SLA Compliance Calculator
Check measured availability against a commitment and its credit terms.
In short
Formula: Achieved = (Measured time − Downtime) / Measured time; Credit = Credit rate × Fee, applied only when Achieved < Commitment
What this calculator does
Time-based availability compared with the contractual commitment. The credit is only the arithmetic the agreement states — no credit schedule, tier or cap is built in, and nothing is claimed about what the agreement entitles the user to.
Use it to turn Currency, Length of the service period, Unavailable time counted against the agreement, Time excluded by the agreement (optional), and the other shown inputs into a checked result you can compare, copy, or rerun with different assumptions.
The page shows the formula, a numeric worked example, and the assumptions that affect this professional & industry calculation.
Inputs and what they mean
- Currency
- — Amounts are shown in the currency you pick. No exchange rate is applied..
- Length of the service period
- — Hours the agreement is measured over..
- Unavailable time counted against the agreement
- — Minutes of unavailability the agreement counts..
- Time excluded by the agreement (optional)
- — Optional component. Leave at 0 to exclude it from the result. Only exclusions the agreement actually grants, such as an agreed maintenance window..
- Availability committed in the agreement
- — The figure written in your agreement. Nothing is assumed..
- Service credit due if missed (optional)
- — Optional component. Leave at 0 to exclude it from the result. The credit percentage your agreement states..
- Fee for the period (optional)
- — Optional component. Leave at 0 to exclude it from the result..
How to use it
- Enter your own figures — the calculator never fills in a rate, price or benchmark for you.
- Press Calculate to see the result.
- Read the formula, variables, assumptions and source below the result before you rely on it.
Formula
Achieved = (Measured time − Downtime) / Measured time; Credit = Credit rate × Fee, applied only when Achieved < Commitment.
Inputs used: Currency, Length of the service period, Unavailable time counted against the agreement, Time excluded by the agreement (optional), Availability committed in the agreement, Service credit due if missed (optional), Fee for the period (optional).
Edge handling: Length of the service period is required.; Length of the service period cannot be negative.; Length of the service period must be no more than 1000000000000.; Unavailable time counted against the agreement is required.; Unavailable time counted against the agreement cannot be negative..
Worked example
65 minutes down in a 30-day month against a 99.9% commitment
- Start with Currency: USD, Length of the service period: 720, Unavailable time counted against the agreement: 65, Time excluded by the agreement (optional): 0, Availability committed in the agreement: 99.9, Service credit due if missed (optional): 0.
- Apply the method: Achieved = (Measured time − Downtime) / Measured time; Credit = Credit rate × Fee, applied only when Achieved < Commitment.
- The commitment, exclusions and any credit terms are the ones you entered.
Reading the result
The headline figure is the main answer. Any breakdown underneath shows the parts that make it up, so you can check the working and see what changes when you adjust an input.
Limitations and assumptions
- Inputs outside the supported range are rejected rather than forced into a result.
- The result depends on the values you enter for this sla compliance calculator; it does not supply missing rates, rules, prices, dates, or assumptions for you.
Reference: Google — Implementing SLOs
Last reviewed:
Common questions
Where does this formula come from?
Implementing SLOs — a service level objective is the share of good events among valid events (or of available time in the period); the error budget is the remainder that the objective permits. See the source link on this page.
What kind of calculation is this?
Measured availability against a contractual commitment, with the credit the agreement states. Check the formula, example, and limitations on this page before using the result for a real professional & industry decision.
What are its limits?
Arithmetic over the figures entered — it cannot tell whether the underlying monitoring, incident records or change records are complete. A mean over a short period, or over few events, is a weak description of behaviour. The result is only as current as the rates entered; a rate taken months ago is not a current cost. Many agreements use tiered credits or caps; only the single rate entered is applied. Not legal advice — the agreement's own wording governs.
How do I use the SLA Compliance Calculator?
Enter the required values for Currency, Length of the service period, Unavailable time counted against the agreement, Time excluded by the agreement (optional), Availability committed in the agreement, and the other fields shown. The calculator applies the formula on this page and shows the main result with any supporting breakdown so you can check the arithmetic.
What formula does the SLA Compliance Calculator use?
Achieved = (Measured time − Downtime) / Measured time; Credit = Credit rate × Fee, applied only when Achieved < Commitment The visible formula section above lists the calculation path and the edge cases the page handles, so the result can be checked without relying on the form alone. Check the formula, example, and limitations on this page before using the result for a real professional & industry decision.
Can the SLA Compliance Calculator be used for exact decisions?
Use it as a calculation aid, not as a substitute for checking the underlying rule, contract, policy, or professional advice that applies to your situation. When a result depends on local rules, personal details, prices, or dates, enter those values yourself and confirm them before acting.
Formula, source and verification
Measured availability against a contractual commitment, with the credit the agreement states.
The question it answers: How much error budget does our objective allow, how much is left, and did we meet the commitment in the agreement?
The formula
Achieved = (Measured time − Downtime) / Measured time; Credit = Credit rate × Fee, applied only when Achieved < Commitment
- P — Service period
- (h). Hours the agreement is measured over.
- D — Downtime
- (min). Minutes counted against the agreement.
- E — Excluded time
- (min). Only exclusions the agreement grants.
- C — Commitment
- (%). The availability written in the agreement.
- k — Credit rate
- (%). The credit percentage the agreement states.
- F — Period fee
- (currency). The fee for the period, as invoiced.
Units: Hours, minutes, percentages and the currency the user selects.
What kind of calculation this is
Business input model. The answer depends on business figures only you can supply, such as your own costs, rates or volumes. No market or benchmark values are assumed for you.
Method
Time-based availability compared with the contractual commitment. The credit is only the arithmetic the agreement states — no credit schedule, tier or cap is built in, and nothing is claimed about what the agreement entitles the user to.
Assumptions built into the result
- Mathematical: The figures entered all cover the same measurement period.
- Mathematical: Incidents, changes and requests are counted consistently with the definition the team has written down.
- Mathematical: The commitment, exclusions, credit rate and fee are copied from the agreement by the user.
- Mathematical: The credit is a single percentage of the period fee, as entered.
Figures this calculator will never guess for you
- No target, benchmark, industry average or performance band is supplied for any figure.
- A definition is never presented as a goal: the availability formula is not an availability target, and the change failure rate formula is not an acceptable failure rate.
- No labour rate, tooling price or revenue figure is built in; every amount is entered by the user.
- No standard credit schedule, tiered credit table or cap is assumed.
- The result is arithmetic, not a legal conclusion about entitlement.
Limitations
- Arithmetic over the figures entered — it cannot tell whether the underlying monitoring, incident records or change records are complete.
- A mean over a short period, or over few events, is a weak description of behaviour.
- The result is only as current as the rates entered; a rate taken months ago is not a current cost.
- Many agreements use tiered credits or caps; only the single rate entered is applied.
- Not legal advice — the agreement's own wording governs.
Source and version
- Standard or reference
- Google SRE Workbook — Implementing SLOs — Google SRE (Implementing SLOs — a service level objective is the share of good events among valid events (or of available time in the period); the error budget is the remainder that the objective permits.)
- Published source
- Google — SRE Workbook
- Formula version
- Version 1
- Verification
- Reviewed against the cited source on
- How much weight the source carries
- Standards or government
- Applies to
- Currency
- Amounts stay in the currency you choose; no exchange rate is applied.
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