, 8 people, 90 min | €800 | €9,600 |
Cutting the weekly team meeting from 60 to 45 minutes saves €3,900 a year. Inviting one person less saves another €3,640.
Meetings as a freelancer
For a freelancer every meeting is either billable time or time you are not billing. Client calls, workshops and check-ins belong on the invoice if your contract allows it, so track them like any other work. The calls you cannot bill, like sales calls and unpaid discovery calls, come out of your margin, which is one reason your hourly rate has to be higher than a salary.
Seven ways to make meetings cheaper
- Send an agenda in advance. No agenda, no meeting. Here is an agenda for client kickoffs.
- Make 30 minutes the default. Most calendar tools default to 60 minutes; most meetings do not need it.
- Invite fewer people. Everyone else gets the summary.
- Move status updates to writing. If nothing needs to be decided, it does not need a meeting.
- End with action items. Every task gets an owner and a due date before people leave.
- Send the summary the same day. A meeting summary template keeps it to five minutes.
- Let AI write the notes. Record the call and get the transcript, summary and action items without anyone typing. Here is how AI meeting notes work.
The live cost timer
Press Start when the meeting begins and the timer counts the cost second by second, based on the people and rates you entered. It runs in your browser only; nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate the cost of a meeting?
- Multiply each attendee’s hourly rate by the meeting length in hours and add everything up. Four people at €60 per hour in a one-hour meeting cost €240. Add the time people spend preparing and writing up the meeting for the full picture.
- How do I get an hourly rate from a yearly salary?
- Divide the salary by 2,080, the hours in a full-time year (40 hours × 52 weeks). A salary of €62,400 is €30 per hour. The real cost to the company is higher, often 1.25 to 1.4 times the salary, once taxes, benefits and office costs are included.
- What does a recurring meeting cost per year?
- Multiply the cost of one meeting by the number of times it happens: 52 for weekly, 26 for every two weeks, 12 for monthly and about 260 for a daily stand-up. A weekly one-hour meeting with five people at €60 per hour costs €15,600 a year.
- How can I make meetings cheaper?
- Invite fewer people, cut the default length from 60 to 30 or 45 minutes, send an agenda in advance and end every meeting with written action items, each with an owner and a due date. Recording the call and letting AI write the summary saves the time for the write-up.
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