Cost per hire calculator
By Dev Rishi Khare, founder of Curriculo (ex-Amazon ML engineer) · Last updated May 2026
Most teams undercount because screening time never hits a spreadsheet. Use this calculator to put hours next to invoices, then decide what to cut without lowering hire quality.
Direct answer: Cost per hire equals internal recruiting costs plus external recruiting costs, divided by the number of hires in the same period. That is the SHRM and ANSI standard formula. Enter your hires, time costs, ads, agency fees, and tools below to get your number and see which line drives spend.
What this calculator shows you
- Your true all-in cost per hire once recruiter screening time is counted, not just tool fees
- Where the spend actually goes, broken into screening hours, recruiter cost, and ATS fees
- What an AI ATS would save you per year by cutting screening time and replacing a paid ATS
Work out your cost per hire
How to use this calculator:
- Enter how many people you hired (or expect to hire) in the period.
- Set applicants per role and minutes spent per resume so screening hours show up.
- Enter your loaded hourly recruiter cost.
- Enter your annual ATS subscription cost.
- Read your cost per hire, screening hours, and the savings callout. Copy the number into your client report or hiring budget.
What your number means
A single figure only helps when you know which line is largest. If screening hours dwarf ads, faster shortlists pay more than trimming another job board line. If agency fees dominate, decide which roles you can fill direct. Compare the result to your own history first, then to public benchmarks below. Cost per hire alone does not measure quality of hire.
The cost per hire formula
(Internal recruiting costs + external recruiting costs) ÷ number of hires in the period.
That is the SHRM and ANSI standard formula, also cited by x0pa, AIHR, teamed, and Truffle.
Worked example (example inputs only, not a statistic): Internal costs $6,000. External costs $9,000. Hires in the period: 8. Cost per hire = ($6,000 + $9,000) ÷ 8 = $1,875.
For a longer explainer, see the cost per hire formula and 2026 average and the glossary entry for cost per hire.
What counts as internal vs external cost
Internal
- Recruiter salary time on sourcing, screening, and coordinating
- Hiring manager interview and debrief time
- Referral bonuses paid to employees
- Internal recruiting ops overhead you allocate to the period
External
- Job board and sponsored post spend
- Agency or search firm fees
- Assessments and skills tests
- Background checks and verification
- Recruiting software and ATS fees for the period
The cost most teams leave out: screening hours
A recruiter with 200 resumes at five minutes each spends more than 16 hours before the first interview. At a loaded rate, those hours are real money even when no invoice arrives. When that line shows up in your cost per hire, Monday shortlists and fewer sunk hours become the fix, not another vague note to be more efficient. If you want a playbook for the pile, read how to screen 100 resumes in under an hour and AI resume screening.
Cost per hire benchmarks for 2026
SHRM's 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking report is the primary public source for recruiting medians this year. As summarized by Truffle from that SHRM report, the newer SHRM median cost per hire sits around $1,300 for the roles that dominate most nonexecutive hiring mixes. Confirm the dollar lines in the SHRM report before you treat them as your board number. A low cost per hire means little if people leave in ninety days. Pair the metric with quality of hire and the real cost of a bad hire.
How to lower cost per hire without hiring worse
- Lean on employee referrals for roles where your team already knows strong people.
- Fill more roles direct when agency fees are the largest line.
- Cut screening hours with a ranked shortlist instead of reading every resume in arrival order.
- Track cost of a bad hire so a rushed, weak fit never passes for savings.
For ATS subscription math (not this metric), see what an ATS really costs in 2026 and Curriculo pricing.
More free hiring tools
Browse all free hiring tools, then try the time to hire calculator and the ATS ROI calculator.
FAQ
Add internal and external recruiting costs for a period, then divide by the number of hires in that period. That is the SHRM and ANSI standard. Include recruiter time, manager time, ads, agency fees, assessments, background checks, software, and referral bonuses so the number matches real spend.
It depends on role mix and company size. As summarized by Truffle from SHRM's 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking, the newer SHRM median sits around $1,300 for many nonexecutive mixes. A low number is not good if hires leave early, so read it next to quality of hire and retention.
Include recruiter and hiring manager time, job ads, agency fees, assessments, background checks, recruiting software, and referral bonuses. Leave out general company overhead that would exist with zero hiring, unless your finance team allocates a fixed share to recruiting.
Yes. The time your recruiters spend on recruiting counts as an internal cost. Convert salary plus benefits into a loaded hourly rate, multiply by hours on the search, and add that to the period total before you divide by hires.
Cost per hire measures what you spent to fill roles in a period. Cost of a bad hire measures what you lose when the person does not work out, including replacement search time and lost output. Use both. Start with the real cost of a bad hire.
Cut screening hours, lean on referrals, and skip agency fees for roles you can fill direct. Rank applicants before you read the full pile, and keep interview loops tight so manager time does not balloon the internal line.
Sources
- SHRM, 2026 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking (recruiting medians and time to fill)
- Truffle, Cost per hire guide (summary of SHRM 2026 medians)
- x0pa, AIHR, and teamed cost per hire guides (SHRM and ANSI formula citations)
When screening hours are the hidden line
Screening hours are usually the biggest hidden line in your cost per hire. Curriculo's free forever Starter plan ranks your first 1,000 candidates by Impact Score so you read the strongest ones first. Unlimited jobs and unlimited team members, with no per-seat fees on any plan. Pro is $50 with 10,000 ranked candidates. Curriculo ATS scores every candidate from 0 to 100 against your job, with a written AI summary of the fit. Sign in with Google or Microsoft.