Recruitment Cost Calculator

Q: What is the average cost per hire?

SHRM's 2025 benchmark reports a median cost per hire of $1,200 for nonexecutive roles and $10,625 for executive roles (SHRM 2025 recruiting benchmarking). Those figures count external spending such as agency and job board fees plus recruiter pay, across all job types. They leave out interview time and the cost of vacancy, which is why an engineering hire priced in this calculator comes out far higher.

Add up the full cost of hiring an engineer: agency or marketplace fees, recruiter and interview hours, job ads, and the cost of the seat sitting empty while you search.

1. The hire

Annual base salary

US median, software developers

Hires needed

Each at the same salary

Agency fee

Contingency, on first-year pay

Time to fill

days

SHRM 2025 median: 44 days

2. Your hiring process, per hire

Recruiter time

hours

Sourcing, screening, scheduling

Interview rounds

Two interviewers per round

Candidates interviewed

Through the full loop

Job ads and tools

In-house searches only

Agency, per hire at 20%

In-house, per hire

Marketplace, per hire

All hires, via agency

Total cost per hire by channel

Fee Recruiter time Interview time Ads and tools Cost of vacancy

In-house recruiting

$0 per hire

Contingency recruiting agency

$0 per hire

Recruiting marketplace (monthly fee + 10%)

$0 per hire

Cost breakdown per hire

Cost component	In-house	Agency	Marketplace
Agency or platform fee	$0	$0	$0
Recruiter time	$0	$0	$0
Interview panel time	$0	$0	$0
Job ads and tools	$0	$0	$0
Cost of vacancy	$0	$0	$0
Total per hire	$0	$0	$0

Recruiter and interviewer hours are costed at fully loaded US pay: median wages for human resources specialists ($75,940) and software developers ($135,980) from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, with benefits and taxes at 30.8% of compensation (BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026). Each interview is one hour plus a 30-minute debrief per interviewer. Agency and marketplace searches keep a third of your recruiter hours for screening and scheduling. Marketplace: Wellfound Autopilot's published price, $500 a month per open role plus a 10% placement fee (Wellfound pricing page). Cost of vacancy is the hire's fully loaded pay for each calendar day the seat is open.

Hiring through Second Talent

No placement fee on the Talent Subscription: $0 cost until you hire. Once your engineer starts you pay $29 to $39 USD an hour, billed monthly ($4,599 to $5,999 for 160 hours), with a 90-day, one-time replacement guarantee. Second Talent helps US startups hire vetted AI-Native Engineers and Specialists from Asia.

What goes into the cost of a hire

The fee is the line finance sees. The calculator adds the internal hours and the empty seat, which often cost more.

Agency or platform fee

Contingency agencies charge a percentage of the new hire's annual compensation (Robert Half 2025 annual report); 20% of first-year salary is the calculator's default. Arc charges 20% of annual salary for a full-time hire (Arc pricing page), and Wellfound Autopilot charges $500 a month per open role plus a 10% placement fee (Wellfound pricing page).

Recruiter and interviewer time

Hours your recruiter spends sourcing, screening and scheduling, plus every hour your engineers spend interviewing and debriefing. The calculator prices them at fully loaded US pay from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025.

Job ads and tools

Sponsored posts, job board slots, assessment tools and your share of the applicant tracking system. Enter your own figure; an in-house search pays it, an agency search mostly does not.

Cost of vacancy

Every day the seat is empty, the work it should cover waits. SHRM's 2025 benchmark puts the median time to fill a role at 44 days (SHRM 2025 recruiting benchmarking). The calculator values each day at the hire's fully loaded pay.

Recruitment cost questions, answered

How much does it cost to recruit a software engineer?

With the calculator's defaults (a $135,980 salary, 44 days to fill, four interview rounds and five candidates), about $31,900 in-house, $57,100 through a 20% agency and $44,500 through a recruiting marketplace. Most of the in-house figure is the cost of vacancy and interview time, not cash out the door. Change the inputs to match your own process.

How much does it cost to hire an engineer through a recruiting marketplace?

Arc charges 20% of annual salary for a full-time hire (Arc pricing page), about $27,200 on a $135,980 salary. Wellfound Autopilot charges $500 a month per open role plus a 10% placement fee (Wellfound pricing page), about $14,600 for a 44-day search at the same salary. Your interview time and the empty seat come on top in both cases.

What do recruitment agencies charge?

Contingency agencies are paid only when you hire, and their fees are generally a percentage of the new employee's annual compensation (Robert Half 2025 annual report). For the fee alone, use the recruitment agency fee calculator; to see what the recruiter personally earns from it, use the recruitment commission calculator.

How long does it take to fill an engineering role?

SHRM's 2025 recruiting benchmark puts the median time to fill at 44 days for nonexecutive roles and 45 days for executive roles, measured from requisition to accepted offer. Extra-large organizations took 61 days for nonexecutive roles (SHRM 2025 recruiting benchmarking).

What is the cost of vacancy and how is it calculated?

It is the value of the work that does not happen while the seat is empty. The calculator uses a simple, conservative stand-in: the hire's fully loaded annual pay divided by 365, times the days to fill. For a $135,980 salary over 44 days that is about $23,700.

How much does a recruiter cost?

An in-house recruiter is counted by the BLS as a human resources specialist, with a median wage of $75,940 in May 2025 (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025). Fully loaded with benefits and taxes, that is about $109,700 a year, or $53 an hour, which is the rate the calculator uses for recruiter hours.

What is the average cost per hire?

SHRM's 2025 benchmark reports a median cost per hire of $1,200 for nonexecutive roles and $10,625 for executive roles (SHRM 2025 recruiting benchmarking). Those figures count external spending such as agency and job board fees plus recruiter pay, across all job types. They leave out interview time and the cost of vacancy, which is why an engineering hire priced in this calculator comes out far higher.

What does hiring through Second Talent cost?

Second Talent helps US startups hire vetted AI-Native Engineers and Specialists from Asia. The Talent Subscription has no placement fee: $0 cost until you hire. Once your engineer starts you pay $29 to $39 USD an hour, billed monthly ($4,599 to $5,999 for 160 hours), with a 90-day, one-time replacement guarantee. For permanent placements, Direct Hire is a one-time fee from 20% of the hire's annual salary.