RevenueLab.fyi
HR & payroll · Free calculator

Cost-per-Hire Calculator

Calculate true cost per hire — job ads, agency fees, recruiter time, interviews, background checks, and onboarding — per SHRM methodology.

Short answer

Cost-per-Hire Calculator

$9,970Total cost per hire

SHRM's benchmark average is ~$4,700 — you are above it, which is normal for specialized or agency-filled roles. The hidden driver is interview time: 18 staff hours at $65/hr is $1,170 of fully-loaded salary sitting in interview loops. Add vacancy cost (unfilled-role revenue drag) and a bad-hire cost of ~30% of first-year salary, and the stakes of getting it right dwarf the recruiting line.

How it's calculated: External $4,500 + internal time $2,970 + onboarding $2,500. Adjust the inputs below to recalculate for your own numbers.

Disclaimer: Estimates only — not legal, tax, or payroll advice. Pay rules vary by state, contract, and collective agreement; confirm figures with your payroll provider, CPA, or employment counsel.

New here? Watch it work in 2 seconds — then tweak it for you.
4,500

Agency fees alone are often 15–25% of first-year salary.

40
45
18
65
2,500
Try it like this

Tap a scenario to load realistic numbers, then tweak the sliders.

Related calculators
Employee Turnover Cost CalculatorPayroll Burden CalculatorEmployee Utilization Rate Calculator
Formula used

Cost per hire (SHRM)

SHRM's formula counts advertising, agency fees, referral bonuses, background checks, recruiter compensation time, hiring-manager interview time, and onboarding materials. It deliberately excludes training-to-productivity — which is usually the biggest real cost.

CPH = (external recruiting costs + internal recruiting costs + onboarding) ÷ hires
SHRM average CPH
$4,700
Agency fee range
15–25% of salary
Cost of a bad hire
~30% of salary
Use this elsewhere

Embed or cite it

Backlink-friendly embed

Embed this calculator

Free to embed on any site. Inputs preserved, link back to RevenueLab. Each format trades polish for SEO juice.

<script async src="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/embed.js"
  data-calculator="cost-per-hire-calculator"
  data-title="Cost-per-Hire Calculator"
  data-query="external=4500&recruiterHours=40&recruiterRate=45&interviewHours=18&interviewRate=65&onboarding=2500"></script>

Recommended — auto-resizes to fit, no scrollbars, and drops a crawlable link in your page.

Cite this calculator

Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.

APA
RevenueLab. (2026). Cost-per-Hire Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/cost-per-hire-calculator
HTML
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/cost-per-hire-calculator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cost-per-Hire Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Markdown
Source: [Cost-per-Hire Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/cost-per-hire-calculator) (2026).

Worked example: an in-house $80K hire

Job ads and checks run $1,500. A recruiter spends 40 hours ($1,800) screening; five interviewers burn 18 combined hours ($1,170). Onboarding and equipment add $2,500. Total: $6,970 — above the SHRM average but with no agency fee. The same role through a 20% agency would cost about $22,000; that delta funds a lot of referral bonuses.

  • • Referral bonuses of $1,000–$2,500 routinely beat agency economics.
  • • Every extra interview round adds ~4 staff hours per finalist — cap loops at 3 rounds.
  • • Track CPH by channel; job boards and referrals usually differ by 3–5×.

FAQ

What is the average cost per hire?

SHRM puts the average near $4,700, but the spread is huge: under $1,500 for high-volume hourly roles filled by referral, $20,000+ for agency-placed professionals, and six figures for retained executive search.

How much do recruiting agencies charge?

Contingency agencies typically charge 15–25% of first-year base salary, payable on placement. Retained search runs 25–35%. For an $80,000 role, expect $12,000–$20,000.

What costs count in cost per hire?

External: ads, agency fees, referral bonuses, background checks, assessments, travel. Internal: recruiter and hiring-manager time, interview loops, onboarding materials and equipment. SHRM excludes training and lost productivity.

How do I reduce cost per hire?

Referral programs, a real careers page, re-engaging past applicants (silver medalists), tighter interview loops, and employer brand content that makes inbound applicants cheaper than outbound sourcing.

How this calculator is built

Independently maintained

Written by Sam Doshi and the RevenueLab editorial team. We don't sell the data feeds this tool is built on.

Sourced from primary data

Benchmarks come from public AdSense / Stripe / IRS disclosures and reader-submitted data — never third-party "$X per view" claims. Full methodology.

Last editorial review

Reviewed on a rolling quarterly cycle. Dated reviews are published on the methodology record for each calculator.

Editorial standards

See our editorial policy and disclaimer. Results are estimates, not advice.

Helpful?