Free tool · no signup · updated June 2026
What does your support actually cost?
Four sliders. One honest number. See what answering customer questions by hand costs today — and what an AI support agent gives you back.
Your support load
You save
$16,896
per year ($1,408/month)
220
conversations resolved by the agent each month
44 hrs
of human time back, every month
today, without an agent
Your team spends 80 hours ($2,560) per month answering 400 conversations by hand.
Estimates only. HelpShelf charges per resolved conversation — escalations are free — so the agent's cost scales with the savings, not against them.
Keep the savings. Skip the seat fees.
HelpShelf charges one credit per conversation it fully resolves — escalations, unanswered questions, and noise are free. Your cost tracks the value, not your headcount.
Support cost math, explained
- How much does customer support cost per ticket?
- Industry benchmarks put the average cost of a human-handled support ticket between $7 and $25, driven by handle time and fully-loaded labor cost. A 12-minute ticket at a $32/hour fully-loaded cost is about $6.40 — before tooling, management, and context-switching overhead.
- What share of support tickets can AI actually resolve?
- Teams with good documentation typically see AI agents fully resolve 40–70% of conversations — the repetitive how-to, pricing, and setup questions. The remainder, which needs account access or human judgment, gets escalated. HelpShelf holds anything below a strict confidence bar for human approval.
- How is this calculator computing savings?
- Savings = monthly conversations × resolvable share × average handle time × fully-loaded hourly cost, annualized. It deliberately excludes softer wins like faster response times, 24/7 coverage, and reduced churn — so the number you see is conservative.