How to calculate Cost per Ticket

Formula

Cost per ticket = total support cost ÷ tickets resolved

SQL query

This example assumes: support_costs(month date, cost numeric), tickets(id, resolved_at timestamptz). It is written in PostgreSQL syntax; date functions differ slightly in MySQL, BigQuery and SQLite, and your column names will differ from these.

SELECT c.month,
       c.cost,
       COUNT(t.id) AS tickets_resolved,
       c.cost / NULLIF(COUNT(t.id), 0) AS cost_per_ticket
FROM support_costs c
LEFT JOIN tickets t
  ON t.resolved_at >= c.month
 AND t.resolved_at <  c.month + INTERVAL '1 month'
GROUP BY c.month, c.cost
ORDER BY c.month;

Common mistakes that make Cost per Ticket wrong

• Include salaries, tools and outsourcing in cost; leaving out any of them understates the figure.
• Costs and tickets must cover the same month and the same team.
• Self-service deflection lowers ticket volume and can raise the cost per ticket while total cost falls.

Ask for Cost per Ticket in plain English

Instead of writing the query yourself, you can type the question. SchemaChat turns it into SQL against your connected database or uploaded file, runs it, and shows the SQL and the figures it used so you can check the answer before you share it. It does not replace your judgement about the definition: check that the query matches the formula your business uses.

• What was our cost per ticket for each month this year?
• How did ticket volume change compared with support cost?