Cost Per Hire Calculator
What a hire actually costs, including the internal time that usually goes uncounted.
Cost per hire is external plus internal recruiting cost divided by hires.
How the cost per hire calculator works
Cost per hire is external plus internal recruiting cost divided by hires. External is easy — advertising, agency fees, assessments, background checks. Internal is where the number usually goes wrong, because interviewer time is real money that never appears on an invoice.
A role with four interview rounds and three interviewers per round consumes a substantial amount of senior time. Costing that at loaded salary usually reveals internal cost to be comparable to the agency fee people were trying to avoid.
The row worth attention is cost per hire against the cost of the vacancy itself. A role left open for three months usually costs far more in lost output than any hiring fee, which is the argument for paying to fill it faster.
Formula: cost per hire = (external + internal cost) / hires
Worked examples
| Inputs | Cost per hire | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 12 hires, 58,500 external | $6,065.00 | 6,065 per hire |
| No agency | $2,065.00 | internal time dominates |
| A long vacancy | $6,065.00 | the vacancy costs more than the hire |
FAQFrequently asked questions
How do I calculate cost per hire?
External plus internal recruiting cost divided by hires made in the period.
What counts as internal cost?
Interviewer and recruiter time at loaded salary. It is real money and is routinely left out, which understates cost per hire badly.
What is a typical cost per hire?
Widely reported around 4,000 to 5,000 for professional roles, far higher for senior and specialist hiring. Definitions vary enough that benchmarks are weak.
Should I include the cost of the vacancy?
It is not conventionally part of cost per hire, but it is usually the larger number and it is what justifies spending more to fill faster.
Does a cheaper hire mean a better process?
Not necessarily. Cutting agency spend often just moves the cost into internal time and a longer vacancy.
Where these figures come from
- CIPD — Employee turnover and retention factsheet — the turnover and stability index definitions used here
- Fair Work Ombudsman — the Australian workplace regulator
Last checked: September 2026. These are standard management definitions; where practice varies, the page says which convention it uses.