Calculate the true cost of your next tech hire. Select a role, location, and hiring channel to get a complete cost breakdown based on 2026 market data. Every cost component uses industry benchmarks from SHRM, Robert Half, and Levels.fyi.
Calculate the true cost of your next tech hire across all cost components.
Base salaries sourced from Levels.fyi and Glassdoor 2026 compensation data, cross-referenced with the Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide. Figures represent median total cash compensation (base + bonus) for US-based roles. Location multipliers derived from Glassdoor's cost-of-living adjusted pay data across metropolitan statistical areas.
Fee percentages based on SHRM Talent Acquisition benchmarks and Dover's 2025 recruiter fee survey. Contingency rates range from 15-25% based on role scarcity. Retained rates are approximately 1.35x contingency rates. RPO per-hire costs reflect enterprise-grade providers at volume commitments of 20+ hires per year.
Time-to-fill benchmarks sourced from LinkedIn Talent Insights, Hired.com State of Tech Salaries 2026, and Greenhouse customer data aggregates. Figures represent median days from job requisition opening to offer acceptance. Actual timelines vary significantly by company size, employer brand, and market conditions.
Interview time cost uses a blended rate of $85/hour for interviewer time, based on typical engineering salary ranges. The default of 6 interviewers at 3 hours each reflects a standard tech interview loop (phone screen, technical screens, onsite with 4-5 sessions). Onboarding productivity loss assumes 50% reduced output during ramp period, consistent with industry research.
Use these benchmarks to compare your calculator results against industry averages. Data from SHRM Talent Acquisition Survey 2025-2026 and proprietary analysis of 12,000+ tech hires across 500 companies.
| Metric | All Industries | Tech (Overall) | Tech (Senior+) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per hire | $4,700 | $15,200 | $42,000 |
| Time to fill (days) | 36 | 52 | 68 |
| Recruiter fee (% salary) | 15-20% | 18-25% | 22-30% |
| Offer acceptance rate | 89% | 81% | 74% |
| 12-month retention | 82% | 78% | 85% |
| Bad hire rate | 23% | 28% | 19% |
Use your per-hire cost to build a comprehensive hiring budget with our planning framework.
10 proven strategies that can cut your hiring costs by 30-60% without lowering quality.
Compare your calculator result across different hiring channels to find the optimal approach.
The calculator includes six cost components: recruiter/sourcing fees (adjusted by hiring channel), interview time cost (number of interviewers x hours x blended rate), job board and advertising spend, technical assessment platform costs, background checks, onboarding productivity loss (months x 50% reduced productivity), and vacancy cost (days to fill x daily salary equivalent).
Vacancy cost is calculated as the role's annual salary divided by 250 working days, multiplied by the average number of days to fill the position. For a software engineer at $145,000 with a 52-day fill time, vacancy cost is $30,160. This represents the revenue and productivity lost while the role sits unfilled.
The SHRM/ANSI standard cost-per-hire formula is: (Sum of External Costs + Sum of Internal Costs) / Total Number of Hires. External costs include agency fees, job boards, background checks, and assessments. Internal costs include recruiter salary allocation, hiring manager time, and interview time. Our calculator adapts this formula specifically for tech roles with role-specific defaults.
Contingency agencies charge 15-25% of salary (pay only on successful hire), retained search firms charge 25-35% (paid in three instalments regardless of outcome), RPO providers charge $3,000-$8,000 per hire at volume, and direct/in-house hiring costs $3,000-$8,000 in tools and job board spend. Each model has different risk profiles, speed, and quality trade-offs.
Tier 1 cities (San Francisco, New York, Seattle) have a 25% salary premium over Tier 2 markets (Austin, Denver, Boston). Tier 3 locations and remote roles typically see 15% lower salaries than Tier 2. Since recruiter fees are percentage-based, higher salaries compound every cost component proportionally.