Remote team cost comparison.

Fully remote teams cost less than office-based ones once office overhead is eliminated. Savings come from zero commercial rent, utilities, furniture, and office snacks. Offset by remote stipends (home office, internet, utilities) and twice-yearly in-person retreats/meetings. Net usually saves 4k-8k per employee per year.

20-person team at 70k average salary with 10k office cost per seat. Office total 1.6M. Remote: 70k salary + 1.5k stipend + 2k travel = 73.5k/person × 20 = 1.47M. Saving 130k/year, or 6,500 per employee. On top of that, remote teams typically access a wider hiring pool and see lower attrition, both compound-growth benefits not shown here.

Fully distributed companies (GitLab, Automattic, Buffer) report 10-20% additional productivity vs office teams once properly operationally mature. This tool only covers direct cost savings; factor engagement and hiring-range benefits as strategic value on top. Hybrid (3-day office) captures only 20-30% of savings because the office stays fully rented.

Run it with sensible defaults

Using team size of 20, avg employee salary of 70,000, office cost per seat of 10,000, remote stipend annual of 1,500, the calculation works out to 130,000.00. Nudge the inputs toward your own situation and the output recalculates instantly. The defaults are meant as a starting point, not a recommendation.

The levers in this calculation

The inputs — Team Size, Avg Employee Salary, Office Cost per Seat, Remote Stipend Annual, and Travel/Meetings Cost — do not pull with equal force. Two inputs usually tip the answer one way or the other. Identify which ones matter most by flipping each value past a round threshold and watching whether the winning option changes.

How the math works

Office total = team × (salary + office cost). Remote total = team × (salary + stipend + travel). Savings = office - remote. The working is transparent — you can verify every step yourself in the formula section below. No black box, no opaque "proprietary model".

What the score tells you

Headline financial numbers — income, savings, debt — each tell part of the story. This calculation stitches several together into a single read you can track over time. The value is in the direction, not the absolute number.

What this doesn't capture

The score is a composite of the inputs you provide. Life context — job security, family obligations, health, housing — doesn't appear in the math but shapes the real picture. Use the number as a prompt, not a verdict.