Free Tool
Wholesale Route Cost Calculator
A lower rate per minute is not always a lower cost. Enter each route's rate, billing increment, ASR, and ACD to see the cost per answered call and per connected minute.
1. Your traffic
The values below are placeholders for illustration, not market figures. Replace them with your own.
2. Routes to compare
Take the rate and billing rule from the deck, and ASR and ACD from your records or the provider's route report.
Route A
Route B
Results
How the calculation works
billed seconds per call = billing rule applied to ACD
termination cost = answered calls × billed seconds ÷ 60 × rate
cost per answered call = termination cost ÷ answered calls + cost per attempt ÷ ASR
cost per connected minute = cost per answered call ÷ (ACD ÷ 60)
The billing rule is the same one used in the billing increment calculator: a call no longer than the minimum bills the minimum, and a longer call bills the minimum plus the time beyond it, rounded up to the next step.
Limits to keep in mind
- Every call is treated as lasting the ACD. Billing rounds each call separately, so a real spread of call lengths can bill differently. Use the billing increment calculator with your own durations for an exact figure.
- ASR and ACD are inputs, not predictions. They depend on your lists and your traffic as much as on the route, and short tests are noisy. The route quality metrics guide explains how to read them.
- It prices termination only. Setup fees, minimum commitments, and fraud losses are not included.
- It does not know any provider's rates. Every number comes from you.
Route cost questions
What is the cost per connected minute?
It is the total you spend to reach one minute of live conversation. The calculator takes the termination charge for an answered call, adds each answered call's share of your cost per dial attempt, and divides by the minutes of talk that call delivers. Two routes with the same rate can land far apart on this number.
Why does answer rate matter if I only pay for answered calls?
Because the unanswered attempts are not free to you even when the carrier does not bill them. Dialer capacity, list records, and agent time are spent on every attempt. The calculator uses the cost per dial attempt you enter to turn that into a cost per answered call. With the attempt cost left at zero, ASR changes how many attempts you need but not the termination cost per connected minute.
What should I enter for cost per dial attempt?
Whatever each attempt costs you apart from termination: for example a list or lead cost divided across attempts, or dialer and agent cost per attempt. It is your own number, and the calculator has no default for it. Leave it at 0 to see termination cost alone.
Why does the calculator assume every call lasts the average?
The only duration it takes is the ACD, the average answered-call length, so it applies the billing rule to a call of exactly that length. Billing rounds each call separately, so a real spread of call lengths can bill differently. For an exact figure, paste your call durations into the billing increment calculator.
Where do ASR and ACD come from?
From your own call records, or from route reports a provider gives you. ASR is answered calls divided by attempts, and ACD is the total seconds of answered calls divided by answered calls. Figures from a short test can be noisy, so compare routes on enough attempts to tell a real gap from chance. The route quality metrics guide covers both formulas.
Compare routes with a real rate deck
Request a rate deck that states the billing increment for each route, then run the numbers here.