Live Chat Staffing Calculator

It turns daily chats and average chat length into agent hours of work, divides by chats handled at once per agent, then by shift hours to get agents needed. Applying the AI deflection rate to that workload gives the smaller team you would need with a bot, and the difference is the headcount saved. Counts round up to whole people.

Agents commonly run two to four live chats at once, so three is a sensible default. A bot typically deflects around half of chat volume before it reaches a human. Adjust both to match your team and tooling.

Yes – it runs entirely in your browser, with no sign-up and nothing sent to a server. Change any input and the numbers update instantly.

Chatref handles the deflectable chat volume from your own docs, with citations, and hands the rest to your agents, so a smaller team covers the higher-value conversations. You pay per reply, not per seat, and start with $50 in free credit.