What did that mistake actually cost you?
A bad hire and an empty seat both bleed money quietly. Enter your numbers for either one and see the real cost — salary, lost output, team time, and recruiting spend — broken down line by line. No sign-up required.
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Enter your numbers, then calculate — it's instant and free.
How this calculator works
Both modes take the numbers you already know about a role, run them through a fixed formula, and return a line-item breakdown — no hidden benchmarks, no data pulled from anywhere but your inputs.
Cost of a bad hire
Inputs
- Annual CTC for the role
- Months in the role before they left
- Cost to recruit & onboard them originally
- How far below expected output they ran (%)
- Manager/teammate hours per week spent managing or fixing their work
- Fully-loaded hourly cost of that person's time
- Cost to recruit & ramp a replacement
Calculation
Salary paid while employed = annual CTC × (months in role ÷ 12)
Value lost to bad output = salary paid × (% below expected)
Manager time cost = hourly cost × hours/week × weeks in role
Total cost = value lost + manager time cost
+ original recruiting cost + replacement costOutput
Total cost, shown as a dollar/rupee figure and as a multiple of the role's annual CTC, plus each line item broken out so you can see where the cost actually sits.
Example
A $60,000/yr hire lasts 5 months. You spent $8,000 recruiting them, they ran 50% below expected output, a manager spent 4 hrs/week (at $60/hr) managing the fallout, and replacing them costs another $8,000.
- Salary paid: $60,000 × (5 ÷ 12) = $25,000
- Value lost to bad output: $25,000 × 50% = $12,500
- Manager time: $60 × 4 hrs × 21.7 weeks ≈ $5,196
- + Recruiting: $8,000 + Replacement: $8,000
Total ≈ $33,696 — about 0.6x their annual CTC.
Cost of vacancy
Inputs
- Annual CTC of the vacant role
- Days the role has been (or will be) open
- Whether it's revenue-generating (quota, billable, delivery)
- Revenue or billable output per month (only if revenue-generating)
- Number of teammates covering the workload
- Fully-loaded daily cost per covering teammate
- Extra effort each is spending, as % of a normal day
Calculation
Lost productivity = (annual CTC ÷ 260 working days) × days vacant
Lost revenue = (monthly revenue ÷ 30) × days vacant [if revenue-generating]
Coverage drag = teammates covering × daily cost × extra load % × days vacant
Total cost = lost productivity + lost revenue + coverage drag
Cost per day = total cost ÷ days vacantOutput
Total cost of the vacancy so far, a cost-per-day figure so you can project it forward, and the three line items that make it up.
Example
A $60,000/yr role (not revenue-generating) has been open 45 days. 2 teammates are each covering it at 20% extra effort, at a $250/day fully-loaded cost.
- Lost productivity: ($60,000 ÷ 260) × 45 ≈ $10,385
- Lost revenue: $0 (role isn't marked revenue-generating)
- Coverage drag: 2 × $250 × 20% × 45 = $4,500
Total ≈ $14,885 — about $331/day this role stays open.
Cost of a bad hire and cost of vacancy, answered.
Is this calculator really free?
Yes. Both modes — cost of a bad hire and cost of vacancy — are free, instant, and require no sign-up or email to run. You only need an email to unlock and keep a copy of your result.
How is the cost of a bad hire calculated?
It sums four line items: the value you didn't get for the salary you paid while they were in the role (salary paid × % below expected output), the manager or teammate hours spent managing issues or redoing their work, what it cost to recruit and onboard them originally, and what it costs to recruit and ramp their replacement. It also shows that total as a multiple of their annual CTC, since that's how the cost of a bad hire is usually benchmarked.
Why isn't the salary I paid them counted as part of the cost?
You'd have paid someone for that seat regardless of whether the hire worked out — salary itself isn't the loss. What's counted is the value you didn't get for that salary (the productivity shortfall), plus the extra cost of managing, recruiting, and replacing them. The salary paid is still shown for context.
How is the cost of vacancy calculated?
It's the role's annual CTC converted into a daily value, times days vacant (the output the seat isn't producing), plus lost revenue if you mark the role revenue-generating (its monthly revenue or output, converted to daily, times days vacant), plus the daily cost of each covering teammate times their extra effort % times days vacant.
Where do these numbers come from?
Everything is calculated from what you enter — there's no live payroll, ATS, or CRM data behind either mode. The formulas are directional, industry-standard framings (the kind SHRM and CareerBuilder use to describe bad-hire cost as a multiple of salary), not a certified financial or legal calculation.
How is this different from using JustInterview.ai (JIA)?
This tool tells you what a mistake or a vacancy is already costing you. JIA is what prevents the next one — it screens every applicant against the job, runs AI interviews on demand, and hands you a ranked, evidence-backed shortlist, so roles get filled faster with fewer bad-fit hires.
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