Free tool

Documentation debt calculator

What does undocumented code cost your team every year? Enter your file count, engineer cost, and onboarding rate, and see the annual drag as a number. Free, no signup, nothing leaves your browser.

Your codebase

The assumptions behind the math

  • Each undocumented file costs about 2 hours a year of re-derivation: someone reads the code, asks who wrote it, reconstructs what the docs would have said.
  • Each new engineer loses about 20 hours onboarding in poorly documented code, on top of normal ramp-up.
  • Both numbers are deliberately conservative. They are assumptions, not measurements of your team.

Your numbers

Maintenance drag
$0
Onboarding tax
$0
Hours lost per year
0 h

Estimated annual doc-debt cost

$0

Over 5 years: $0

Engagement: $79 founding rate ·$149 standard

Payback: an engagement pays for itself in about— of avoided doc-debt drag (— at the founding rate).

An estimate, not a quote. Assumptions above; your team may differ. It exists to put a number on the conversation, not to end it.

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This calculator page was built with AI assistance. How we use AI.