Skip to content
ENExplore Calculators

Mean Time to Recovery MTTR Calculator

Calculate the DORA mean time to recovery metric from incident start to resolution.

About Mean Time to Recovery MTTR Calculator

Incident response time is the sum of four phases from an incident's onset to a responder actively working it: response = detection + triage + assignment + acknowledgment. This precedes and feeds into MTTR (which continues on through actual remediation) — reducing any of these upstream phases directly shortens the total time before resolution work can even begin.

Formula

MTTR = total_recovery_time / number_of_incidents

total_recovery_time
Sum of all incident recovery durations
number_of_incidents
Number of incidents in the measurement period

Worked example

With the default values below, Mean Time to Recovery MTTR Calculator returns Total Response Time of 15.0. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Detection Timeaccepts 0–100,000 minutes
4 minutes
Triage Timeaccepts 0–100,000 minutes
6 minutes
Assignment Timeaccepts 0–100,000 minutes
3 minutes
Acknowledgment Timeaccepts 0–100,000 minutes
2 minutes

Results

Total Response Time
15.0 minutes
Total Response Time
0.250 hours
Largest Phase
Triage
Largest Phase Share
40.0%

Step by step

  1. 1Total response: detection + triage + assignment + acknowledgment= 15.0 min
  2. 2Detection share= 26.7%
  3. 3Triage share= 40.0%
  4. 4Assignment share= 20.0%
  5. 5Acknowledgment share= 13.3%

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 3 decimal places, 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 is this different from MTTR?

MTTR measures total time from incident start to full resolution; this calculator measures only the response phase — detection through acknowledgment — which is the portion of MTTR before active remediation work even begins. Response time is often called MTTA (mean time to acknowledge) in incident management terminology.

What's the fastest lever for reducing detection time?

Proactive monitoring and alerting (rather than relying on user reports) is almost always faster — investing in better SLO-based alerting or synthetic monitoring typically cuts detection time far more than improving any later phase.

Why does assignment time matter separately from triage?

Triage determines severity and impact; assignment is the often-overlooked step of actually routing the incident to the right responder — on-call rotation gaps, unclear ownership, or paging the wrong team can add significant delay here even after triage is fast.

How can I reduce acknowledgment time?

Reliable, low-friction paging (mobile push + escalation policies), clear on-call expectations, and practiced incident response drills all reduce the gap between an alert reaching a responder and them actually starting to engage.

Related Calculators

Mean Time to Recovery MTTR Calculator | Calcrivo