Knowledge of cost data always provides a firm platform for decision making and budgeting to the top management. Cost calculation in hospitals is a difficult due to varied services and matrix organization but must be known by health care providers. This project attempts to find out the same, Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGI) is a tertiary care hospital with 600 beds and a huge infrastructure. The health care providers were interested in knowing the cost of an inpatient unit incurred daily. As per the results, the cost was found to be Rs, 1349.47 / bed / day, which does not include cost of medicine, diagnostics, surgical items etc., as the patient is charged separately for these. The second largest component of the total cost i,e, manpower, is controllable. Thus, the authors recommend that the manpower must be utilized most efficiently for successful cost control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]