Home›Technology›DevOps›What is Error Budget?
⚡ Technology·2 min·Updated Mar 10, 2026

What is Error Budget?

Error Budget

Quick Answer

An Error Budget is a limit on the amount of acceptable errors or downtime for a service within a specific time frame. It helps teams balance the need for reliability with the speed of new feature development.

Overview

An Error Budget is a concept used in DevOps to quantify the acceptable level of errors or service interruptions. It is typically defined as a percentage of uptime that a service should achieve, allowing teams to measure their performance against this standard. For example, if a service has an Error Budget of 99.9% uptime, it can tolerate approximately 43 minutes of downtime per month before it is considered to be failing its reliability goals. Understanding how an Error Budget works is crucial for teams that want to maintain a balance between deploying new features and ensuring service reliability. When teams exceed their Error Budget, it indicates that they are experiencing more issues than anticipated, which may require them to slow down on new developments. This approach encourages teams to prioritize fixing problems before introducing new features, ensuring that users have a stable experience. The importance of an Error Budget lies in its ability to guide decision-making within DevOps teams. It fosters a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, as teams can track their performance and make informed choices about where to invest their efforts. For instance, if a software company is consistently hitting its Error Budget, it may decide to allocate more resources to enhancing system stability instead of rushing out new updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

An Error Budget is calculated based on the Service Level Agreement (SLA) for a service, which defines the expected uptime. For example, if an SLA states that a service should be 99.9% available, the Error Budget would allow for a specific amount of downtime within that timeframe.
If a team exceeds its Error Budget, it typically means they need to focus on fixing existing issues rather than pushing new features. This can lead to a temporary halt on new developments until the reliability of the service is restored.
Yes, an Error Budget can change based on various factors such as user demand, system changes, or improvements in technology. Teams may adjust their Error Budgets to reflect new service goals or operational realities.