An in-house SDR costs far more than the salary on the offer letter. This calculator adds the parts most estimates leave out: benefits and payroll taxes, a share of the manager, tools, hiring, and the months each new rep spends ramping before full output. Every default comes from a named source, listed under the calculator. Fields with no reliable public benchmark start at zero for you to fill in.
How the calculator works
- Pay plus benefits = (base + variable at target) x (1 + benefits %).
- Manager share = manager on-target earnings x (1 + benefits %) / SDRs per manager.
- Hiring, spread over tenure = recruiting and onboarding cost / tenure in years. Each hire is paid once per tenure.
- Fully loaded cost per year = pay plus benefits + manager share + tools + hiring spread over tenure.
- Share of tenure at full output = (tenure months - ramp months x (1 - output during ramp)) / tenure months.
- Cost per full-output month = yearly cost / (12 x share at full output). This is the fair number to compare with a monthly fee.
- Option per year = monthly price x 12 + review hours x 52 x hourly cost. Its full-output share uses its own setup months over the same tenure, so both are judged over the same period.
The model counts variable pay at target. If your reps land below quota, actual pay is lower, and so is pipeline. The Bridge Group found that only 60% of SDRs reached quota in its 2025 study, the lowest share in the study's history.
Where the defaults come from
| Input | Default | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Base and variable | $55,000 and $25,000 ($80,000 on-target) | Bridge Group, 2025 SDR Metrics report, 351 B2B companies |
| Ramp | 3.0 months | Bridge Group 2025 |
| Tenure | 1.9 years | Bridge Group 2025 |
| SDRs per manager | 6.4 | Bridge Group 2025 |
| Manager on-target earnings | $146,000 | Bridge Group 2025 |
| Benefits and payroll taxes | 43% of pay | BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: benefits $14.07 per hour against wages of $32.82, private industry average |
| Tools, hiring, output during ramp | Zero, or 50% for ramp output | No reliable public benchmark. Enter your own |
The Bridge Group sample leans toward North American B2B SaaS companies, and the BLS figure covers all private-industry jobs, not sales roles alone. Replace any default with your own payroll numbers when you have them.
What the number leaves out
Turnover costs more than the hiring fee. The Bridge Group reports a median SDR attrition of 40% in 2024, so in a team of five, about two seats turn over each year. Each departure leaves a gap while the seat is empty and a new ramp after it is filled. The calculator captures the ramp but not the empty-seat gap, so treat its result as a floor.
It also leaves out what the SDR produces. A cheaper option that books fewer qualified meetings is not cheaper. Once you know the cost per full-output month for each option, divide it by the qualified meetings each produces in a month to compare what matters.
In-house, outsourced or AI with review
Our AI BDR guide compares the three models on cost, ramp and risk to your sending domain. If you want the research and drafting done for you while your sellers keep the conversations, our ABM and outbound service researches your target accounts each week, writes a message for each contact, reviews the drafts before anything is sent, and routes replies to your sellers the same day. Enter its monthly price in the comparison fields above like any other quote.
Frequently asked
How much does an SDR cost per year?
More than the salary. The Bridge Group's 2025 report puts median SDR on-target earnings at $80,000 ($55,000 base and $25,000 variable). Add employer benefits and payroll taxes (in June 2026 the BLS put private-industry benefit costs at $14.07 per hour on top of $32.82 in wages, about 43%), a share of a manager, tools, data and hiring costs. With the default inputs above, before tools and hiring costs, one SDR seat comes to about $147,000 a year.
What is a fully loaded SDR cost?
Everything the company spends to keep one SDR seat producing: base and variable pay, benefits and payroll taxes, the share of the manager's cost, tools and data, and the recruiting and onboarding cost of each hire spread over how long the rep stays.
How long does it take an SDR to ramp?
The Bridge Group's 2025 report puts average SDR ramp at 3.0 months, the lowest since 2010. Average tenure is 1.9 years, so ramp takes up about an eighth of the time a typical SDR spends in the seat.
Is outsourcing SDRs cheaper than hiring?
It depends on the quote. Enter the monthly price of an outsourced team or an AI tool, plus the hours your own team spends reviewing its work, in the calculator above. Compare cost per productive month, not the monthly fee against a salary, because an in-house hire spends part of each tenure ramping.
How many SDRs can one manager handle?
The Bridge Group's 2025 report found 6.4 SDRs per first-line leader on average, down from 8 in 2021 to 2023. The calculator uses that ratio and the report's median SDR manager on-target earnings of $146,000 to assign each SDR a share of a manager.
