What Is Your Technical Debt Actually Costing?

The most comprehensive technical debt calculator on the internet. 8+ inputs, real-time results, benchmark comparisons, and exportable outputs. No signup, no vendor pitch, no paywall.

Input Parameters

25 engineers
$
30%
45%
60/100
4/month
3 hours
15%

Your Technical Debt Cost

Annual Productivity Cost

$1,227,455

Monthly Burn Rate

$93,750

FTE Equivalents Wasted

7.5

Velocity Tax

42%

Incident Cost (Debt-Related)

$5,608

Cost Per Sprint

$47,210

5-Year Compound Cost

$8,781,473

Attrition Cost from Debt

$147,656

Not sure about your debt %? Take the assessment →What would it cost to fix? →

Your Position vs Industry Benchmarks

Your team
30%
Best-in-class
12%
Enterprise avg
20%
Scale-up avg
25%
Startup avg
35%

$1.52T

Annual cost of technical debt in the US (CISQ 2022)

33%

Average developer time spent on debt (Stripe)

40-60%

Velocity reduction in high-debt codebases

Complete Calculator Toolkit

Six specialized tools to quantify, assess, and build the business case for addressing technical debt across your engineering organization.

Velocity Impact Calculator

Quantify the dollar cost of declining throughput and see how debt taxes your sprint output.

For: Engineering managers tracking sprint metrics

Refactoring ROI Calculator

Model the payback period and 3-year return on investment for debt reduction initiatives.

For: VPs building investment proposals

Assessment Scorecard

Rate your codebase across 10 dimensions and get benchmarked against industry standards.

For: Tech leads evaluating current state

Compound Interest Visualizer

See how debt cost grows under different scenarios - from doing nothing to aggressive paydown.

For: Anyone making the case for acting now

Business Case Builder

Step-by-step guide and template for presenting tech debt to non-technical stakeholders.

For: Engineering leaders preparing board presentations

Metrics Guide

Which metrics to track, how to collect them, and what good looks like across DORA and code quality.

For: Teams setting up measurement

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I estimate my technical debt percentage?
Survey your engineering team: ask what percentage of their time is spent on maintenance, workarounds, fighting legacy code, or dealing with known issues rather than building new features. The industry average is 33% according to Stripe's Developer Coefficient study. If your team reports 25-40%, you are in the typical range. For a more structured assessment, use our Technical Debt Assessment Scorecard.
What is a realistic test coverage target?
Most engineering teams should target 60-80% test coverage for a healthy codebase. Below 40% is concerning and correlates with higher defect rates and slower refactoring. Above 90% often has diminishing returns unless you are in a safety-critical domain. Focus on covering critical paths and business logic rather than chasing a specific number.
How is the 5-year compound cost calculated?
The 5-year projection uses an 18% annual compound growth rate for unaddressed technical debt. This is based on CAST Software research showing debt grows 15-25% annually in most codebases due to coupling growth, dependency drift, team scaling friction, and workaround accumulation. The formula sums each year's cost: Year 1 cost + Year 1 x 1.18 + Year 1 x 1.18^2, and so on for five years.
What does fully-loaded salary mean?
Fully-loaded salary includes base salary plus benefits, taxes, office costs, equipment, and other overheads. A common rule of thumb is to multiply base salary by 1.3-1.5x. For a US-based software engineer with a $120,000 base salary, the fully-loaded cost is typically $156,000 to $180,000. Using fully-loaded cost gives you a more accurate picture of what debt is really costing your organization.
Can I use this calculator for a non-software team?
This calculator is specifically designed for software engineering teams. The underlying models, benchmarks, and industry data are all based on software development productivity research. For infrastructure, data engineering, or DevOps teams, the calculator still works well since the concept of technical debt applies. For non-technical teams, the debt metaphor may not translate directly.
How accurate are these calculations?
These calculations are estimates based on industry research from Stripe, CISQ, McKinsey, and DORA. They provide a useful baseline for building a business case, but every organization is different. We recommend using the outputs as a starting point, then validating against your own metrics. The 5-year compound projection in particular should be treated as directional rather than precise.
What is the dependency freshness score?
The dependency freshness score (0-100) measures how up-to-date your third-party libraries and frameworks are. A score of 100 means all dependencies are on the latest stable version. A score of 0 means everything is severely outdated. Tools like Dependabot, Renovate, or Snyk can help you assess this. Outdated dependencies increase technical debt through security vulnerabilities, compatibility issues, and blocked upgrades.

Updated 2026-04-27