This page is a free, no-signup employee cost calculator: it works out the true, fully loaded cost of a hire and compares it with a Space Office AI team for the same role. True monthly cost of an employee (first year) = salary ÷ 12 + payroll taxes + benefits + equipment and software + hiring cost ÷ 12. Payroll taxes default to 9.4% of salary: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation. Benefits default to 14.5% of salary: health and other insurance plus retirement. Both are U.S. private-industry averages from the BLS (June 2026), measured against salary including paid leave. Hiring cost defaults to $5,475, SHRM's 2025 average cost per non-executive hire, spread over the first 12 months. AI team cost per month = Space Office subscription + AWS compute + your AI provider bill. Subscription = $60 for Hydrogen and 2 specialists, plus $25 for each specialist after that. AWS compute is billed at AWS's own rate and AI usage by your own provider, both with no Space Office markup.
Free tool
Employee cost calculator: the true cost of a hire vs an AI team
Work out the true cost of an employee: salary plus payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, and the cost to hire. Then compare that with an AI team doing the same role. Free, no signup, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
The hire
The AI team
SpecialistsSuggested for a content writer: Nitrogen, Neon
2
Your result
The AI team costs $6,581 less per month.
That's $78,972 saved over the first year, against a $81,012 hire.
Content writer, fully loaded$6,751/mo
Salary$5,000
Payroll taxes$470
Benefits$725
Equipment & software$100
Hiring (spread over year one)$456
AI team total$170/mo
Subscription · Hydrogen + 2$60
AWS compute$60
AI usage (your key)$50
How the calculator works
- True monthly cost of an employee (first year) = salary ÷ 12 + payroll taxes + benefits + equipment and software + hiring cost ÷ 12.
- Payroll taxes default to 9.4% of salary: Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation. Benefits default to 14.5% of salary: health and other insurance plus retirement. Both are U.S. private-industry averages from the BLS (June 2026), measured against salary including paid leave.
- Hiring cost defaults to $5,475, SHRM's 2025 average cost per non-executive hire, spread over the first 12 months.
- AI team cost per month = Space Office subscription + AWS compute + your AI provider bill.
- Subscription = $60 for Hydrogen and 2 specialists, plus $25 for each specialist after that. AWS compute is billed at AWS's own rate and AI usage by your own provider, both with no Space Office markup.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 2026); SHRM 2025 Benchmarking Survey. Space Office prices are from the pricing page. Not sure an AI team fits the role? Read when not to use AI agents.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate the true cost of an employee?
- Add everything you pay beyond salary. Start with salary, then add employer payroll taxes, benefits such as health insurance and retirement, equipment and software, and the one-time cost of hiring. With this page's defaults, a $60,000 salary becomes about $6,751 a month in the first year, or $81,012 for the year. That is 35% more than the salary alone.
- What is a fully loaded employee cost?
- It is the total an employer pays for one person, not just their salary. In U.S. private industry, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (June 2026) puts legally required costs (Social Security, Medicare, unemployment, workers' comp) at about 9.4% of salary. It puts insurance and retirement at about 14.5%. Equipment, software, and hiring costs come on top.
- How much does it cost to hire an employee?
- SHRM's 2025 benchmarking survey puts the average cost per hire at $5,475 for non-executive roles and $35,879 for executives. That covers recruiting and onboarding, before the new hire's salary. The calculator spreads it over the first year.
- How does an employee's cost compare with an AI team?
- With this page's example inputs, a content writer costs about $6,751 a month fully loaded. A Space Office team covering the same work comes to about $170 a month, including compute and AI usage. Put in your own numbers to get your answer.
- Can an AI team replace an employee?
- It can take over a lot of repeatable output, such as drafts, research, outreach sequences, design variations, and code for well-scoped tickets. It does not replace judgment, relationships, or accountability. Someone still has to brief the work and approve it.
- What does this calculator leave out?
- On the hiring side it leaves out bonuses and overtime, ramp-up time, management time, turnover, and differences in state taxes. Most of these make a hire cost more than shown. On the AI side it leaves out setup time and the cost of fixing work that misses the brief. All results are estimates and cover cost, not output quality.
- How is the Space Office price calculated?
- $60/month covers Hydrogen, the AI project manager, plus 2 specialists. Each extra specialist is $25/month. Compute is a dedicated AWS server billed at AWS's own rate, about $30–$140/month. AI usage runs on your own Anthropic, OpenAI, Google key and is paid directly to that provider with zero markup.
- Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
- No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is stored or sent to a server, and you don't need an account.