Average handle time calculator
Calculate AHT from talk, hold and after-contact work, compare it across phone, chat, email and messaging, and see how many agents your workload needs and what one minute less would save. Free, no sign-up, nothing leaves your browser.
Made by Anatolii Ulitovskyi 
Fact-checked by RH Fardin Updated Handle fewer contacts by hand
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- Summaries cut after-contact work
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The method
How to calculate average handle time
All the time an agent spends on contacts, divided by the contacts.
Take the totals for the same period from your phone system or help desk. Count only contacts that an agent actually handled: abandoned calls and chats that never reached a person have no handle time. Keep the three parts separate, because each one is fixed in a different way.
6 min
(4,200 + 600 + 1,200) ÷ 1,000 = 6 min
Per handled contact.
30%
(600 + 1,200) ÷ 6,000 = 30%
Of handle time is not talking to the customer.
15 → 12
12,000 contacts × 6.7 min
One minute less AHT needs 3 fewer agents.
Parts
Talk, hold and after-contact work
Where the minutes go tells you what to fix.
Long talk time often means agents look for answers while the customer waits: a better knowledge base or answers prepared in advance help most. Long hold time usually means agents ask colleagues or wait for other systems. Long after-contact work means manual notes, tagging and follow-up, which automatic summaries and fields filled from the conversation can shorten.
Do not push AHT down at any price. Rushing contacts creates repeat contacts, which cost more time later. Watch AHT together with first contact resolution and customer satisfaction.
Channels
AHT by channel
Each channel has its own normal.
Chats often show a longer AHT than calls because customers type slowly and agents run several chats at once. For chat, measure the agent time per chat or divide the chat duration by the number of chats an agent handles at the same time. Emails have no hold time but can need several replies. Compare each channel with itself over time, not with the others.
Planning
How many agents does your workload need?
Workload hours divided by the productive hours of one agent.
12,000 contacts a month at 6.7 minutes are 1,340 hours of work. One agent with 160 paid hours, 85% occupancy and 30% shrinkage covers about 95 hours, so you need 15 agents. At 5.7 minutes you need 12. This is an average for the month: to plan for peaks within the day, use our live chat staffing calculator, which uses the Erlang C model.
Spreadsheets
AHT formulas for Excel and Google Sheets
Talk in B2, hold in C2, after-contact work in D2 (minutes), contacts in E2.
Average handle time
AHT across channels
AHT per channel in F2:F5, contacts in G2:G5.
Agents needed
Contacts in H2, AHT in I2, paid hours in J2, occupancy in K2 and shrinkage in L2 as decimals.
FAQ
Average handle time questions
How do you calculate average handle time?
Add talk time, hold time and after-contact work for a period and divide by the number of contacts handled. 6,000 minutes over 1,000 contacts is an AHT of 6 minutes.
What is a good average handle time?
It depends on what customers contact you about, the channel and how complex your product is, so a single target number rarely helps. Track your own AHT by channel and contact reason, and check it against resolution and satisfaction.
Does AHT include waiting in the queue?
No. Queue time is time the customer waits before an agent picks up; it belongs to speed of answer and first response time. AHT starts when the agent starts handling the contact.
How do I calculate AHT for live chat?
Use the agent time spent on each chat. If agents run several chats at once, divide the chat duration by the number of chats handled at the same time, or the AHT will look much longer than the real work.
How can I reduce average handle time?
Give agents faster access to answers, cut hold time caused by internal questions, automate notes and tagging, and let an AI agent answer the routine questions so agents handle fewer of them.
What are occupancy and shrinkage?
Occupancy is the share of logged-in time agents spend on contacts. Shrinkage is the share of paid time agents are not available: breaks, training, meetings and absence.
Does the calculator store my data?
No. Everything runs in your browser. The share link keeps your numbers in the address after the # sign, which is not sent to our server.
The fastest contact is the one your team doesn't have to handle.
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