For IT leaders and service desk managers who need to understand true cost per ticket
Calculate the fully-loaded cost per support ticket for your help desk or service desk. This IT support cost calculator uses the standard cost per ticket formula: total support costs divided by ticket volume. Understand your average cost per ticket, benchmark against service desk targets, and identify cost reduction opportunities.
Cost Per Ticket
$6
Monthly Cost
$31.3K
Annual Cost
$375.0K
With 5 agents handling 5,000 monthly tickets, your fully-loaded cost per ticket is $6. Your total monthly support costs are $31,250 ($375,000 annually), including $22,500 in salaries, $6,750 in overhead, and $2,000 in tools and training.
Cost per ticket benchmarks vary significantly by industry and complexity. Simple inquiries typically cost substantially less per ticket while complex technical support can cost considerably more. Self-service knowledge bases and chatbots can handle a meaningful portion of common questions, often reducing per-ticket costs dramatically while improving response times.
The overhead multiplier captures hidden costs beyond salary including benefits, workspace and infrastructure, and management overhead. Most companies substantially underestimate true support costs when they exclude these factors from their calculations, leading to chronic under-budgeting.
Cost Per Ticket
$6
Monthly Cost
$31.3K
Annual Cost
$375.0K
With 5 agents handling 5,000 monthly tickets, your fully-loaded cost per ticket is $6. Your total monthly support costs are $31,250 ($375,000 annually), including $22,500 in salaries, $6,750 in overhead, and $2,000 in tools and training.
Cost per ticket benchmarks vary significantly by industry and complexity. Simple inquiries typically cost substantially less per ticket while complex technical support can cost considerably more. Self-service knowledge bases and chatbots can handle a meaningful portion of common questions, often reducing per-ticket costs dramatically while improving response times.
The overhead multiplier captures hidden costs beyond salary including benefits, workspace and infrastructure, and management overhead. Most companies substantially underestimate true support costs when they exclude these factors from their calculations, leading to chronic under-budgeting.
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Most companies dramatically underestimate support costs by counting only direct agent salaries. Simple calculations miss reality: agents have substantial benefits costs, use various tools, require training, report to managers, and spend less than their full time on tickets (rest is training, meetings, breaks). The true fully-loaded cost per ticket is significantly higher than salary-only calculations suggest. Misunderstanding this leads to chronic under-budgeting and "where did all our money go?" conversations.
Cost per ticket varies substantially by channel and complexity. Email support typically costs less (asynchronous, batch processing). Phone support costs significantly more (synchronous, lower volume per agent). Live chat falls between. Simple transactional tickets cost less while complex technical support costs substantially more. For support teams handling substantial monthly ticket volumes, blended costs depend heavily on channel mix. Shifting portions of volume to self-service can generate significant annual savings.
Strategic leaders use cost per ticket to drive optimization. Self-service deflection moves expensive agent-handled tickets to much cheaper knowledge base interactions. Automation handles simple requests at a fraction of the cost compared to agents. Improved agent productivity through better tools and training can substantially reduce costs by increasing tickets handled per agent. Large support operations can save substantial amounts annually through optimization while improving customer satisfaction. Companies that don't track this metric often significantly over-spend.
Small team with basic tooling
Moderate cost per ticket with manageable annual support costs
Scaling team with mature operations
Efficient cost per ticket with significant annual support costs
Large team with specialization
Strong cost per ticket efficiency with considerable annual support costs
Highly optimized global support
Excellent cost per ticket efficiency with substantial annual support costs
Include: agent salaries and benefits burden, support tools and software, training and onboarding costs, management overhead, facilities costs, and any contractors. Divide by productive ticket volume (total tickets × utilization rate) not gross tickets for accurate cost per ticket.
Phone support costs significantly more per ticket (synchronous, requires full attention, lower daily volume). Email costs less (asynchronous, batch processing, moderate daily volume). Live chat falls between (semi-synchronous, multi-tasking possible, higher daily volume). Self-service costs substantially less (automated, scales infinitely). Channel mix heavily impacts blended cost.
Target costs vary significantly by segment and support model. B2B SaaS technical support typically costs more than transactional support. Consumer and e-commerce basic support typically costs less. Enterprise white-glove service costs substantially more. Compare against your current cost - meaningful reduction is often achievable through optimization without reducing quality.
Self-service deflection (moves tickets to much cheaper knowledge base interactions), automation for simple requests (routing, password resets), improved agent tools (increase tickets per agent substantially), better training (reduce handle time meaningfully), and channel steering (phone to chat/email). These improvements often increase CSAT while reducing costs.
Common causes: low agent utilization (excessive admin time, poor scheduling), expensive channel mix (too much phone support), inefficient tools (agents manually searching for information), poor deflection (customers contact support for simple issues answerable in FAQs), high handle times from inadequate training, or over-staffing during low-volume periods.
Support costs decrease substantially as volume grows due to: better tool leverage (fixed costs spread across more tickets), specialized agents (faster handling), optimized scheduling, management leverage (managers support more agents), and automation investment becoming cost-effective. Small teams often have higher cost per ticket, while large operations achieve better efficiency.
The overhead burden rate (or fully-burdened rate) captures all costs beyond base salary. This typically includes benefits, payroll taxes, workspace costs, equipment, and management overhead. Most organizations apply an overhead multiplier to base salaries to calculate fully-loaded costs. This calculator helps you determine your actual burden rate and understand true cost per interaction.
Fully-loaded labor costs include base salary plus all overhead: benefits and insurance, payroll taxes, workspace allocation, equipment and tools, training costs, and management overhead. Use an overhead multiplier applied to base salaries to capture these costs. This fully-loaded cost calculator shows your true cost per ticket when all factors are included.
The cost per ticket formula is: Total Support Costs ÷ Number of Tickets = Cost Per Ticket. Total costs should include agent salaries, benefits, tools and software, training, facilities, and management overhead. For accurate results, use fully-loaded costs rather than just base salaries. This IT support cost calculator applies this formula automatically.
Average cost per ticket for service desks varies significantly by complexity and support model. Simple transactional help desk tickets typically cost less per contact, while complex IT support or technical service desk tickets cost considerably more. Enterprise white-glove support costs substantially more. Use this calculator to determine your actual service desk cost per ticket and compare against appropriate benchmarks for your segment.
Calculate cost savings from ticket reduction by multiplying your cost per ticket by the number of tickets eliminated. For example, if deflecting tickets to self-service reduces volume, multiply deflected tickets by your fully-loaded cost per ticket. This calculator helps you understand your baseline cost per ticket to accurately project savings from automation, self-service, or process improvements.
Calculate support team staffing needs based on ticket volume and agent capacity
Calculate ROI and payback period from deflecting support tickets to self-service channels like knowledge bases and chatbots
Calculate ROI from improving agent productivity through better tools, training, and workflows
Calculate savings from optimizing your support channel mix across phone, chat, email, social, and self-service
Compare real-time live chat versus asynchronous email/ticketing and calculate ROI from adding or expanding live chat support
Calculate time savings when switching providers