What counts as a fully-loaded hourly cost?

Salary plus benefits and overhead divided by working hours in the year, not just the take-home hourly rate. Most finance teams already have this figure for internal costing.

Should I count the hiring manager’s time?

Yes, if they sat in interviews or wrote the job description. Their time is a real cost even though it never shows up as a line item.

Is a high cost per hire always bad?

Not on its own. A senior or scarce-skill role costing more to fill than a junior one is normal. Compare cost per hire within the same role level, not across the whole company.

Cost per hire calculator

Cost per hire is almost never just the agency invoice. Job board posts, referral bonuses and the hours your own team spent screening and interviewing all belong in the number too.

This adds up everything you spent on one hiring round and divides by the hires that came out of it, so you can compare a channel honestly against the one you tried last quarter.

Cost per hire

₹47,000

₹47,000 spent across 1 hire

Agency or recruiter fees: ₹0
Job board and ad spend: ₹15,000
Referral bonuses: ₹0
Internal team time: ₹32,000
Total spend: ₹47,000
Cost per hire: ₹47,000

Everything above is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or saved anywhere.

How this is worked out

Every direct cost you enter is added together: agency fees, job board spend, referral bonuses.
Internal hours are converted to a cost using the hourly rate you give, so screening and interview time counts even though no invoice was raised for it.
The total is divided by the number of hires that round produced, not by the number of roles you opened.

What this does not cover

This does not include onboarding, background checks or the cost of a bad hire leaving early. Those belong in a separate number.
A round that produced zero hires still cost you money. Enter 1 in "hires" and read the total spend row instead if that is your situation.
It treats every hire in the round as equally expensive, which is a simplification if one role took far longer than the others.

Questions people ask

What counts as a fully-loaded hourly cost?: Salary plus benefits and overhead divided by working hours in the year, not just the take-home hourly rate. Most finance teams already have this figure for internal costing.
Should I count the hiring manager’s time?: Yes, if they sat in interviews or wrote the job description. Their time is a real cost even though it never shows up as a line item.
Is a high cost per hire always bad?: Not on its own. A senior or scarce-skill role costing more to fill than a junior one is normal. Compare cost per hire within the same role level, not across the whole company.

Where these figures come from

Rates and rules on this page were last checked against the source on 31 August 2026. Tax law changes; check the source before you rely on a number for a decision.

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