Per-Hour Benchmarks
Cost of Downtime Per Hour - Industry Benchmarks
Updated April 2026 · Sources: ITIC 2024, Ponemon 2022, Protenus 2024
ITIC 2024 Key Finding
91%
of mid-size enterprises report >$300K/hr
40%
of large enterprises report $1M-$5M/hr
$5M+
for top verticals (finance, healthcare)
Cost Per Hour by Industry
| Industry | Hourly Cost Range | Avg Estimate | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finance (large banks, peak load) | $3 - $9 | $9.3M/hr | ITIC 2024 | Deep dive |
| Healthcare (incl. HIPAA risk) | $3 - $7 | $7M+/hr | Protenus 2024 | Deep dive |
| Ecommerce (peak season) | $1 - $2 | $1-2M/hr | Industry data | Deep dive |
| Manufacturing (automotive line-stop) | $500 - $2 | $500K-$2.3M/hr | Industry research | Deep dive |
| Large Enterprise (avg, 500+ staff) | $1 - $5 | $1-5M/hr | ITIC 2024 | Deep dive |
| Mid-Size Enterprise (50-500 staff) | $300 - $1 | $300K-$1M/hr | ITIC 2024 | |
| SaaS / Software | $50 - $300 | $50-300K/hr | Industry estimate | Deep dive |
| Media / Streaming | $100 - $500 | $100-500K/hr | Industry estimate | |
| Small Business (<50 staff) | $8 - $25 | $8-25K/hr | Ponemon 2022 | Deep dive |
How to Use Per-Hour Figures in Budget Meetings
Per-hour is the unit CFOs and C-suite use because it maps directly to budget line items. Here is how to make the number defensible:
- 1.
Start with the ITIC 2024 benchmark for your industry/size tier as a floor. Your CFO will ask for a source - this is a credible one.
- 2.
Layer in your own revenue rate: (Annual Revenue / 8,760) x Industry At-Risk %. This is your per-hour revenue exposure, specific to your company.
- 3.
Add productivity cost: Affected Employees x Fully-Loaded Hourly Rate x Productivity-Loss %. This is often the biggest number for knowledge-worker companies.
- 4.
Show the SLA credit comparison: what would AWS or Azure credit you if your SLA was breached? Usually less than 1% of the actual loss. See /sla-credits for exact math.
- 5.
Frame the investment: if one 4-hour outage costs $340,000, and proper HA architecture reduces outage frequency by 80%, the ROI on a $120,000 infrastructure investment is 1 year.
For a complete ROI framework, see the Business Case Builder.