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Finance Calc Kit
Business

Meeting Cost Ticker

Track the real-time cost of your meeting as it ticks up like a taximeter. Enter attendees and hourly rate to see the cumulative cost grow second by second.

Meeting setup

$/ hr

Meeting not started

$0.00

Total meeting cost

Elapsed: 0:00

Per second

$0.056 / sec

4 attendees at $50.00/hr

Per minute

$3.33 / min

Burn rate over 60 seconds

Per person

$0.00

Total cost divided by attendees

If this ran 1 hour

$200.00

Projected hourly meeting cost

Duration progress

0m30m planned
Report tool

Why track meeting cost in real time?

Every scheduled meeting consumes salaried labor minutes multiplied across attendees. When four professionals averaging $50 per hour meet for 30 minutes, the organization spends $100 before room, tooling, or opportunity cost. A live meeting cost ticker makes that burn rate visible so teams can shorten agendas, reduce headcount, or end sessions once objectives are met.

This calculator converts attendee count and blended hourly rate into a per-second burn rate that accumulates while the timer runs. For static rate conversions without a live clock, use the cost per minute calculator. To estimate fully loaded employer cost per hour including benefits, see the employee cost calculator. For a full annual comparison of remote versus office overhead, use the remote vs on-location worker cost calculator.

Meeting cost formulas

Total meeting cost equals the sum of each attendee hourly rate applied to elapsed meeting time:

Cost per Second=Attendees×Hourly Rate3600\text{Cost per Second} = \frac{\text{Attendees} \times \text{Hourly Rate}}{3600}
Total Meeting Cost=Cost per Second×Elapsed Seconds\text{Total Meeting Cost} = \text{Cost per Second} \times \text{Elapsed Seconds}

Per-minute cost is simply cost per second multiplied by 60. Per-person cost divides total meeting cost by the number of attendees.

Worked example

Six attendees at an average $75 per hour produce a per-second rate of $0.125 (6 × 75 ÷ 3600). After 20 minutes (1,200 seconds), total meeting cost reaches $150, or $25 per person. If the planned duration was 15 minutes, the final five minutes add $37.50 of overtime burn.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use loaded or base hourly rates?
Use the rate that matches your decision context. Base salary rates show direct labor cost. Fully loaded rates from an employee cost model include payroll taxes, benefits, and overhead for a truer organizational expense.
Does the ticker keep running if I switch browser tabs?
Yes while the timer is started. The tool uses requestAnimationFrame tied to elapsed wall-clock time, so background tabs may throttle animation but accumulated cost stays aligned with real elapsed seconds when you return.
What if attendees have different pay levels?
Enter a blended average hourly rate that weights each role. For example, two executives at $120 and four analysts at $60 average to $80 per attendee.
Can I share my meeting assumptions?
Yes. Attendee count, hourly rate, and planned duration sync to the page URL. Copy the address bar to share preset inputs with colleagues before a meeting starts.

Resources and references

The formulas and methods in this calculator were checked against these independent sources.