# How do you calculate escalation rate?

> Escalation rate is the number of tickets escalated in a period divided by the total tickets in that period, as a percentage. For technical products, also track engineering escalation rate on its own: tickets sent to engineering divided by total tickets.

Canonical: https://www.decimal.app/glossary/metrics/how-to-calculate-escalation-rate · Last reviewed: 2026-09-23

Escalation rate is the number of tickets escalated in a period divided by the total tickets in that period, as a percentage. For technical products, also track engineering escalation rate on its own: tickets sent to engineering divided by total tickets.

## Getting the number right

- Count a ticket once, even if it's escalated twice
- Exclude spam and duplicates from the total
- Use the date the ticket was created, not escalated, so periods compare cleanly
- Segment by product area and customer tier

## Reading it

- A spike after a release often signals a regression
- A steady rise usually means product complexity is outgrowing support tooling
- Pair it with resolution time on escalated tickets to see the full cost

Decimal lowers escalation rate by doing the investigation inside support. See [escalation rate](https://www.decimal.app/glossary/escalation-rate).

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