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What Does True 24/7 SRE Coverage Actually Cost?

Run the numbers for your team. Most companies underestimate by 3x.

The 24/7 Reality: Why You Need 10 Engineers

24/7 coverage requires far more staff than most teams expect.

168
Hours in a week
40
Avg. work week
x2
Engineers per shift
(redundancy)
+15%
PTO, holidays,
sick, training
10
FTEs required
1

Internal Staffing Costs

Average Base Salary Annual compensation
$
Cash Bonus? 15%
% of base salary
0% 100%
Fully Loaded Backend Costs? 30%
% of base salary
0% 100%

Editing these fields will auto-update the Burden % above.

Equity / RSUs
$
Health Benefits
$
Payroll Taxes 9%
% of base + bonus
0% 100%
401(k) Match 4%
% of base salary
0% 100%
G&A / Overhead
$
2

Cost Breakdown

    3

    Your Internal 24/7 Cost

    FTEs Required
    10
    for true 24/7 coverage
    Annual Cost
    $2,537,500
    fully loaded
    Monthly Cost
    $211,458
    per month

    This calculator is conservative. These costs are NOT included:

    Real-world 24/7 operations carry additional costs that are hard to quantify but very real.
    Recruiting costs ($30K to $50K per hire)
    Ramp time (3 to 6 months to productivity)
    Attrition and backfill risk
    Management overhead
    On-call burnout and lost productivity
    Slower incident response during gaps
    Tooling and observability platform costs
    Knowledge loss from turnover
    Turnover replacement time
    Coverage during company holidays
    Training time

    There's a better way to run 24/7 operations.

    OpsWerks delivers full coverage with built-in redundancy. No hiring. No burnout. Predictable cost.

    Schedule a Discovery Call
    © OpsWerks, Inc. 2026. All rights reserved.
    Defaults based on industry averages for mid-level SRE/DevOps/Platform engineers (US). Your actual costs may vary.