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Branch Lifetime Calculator

Calculate the average lifetime of feature branches from creation to merge.

About Branch Lifetime Calculator

Branch lifetime tracks how long feature branches stay open before merging or being deleted. Formula: avg_lifetime = sum(branch_durations) / branches. Long-lived branches accumulate more divergence from the base, raising merge conflict risk and making code review harder — trunk-based development practices explicitly target very short branch lifetimes (hours to a couple of days).

Formula

avg_lifetime_days = sum_of_branch_durations / branch_count

sum_of_branch_durations
Sum of days-open across all branches
branch_count
Number of branches measured

Worked example

With the default values below, Branch Lifetime Calculator returns Average Branch Lifetime of 6.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Sum of Branch Durationsaccepts 0–10,000,000 days
240 days
Number of Branchesaccepts 1–1,000,000 branches
40 branches
Long-Lived Thresholdaccepts 1–3,650 days
14 days
Branches Over Thresholdaccepts 0–1,000,000 branches
9 branches

Results

Average Branch Lifetime
6.0 days
Long-Lived Branch Risk
Moderate
Share of Long-Lived Branches
22.5%

Step by step

  1. 1Avg lifetime: sum durations / branches= 6.0 days
  2. 2Long-lived share (over threshold)= 22.5%

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 4 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax, fees or charges or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 1 decimal place, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long should a feature branch typically live?

Trunk-based development teams often target under 1-2 days; many mainstream teams target under a week. Beyond 2 weeks, divergence and conflict risk climb sharply for most codebases.

How do I measure branch lifetime in Git?

Compare the branch's first commit timestamp (or creation event from your Git host's API) to its merge or deletion timestamp. GitHub/GitLab APIs expose PR creation and merge times directly, which is usually a cleaner proxy.

Why do long-lived branches increase risk?

The longer a branch lives, the more the base branch moves on without it — increasing both the volume of changes to review at once and the odds that the same files were touched on both sides, causing conflicts.

What practices shorten branch lifetime?

Smaller PRs scoped to a single change, feature flags to merge incomplete work safely, and fast CI/review turnaround all reduce how long a branch needs to stay open before merging.

Related Calculators

Branch Lifetime Calculator | Calcrivo