No-show cost calculator
See what missed appointments cost you each month and year in lost profit and booked hours, after the slots you manage to refill, and what reminders would win back after their own cost. For clinics, salons, studios, consultants and any business that runs on bookings. Free, no sign-up, nothing leaves your browser.
Made by Anatolii Ulitovskyi 
Fact-checked by RH Fardin Updated Refill the slots that open up
Answer new booking requests at any hour, so a cancelled slot can go to the next customer instead of staying empty.
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The method
How the no-show cost calculator works
It counts profit you lose, not revenue, and gives you credit for the slots you refill.
When someone does not show up, you lose the revenue of the visit but keep paying for the staff and the room. Only costs that are not spent, such as materials or products, reduce the loss. Slots you manage to refill from a waitlist or with walk-ins are subtracted too.
For the reminder scenario, the calculator lowers the no-show rate by the share you expect reminders to cut, applies the same refill rate and subtracts the cost of the reminder tool. The cut is your hypothesis: measure your own rate for a month before and after you switch reminders on.
48 a month
400 × 12% = 48
About 31 booked hours a month stay empty after refills.
$3,264 a month
48 × ($90 − $10) × (1 − 15%) = $3,264
$39,168 a year.
$1,061 a month back
12% → 7.92%: $3,264 − $2,154 − $49
About 16 fewer no-shows a month.
Your data
How to measure your no-show rate
Use a full month and count the same way every month.
Missed and too late
Count appointments where the customer did not come, plus cancellations too late to fill the slot, for example on the same day.
By all bookings
Divide by all appointments that were booked for that month, including the ones that were kept.
By service and day
Rates often differ by service, weekday, time of day and how far ahead people book. Long lead times and first visits tend to miss more.
Research
Do appointment reminders work?
The best evidence comes from healthcare, and it is positive but not magic.
A Cochrane systematic review of randomised trials found that text message reminders raised attendance at healthcare appointments from 67.8% to 78.6% compared with no reminder, on moderate-quality evidence from seven studies with 5,841 people. In other words, missed visits fell from about 32% to about 21%, roughly a third.
Text messages worked about as well as phone call reminders (80.3% attendance) and cost less per attended visit in the two studies that measured it. The trials are from healthcare and the review is from 2013, so treat the size of the effect as a starting hypothesis for your business, not a promise.
Levers
How to reduce no-shows
Each lever maps to an input in the calculator.
Remind and confirm
Send a reminder a day or two ahead with an easy way to confirm or reschedule. People who can move a booking in one step cancel instead of disappearing.
Fill the gaps fast
Keep a waitlist and answer new booking requests quickly, including evenings and weekends, so an empty slot can go to someone else.
Set a clear policy
Deposits or a no-show fee for long or expensive services protect your time. State the policy when people book, not after they miss.
Spreadsheets
No-show cost formulas for Excel and Google Sheets
A1 = appointments per month, B1 = no-show rate, C1 = revenue per appointment, D1 = costs saved per no-show, E1 = refill rate.
No-shows per month
Lost profit per month
Net gain from reminders per month (F1 = cut in no-shows, G1 = tool cost)
FAQ
No-show questions
How do you calculate the cost of no-shows?
Multiply appointments per month by your no-show rate and by the profit of one visit (revenue minus the costs you do not spend when nobody comes). Then subtract the share of missed slots you refill.
How do I calculate my no-show rate?
Divide missed appointments, including cancellations too late to refill, by all appointments booked in the same period, and multiply by 100.
What is a normal no-show rate?
It varies widely by industry, service and how far ahead people book. In the healthcare trials of the Cochrane review, about 32% of people missed appointments without reminders. Track your own rate monthly and compare it with itself.
Do text reminders reduce no-shows?
In healthcare trials, text reminders raised attendance from 67.8% to 78.6% compared with no reminder. Results in your business depend on your customers and how the reminders are written.
Should I count staff time in the cost?
Not as a saving. Staff are paid whether the customer comes or not, so the lost value is the revenue minus only the costs you really avoid. The calculator also shows the booked hours that went unused.
Should I charge a no-show fee?
Many businesses charge a fee or take a deposit for long or expensive appointments. Explain the policy at booking and decide whether the fee is worth the risk of upsetting regular customers.
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.
References
Sources
- Text message reminders and attendance (7 trials, 5,841 people: 67.8% vs 78.6%; phone calls 80.3%): Gurol-Urganci I, de Jongh T, Vodopivec-Jamsek V, Atun R, Car J, "Mobile phone messaging reminders for attendance at healthcare appointments", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, December 2013, checked October 6, 2026
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