Cost-per-hire calculator: calculate cost per hire and the cost of an open role
This free cost-per-hire calculator adds your team’s time to every recruitment invoice, divides by the number of new hires, and shows your cost of vacancy alongside it. It takes about five minutes and needs no spreadsheet.
An open seat is the only line in your recruitment budget that grows while you do nothing. Every week a role stays empty, the work either waits or lands on people who already have full plates. The tool puts a dollar figure on both.
If you want to learn how to calculate the cost by hand first, read how to calculate cost per hire. For what hiring costs in the Treasure Valley, see the pillar guide to cost per hire in Boise.
What does it cost you to hire someone?
Add up your internal and external recruiting costs, divide by the number of hires. Enter your numbers below.
Cost Per Hire = (Internal Costs + External Costs) ÷ Number of Hires
Internal costs (your team’s time, where hourly rate = annual salary ÷ 2,080)
External costs (every dollar that leaves the company; job boards, checks, agency fees)
The Full Picture
Cost per hire is what you spend to fill the seat. Add what it costs while the seat sits empty and you get the real number.
What a Recruiter Fee Buys
The fee is the only number that shows up on an invoice. Here’s what it buys back on this search. Every assumption is editable.
How does the cost per hire calculator work?
It runs the standard CPH formula: internal and external costs added together, divided by the number of new hires. It then adds the cost of the seat sitting empty, so you see the total cost of the open role.
Each internal row values in-house time as hours multiplied by an hourly rate. Each external row is one of your external hiring costs, such as advertising costs, agency fees or recruitment technology. The tool counts only the costs associated with hiring, not employing, so leave salary, benefits and onboarding costs out of the rows.
The optional section at the bottom is for employers weighing external recruitment agencies: it compares a placement fee with the vacancy cost, internal hours and bad-hire risk it could offset.
What do you enter in each calculator field?
Every field maps to a number you already have in payroll, your calendar or your accounts payable. The table shows the source for each one.
| Calculator field | What to enter | Where to find the number |
|---|---|---|
| Internal cost: activity, hours, hourly rate | One row per person or task, such as HR or talent acquisition screening and hiring manager interviews | Calendars or your applicant tracking system (ATS) for hours; payroll salary ÷ 2,080 for the rate |
| External cost: item, amount | One row per invoice, such as job ads, background checks, assessments or an employee referral bonus | Accounts payable and card statements |
| Number of hires this covers | Internal and external hires that started in the same period as the costs | Your HR system; enter 1 for one search |
| Annual salary of the role | Base salary for the open seat | The approved salary band or offer letter |
| Days the role is (or will be) open | Calendar days from approval to start date | Requisition and start dates; SHRM’s 39-day median as a default |
| Placement fee (% of first-year salary) | The fee in the agency’s proposal | The agency’s terms of business |
| Weeks faster with a recruiter | How many weeks sooner you expect the seat filled | Your past time to fill vs the agency’s timeline |
| Internal time your team gets back | Share of sourcing and recruiting hours the agency takes on | Your estimate of hours handed over |
| Mis-hire risk reduced by | Percentage points of bad-hire risk you expect to remove | How often similar hires have failed |
The hourly rate is the field people get wrong most often. Salary ÷ 2,080 gives a base rate. If you want a loaded rate, private-industry benefits add about 43 percent on top of wages ($14.07 on $32.82 an hour) (BLS, 2026).
For days open, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) puts the median time to fill a nonexecutive role at 39 calendar days (SHRM, 2026). Use your own history if you have it.
How does the tool estimate the cost of vacancy?
It values each working day of the role at twice the daily salary, the tool’s rule of thumb for what the seat produces, then multiplies by the working days it stays open. The result is an estimate of indirect costs, not an invoice.
The formula is (annual salary × 2) ÷ 260 working days, multiplied by the days open × 5/7. On a $60,000 role open 45 days, that works out to about $14,800 of lost productivity.
How do you read your cost per hire calculator results?
Compare your CPH with the current average cost per hire from SHRM, $5,475 for nonexecutive roles and $35,879 for executive roles (SHRM, 2025). Then compare it with your own past searches for the same role to judge cost efficiency.
The tool compares your result with that $5,475 average. A result far below it usually means internal hours are missing, not that your cost of recruiting was low.
The fee section values bad-hire exposure at 30 percent of first-year pay. RNG’s 2026 report puts the cost of one bad hire at up to 30 percent of first-year salary (RNG Group, 2026). Our guide to the true cost of a bad hire shows how to estimate your own.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate cost per hire?
Add your internal and external recruitment costs for a period, then divide by the number of new hires in that period. The tool above does the calculation once you enter the rows.
Does CPH include onboarding and training?
No, the standard counts hiring expenses up to the start date and leaves onboarding, training and salary in your cost of employment. Keep them out of the rows so your result stays comparable with the SHRM benchmark.
Why does the cost to hire vary by role?
Senior and specialist searches take longer, need more interviews and more often use a search firm, so every line grows. SHRM’s executive average is more than six times the nonexecutive figure for that reason.
Is the cost of vacancy part of cost per hire?
No, cost of vacancy measures the output lost while the seat is empty, and the CPH metric measures what you spend to fill it. The tool shows both because together they give the true cost of the open role.
What should you do with your number?
If your numbers surprised you, you have two options: run the search yourself with a tighter hiring process, or hand the recruitment process to a team that fills roles like yours every week. Book a call and we will talk through what your search should cost, where you can reduce costs, and how fast it can realistically move.
Filed under: Direct-Hire Placement
