Tools
IT downtime cost calculator
Server down, phones ringing: what does that actually cost? An honest estimate from staff costs, lost revenue and recovery effort.
Everything happens in your browser. Nothing is transmitted or stored.Rule of thumb: staff = employees × rate × loss × duration. Revenue and recovery are added. Consequential costs (reputation, penalties, data loss) are NOT included – reality tends to be higher.
Estimated cost of this outage
0 €
| Staff costs | |
|---|---|
| Lost revenue | |
| Recovery (IT) |
How the downtime cost calculator works
How is the estimate calculated?
The calculator adds up three cost blocks that occur in practically every IT outage: staff costs (affected employees × employer hourly rate × productivity loss × duration), lost revenue (revenue per hour × share affected × duration) and recovery (IT hours × hourly rate for diagnosis, restoration and rework). You can adapt every value to your business — the result updates live and shows the cost per hour alongside the total.
Why no upload?
Revenue per hour and staff costs are confidential figures. That is why the tool calculates locally in your browser only: there is no form being submitted, no server reading along and nothing is stored. So you can work with your real numbers instead of sanitised ones.
When is professional help worth it?
The estimate is deliberately conservative — consequential costs such as reputational damage, contractual penalties or permanent data loss are not included. If even this lower bound hurts, that is a clear signal to invest in prevention: tested backups, monitoring, well-maintained updates and an emergency plan with clear responsibilities. The article The 3-2-1 backup strategy for small businesses shows what reliable data protection looks like; for ongoing support that prevents outages instead of just repairing them, see IT support & managed services.
Frequently asked questions about the downtime calculator
Which costs does the calculator include?
Three direct cost blocks: paid but unproductive working time, lost revenue, and the IT effort for recovery. Consequential costs such as reputational damage, contractual penalties or data loss are not included — a real outage therefore tends to cost more than the estimate.
What does one hour of IT downtime cost on average?
There is no credible average figure for small businesses — the range between a three-person office and a company with an online shop is huge. That is exactly why the tool works with your own numbers instead of industry averages.
What is the most effective way to reduce downtime risk?
Tested backups following the 3-2-1 rule, timely updates, monitoring that spots problems before your users do, and an emergency plan that defines who does what. Most long outages are not caused by the incident itself but by a lack of preparation for recovery.
Is my input stored or transmitted anywhere?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser: nothing is sent to a server, nothing is stored and nothing is tracked. Once you close the tab, the numbers are gone.