Free tool
Cost per hire calculator
Recruiting costs in, a cost per hire out, with the internal and external split shown in full. No benchmark data, because we do not have any and will not invent it.
Recruiting spend is sensitive. The link carries your figures in the address itself, so think before you paste it anywhere shared.
The working
| Measure | Value | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| The working appears here once your figures are in. | ||
How the answer is worked out
Every step, in the open, so you can rebuild it in a handful of spreadsheet cells and disagree with it if you want to. A calculator you cannot check is an ad.
The two totals, and why they are kept apart
Internal costs are summed on their own and external costs on their own, then added together for the total recruiting spend. They are worth separating because they behave differently: internal cost is mostly time and tooling you are paying for anyway, and external cost is money that leaves the business per hire. A cost per hire that is mostly agency fees and one that is mostly internal time are the same number describing two very different situations, and the split is the part that tells them apart.
Cost per hire, and the split per hire
Cost per hire is the total spend divided by the number of hires in the period. The internal cost per hire and the external cost per hire are each of those totals divided by the same number of hires, so the two add back up to the whole. The share figures are each total as a percentage of the combined spend, which is the same story told as a proportion rather than a rate.
Matching the costs to the hires
The figure only means something when the spend and the hires cover the same period. A quarter of recruiting cost over a quarter of hires is sound; this month's search fee over this month's one hire is not, because the cost was lumpy and the count was small. A longer window, usually a full year, smooths that out, which is why an annual cost per hire is the one most teams track and the one worth comparing against your own history.
What this tool does not know
What your cost per hire should be. It holds no benchmark, no industry median and no "typical" figure for any role, stage or country, and it will not be adding any, because a free page quoting invented recruiting data would be worse than no page. Track your figure against your own history and your own hiring mix.
It totals the amounts you enter and applies no tax treatment: it does not add or strip any tax and it grosses nothing up, so enter each cost as the figure that actually left the business. For what to measure alongside it, see the guide to HR metrics for small teams and the hiring plan for startups, and to keep the people you hire, the employee turnover rate calculator is the other half of the picture.
Questions with complete answers
How is cost per hire worked out?
Total internal recruiting costs plus total external recruiting costs, divided by the number of hires made in the same period. That is the whole formula, and it is the one most cost-per-hire definitions agree on. The only judgement calls are which costs you count and which period you measure over, and the tool follows the figures you give it rather than deciding either for you.
What counts as internal versus external?
Internal costs are the ones you carry inside the business: the time your recruiters and hiring managers spend, referral bonuses you pay your own people, and the tooling and systems that support hiring. External costs are the ones paid out to third parties: job ads and sourcing, agency, search or EOR fees, and assessments or background checks. The line between the two is your own to draw, and the split is worth keeping because a cost per hire that is mostly agency fees points at a very different fix from one that is mostly internal time.
What period should I measure over?
Match the costs and the hires to the same window, usually a quarter or a year. Cost per hire is only meaningful when the spend in the numerator produced the hires in the denominator, so a year of recruiting spend over a year of hires is sound, and this month's agency invoice over this month's single hire is noise. A longer window smooths out the lumpiness of a single expensive search, which is why an annual figure is the one most teams track.
What is a good cost per hire?
This tool will not tell you, and any free page that puts a number on it is guessing. What is high or low depends on the roles you hire, the seniority, the country and whether you use agencies, and there is no benchmark data in this tool at all. It gives you your own figure, worked out in the open, so you can track it against your own history and your own hiring mix. Compare it to your own last quarter before you compare it to anyone else.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No. It computes in your browser and nothing is sent anywhere. There is no email wall, no account and no storage. The link button puts your figures in the address itself if you want to send them to someone, and the page says so before you use it, but recruiting spend is sensitive so think before you paste that link somewhere public.
A cost per hire is a number. The people it brought in live in a roster, not a spreadsheet.