When does test automation pay off?
Enter what your manual regression costs today and what automation would cost. The calculator shows break-even and savings and gives an honest assessment, even when it argues against automating.
The calculation runs only in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent.
Result
Clearly worth it.
The one-off effort is recovered within six months at most. Every further regression run saves time, and hotfixes no longer need the full manual run. The next question is which tests to automate first.
- Break-even
- after 4 months
- Manual regression today
- €5,760 per month
- Savings after automation
- €3,492 per month
- One-off effort
- €10,800
- Net in the first year
- €31,104
- Net per further year
- €41,904
How the calculator works
- 01Manual cost per month = runs × hours per run × hourly rate.
- 02Savings per month = manual cost × automatable share minus maintenance hours × hourly rate.
- 03One-off effort = automation hours × hourly rate.
- 04Break-even = one-off effort divided by savings per month, rounded up to whole months.
- 05Not included: defects avoided at the customer, faster hotfixes and freed-up developer time. These effects are real but differ per company. The calculator therefore stays deliberately conservative.
Which tests first?
The calculator shows whether automation pays off. Which tests to automate first and what each candidate costs is what the Test Automation Sprint clarifies at a fixed price.
30 minutes, no obligationQuestions about the calculation
When does automating regression tests pay off?
When a test runs often and a failure would be expensive: at every release, at every hotfix, for flows that affect revenue or security. Rarely run or constantly changing checks are better left manual. The calculator makes exactly this trade-off visible with your numbers.
Where do the default values come from?
From typical projects of small and medium software teams: four regression runs per month, 16 person-hours per run, €90 full cost per hour, 70 percent automatable, 120 hours one-off effort, six hours of maintenance per month. They are a starting point, not a benchmark. Replace them with your own numbers.
Why does maintenance effort matter so much?
Because it often decides the calculation. Unstable tests, outdated test data and UI tests that break with every layout change eat up the savings. A test that needs one hour of maintenance per month costs 36 hours over three years. That is why automation at lower levels usually pays off more than through the user interface.
What does the calculator not tell you?
It only values time and money for the regression run. Defects avoided at the customer, shorter hotfix times and the ability to close security vulnerabilities without delay, as the Cyber Resilience Act requires, come on top. Adding those gives a better return than the calculator shows.
What happens to my inputs?
Nothing. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. There is no transmission, no storage and no sign-up.