This page is the working paper behind the number: the formula in one line, the SLA decimals converted into hours you can feel, and the multipliers most teams forget to add. Run it on your own revenue before you sign a hosting or SLA contract — every step stays visible.
Work out your downtime cost
Runs in your browserFormula: revenue-per-hour × hours down + wasted ads + recovery labour + one week of the post-outage conversion dip. Compare the number with a plan that carries a real 99.9% uptime SLA.
How the Downtime Cost Formula Works
Direct downtime cost = revenue per hour × hours down. Derive revenue per hour from your own numbers: monthly online revenue ÷ operating hours for a store, or booked leads × conversion value for a service business. A ₹1,00,000-a-month online store open around the clock runs at about ₹139 an hour.
The direct line is the floor. Three multipliers sit on top, and an honest calculator estimates rather than invents them:
- Wasted ad spend — campaigns keep billing while the page returns an error; pause them during an outage.
- Recovery labour — the engineer or agency hours spent restoring, re-checking and explaining.
- Trust dip — visitors who hit an error page convert worse for days; estimate it as a percentage on the next week's revenue, not as a mystery.
- Peak-hour exposure — an outage during a sale multiplies the hourly figure sharply, so use peak revenue per hour when that is when outages bite.
Run the arithmetic, then compare the infrastructure that shrinks the hours side of the equation — the measured history on network status and the recovery options in server backup solutions.
Uptime Percentages in Real Hours
SLA decimals hide hours. Convert each tier before you sign, because every tier is a different amount of your revenue at risk:
- 99.9% — 8.76 hours down a year, about 43.8 minutes a month.
- 99.95% — 4.38 hours a year.
- 99.99% — 52.6 minutes a year.
- 99.5% — 43.8 hours a year, more than a full working week.
- 99.999% — 5.26 minutes a year; only redundant, clustered setups realistically carry it.
Put the tiers against the ₹139-an-hour example and the gap is money: at 99.9% the store budget carries roughly ₹1,220 of direct revenue risk a year, while a 99.5% host multiplies that by five. An eCommerce store should treat 99.9% as the floor and judge the host on measured uptime history, not the marketing decimal.
Cut the Number, Not Just Measure It
The formula has two levers: shrink the hours down or lower what each hour costs. WebJi® works the hours side — clusters carry a 99.9% uptime target, and backups shorten recovery when something does break. Where the direct line is large enough to justify it, the fix is dedicated or SLA-backed infrastructure.
Those setups are quoted by email before payment, in INR with 18% GST on the invoice. Read what the commitment covers on the SLA page, compare hardware on the dedicated server page, or send your revenue-per-hour figure to support@webji.services and the desk will help you read the tiers against it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does website downtime cost my business?
It is your revenue per hour times the hours you are down. A store taking ₹1,00,000 a month online runs at about ₹139 an hour on a 24/7 basis, so a single 8-hour outage costs roughly ₹1,110 in direct revenue — before wasted ad spend, recovery labour and the dip in conversion that follows.
How do you calculate the cost of downtime?
Direct downtime cost = revenue per hour × hours down. Derive revenue per hour from your own numbers: monthly online revenue ÷ operating hours for a store, or booked leads × conversion value for a service business. Add the multipliers — wasted ad spend during the outage, recovery labour, and the reduced conversion that lingers for days.
What does 99.9% uptime mean in hours per year?
99.9% — three nines — allows 8.76 hours of downtime a year, about 43.8 minutes a month. 99.95% allows 4.38 hours a year and 99.5% allows 43.8 hours. Multiply your revenue-per-hour figure by any of those to see what each SLA tier is worth in money.
How much revenue do I lose per hour offline?
Divide the revenue the site actually takes by the hours it takes it. ₹1,00,000 a month online, around the clock, is about ₹139 an hour; the same store open only 12 hours a day loses about ₹278 an hour while it is down during business hours. Use the hours your customers actually transact, not the calendar.
Does downtime hurt SEO and ads?
Yes, twice. Paid campaigns keep spending while the page returns an error, so pause them during an outage. Organic visibility suffers more slowly: a short outage is usually absorbed, but repeated or day-long outages reduce crawling and can cost rankings. The trust cost is separate — visitors who hit an error page convert worse for days afterwards.
What uptime should an eCommerce store target?
At least 99.9% — 8.76 hours down a year is the practical ceiling for a store that earns around the clock. If checkout revenue is high, weigh 99.95% (4.38 hours a year) against the rupee-per-hour figure; and judge the host on measured uptime history, not the marketing decimal.
Is this tool really free?
Yes. The formula and the worked examples on this page are free to use with your own numbers — no signup and no email wall. WebJi® keeps it public as part of the free resources maintained since 2005, alongside the measured uptime history on the network status page.
How much downtime is 99.999% uptime?
99.999% — five nines — allows 5.26 minutes of downtime a year, about 26 seconds a month. It is a target that only redundant, clustered infrastructure realistically carries, which is why it belongs in a dedicated-server or SLA conversation rather than a shared-hosting invoice.