Kubernetes ROI Calculator: See Your Real Cost of
Enter 6 numbers about your Kubernetes environment. Get instant, benchmark-backed estimates of what operational inefficiency costs — and what platform engineering can save.
Your total K8s operational cost
Savings from platform engineering
Infrastructure right-sizing potential
ROI payback period for a typical engagement
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Calculate Your Kubernetes ROI
Adjust the sliders to match your environment. Results update instantly.
Your Inputs
Assumptions behind these numbers
Hourly rate: Annual salary ÷ 2,080 working hours/year.
Toil cost: Hours spent on manual cluster management tasks per cluster, based on maturity tier (2–40 hrs/cluster/month).
Overhead cost: Percentage of team time consumed by operational overhead (5–60%), varying by maturity level.
Node waste: Over-provisioned compute resources per cluster (8–45%), based on utilization benchmarks from the Datadog Container Report.
Infrastructure savings: 30% reduction from right-sizing, autoscaling, and spot/preemptible node strategies.
Payback: Based on a $35K typical engagement cost divided by monthly savings.
Toil, overhead & node waste annually
Estimated recoverable value
Engineer time returned to the team
Monthly infrastructure cost reduction
Resource utilization improvement
Time to recoup engagement cost
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How We Calculate These Numbers
Our methodology is based on peer-reviewed industry research — and we err on the conservative side.
CNCF Annual Survey
Kubernetes adoption rates, operational costs, and team scaling benchmarks from the CNCF Annual Survey.
Datadog Container Report
Resource utilization and container density benchmarks from the Datadog Container Report.
Flexera State of the Cloud
Infrastructure waste and right-sizing benchmarks from the Flexera State of the Cloud report.
These are conservative estimates. Actual savings typically exceed projections due to compounding efficiency gains.
Kubernetes ROI Calculator FAQ
Common questions about the calculator and our Kubernetes consulting process.
How accurate are these Kubernetes cost estimates?
These calculations use industry benchmarks from the CNCF Annual Survey, Datadog Container Report, and Flexera State of the Cloud report. They represent conservative estimates — actual savings often exceed projections because the model doesn't account for reduced security incidents, faster time-to-market, or improved developer experience from better tooling.
What does a Kubernetes consulting engagement include?
A typical engagement includes cluster architecture review, resource right-sizing, autoscaling optimization, security hardening, observability setup, and CI/CD pipeline integration. We tailor the scope based on your current maturity level. Most engagements run 6–12 weeks with a dedicated team of 2–3 senior Kubernetes engineers.
How long does it take to optimize our clusters?
Quick wins like resource right-sizing and node optimization can be delivered in 2–4 weeks. Full platform engineering — including self-service namespaces, GitOps pipelines, and policy enforcement — typically takes 8–16 weeks. We prioritize high-impact improvements first so you see cost reductions within the first month.
Do you support EKS, AKS, and GKE?
Yes, we work across all major managed Kubernetes platforms — Amazon EKS, Azure AKS, and Google GKE — as well as self-managed clusters on bare metal or private cloud. Our engineers hold certifications across all three cloud providers and have managed 150+ production clusters.
What's included in the free architecture review?
We'll review your cluster topology, resource utilization, networking configuration, and security posture. You'll get a prioritized list of optimization opportunities with estimated cost savings, a maturity assessment, and a recommended roadmap. No sales pitch — just actionable advice from engineers who've done this hundreds of times.
Book a free architecture review to validate your numbers
Our senior Kubernetes engineers will review your cluster topology, challenge the assumptions, and identify your top 3 quick wins.