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Payroll Software Cost Calculator

Payroll is priced per employee per month. See what that does to your bill as you hire, and what year-end filing adds on top.

Enter your numbers

Headcount on payroll, not the number of users who log in.
Contractors are usually billed at the same per-head rate as employees.
Each additional state means another registration, another filing, often another monthly fee.
Mid-market payroll migrations commonly run $500-5,000 for data conversion and parallel running.
What the provider charges per W-2 or 1099 at year end. $3-6 is typical.

Year 1 total cost

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Twelve months of fees plus year-end filing and any setup cost.

Monthly running cost

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Base fee, every head on payroll, and each extra state.

Annual cost per employee

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Useful for comparing against the value each hire has to create just to cover payroll admin.

Year 1 cost if headcount doubles

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Per-head pricing means this does not merely double the base - it scales the whole bill.

Year-end filing cost

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Charged once a year and rarely mentioned at signup.

Base fee as share of your monthly bill

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The advertised headline price. On a larger headcount it becomes a rounding error.

Estimates only. Vendor pricing and contract terms vary - always confirm figures on a written quote. Results update as you type and nothing is sent to a server.

Every payroll provider quotes a low monthly base fee and then charges per employee, per state, and again at year end for W-2 and 1099 filing. The base fee is the least important number in the quote.

This calculator models all four layers: the flat base, the per-head rate, the surcharge for each additional state you employ people in, and the annual filing fee. It also shows what happens to your bill if headcount doubles, because that is the number that decides whether a provider is cheap or not.

How to use this calculator

  1. Enter your real headcount including contractors. Most providers bill 1099 contractors at the same per-head rate, so leaving them out understates the bill.
  2. Count the states you actually employ people in, not the state you are headquartered in. Every additional state adds a registration, a filing, and often a monthly fee.
  3. Check whether your base fee is introductory. Several providers discount the first three to six months, then bill the standard rate.
  4. Include year-end filing at $3-6 per form. This is a real annual charge that does not appear in any monthly quote.
  5. Look at the headcount-doubled figure before you sign a multi-year deal. If it is uncomfortable now, it will be unaffordable after a growth year.

Want a per-employee quote at your headcount?

Gusto prices a flat base plus a per-employee rate with no per-state surcharge on the Simple tier, which suits employers in one or two states. Payroll, benefits and filing are bundled.

See Gusto pricing

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Hiring in several states or countries?

Rippling bundles payroll with device and app management on a single per-employee rate, which usually beats stacking a payroll tool and an IT tool.

See Rippling pricing

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Frequently asked questions

Why does the base fee matter so little?
Because payroll is priced per head. On 25 employees a $40 base fee is around 15% of the monthly bill; on 200 employees it is under 3%. Providers use a low base to make quotes look competitive, then earn the margin on the per-employee rate.
Do I really pay extra for each state?
Usually yes, either as a monthly per-state fee, a per-registration charge, or both. Providers with strong multi-state filing - ADP and Paychex - charge the most but handle the registrations for you. Providers that advertise cheap single-state pricing often charge more per additional state than their base fee.
Is it cheaper to run payroll myself in a spreadsheet?
On the software line, yes. But the comparison is not software against spreadsheet - it is software against the time and the penalty risk of getting tax deposits and filings wrong. Late deposit penalties are a percentage of the amount owed, per occurrence, and they are not capped.
When should I move off an entry-tier provider?
The usual triggers are the first hire in a second state, the first benefits or 401k integration, and the first time you need a custom report for a lender or auditor. Those are the points where entry-tier products stop having the feature and you are forced up a tier.

Next steps

The per-employee rate is the number to negotiate, not the base fee. If the headcount-doubled figure above is uncomfortable, ask the provider for a tier break at 50 and 100 employees before you sign.