Waiting Time Calculator
Estimate your wait using Little’s Law.
Simple waiting time (Little's Law)
This calculator estimates waiting time using Little’s Law, a principle from queue theory. By multiplying the number of people ahead of you by the average handling time, you get a realistic estimate of how long you’ll wait before being served.
This method is commonly used in hospitals, call centers, customer support queues, and service desks.
Advanced queue model (Erlang C)
This calculator uses Erlang C, a classical model from queueing theory (M/M/c). It assumes random arrivals, exponential service times, and c parallel servers.
⚠ Important: This model is not linear. Waiting time does not increase proportionally with load. As utilization approaches 100%, expected waiting time grows extremely fast.
For example, a system at 90% utilization may have small waits, while the same system at 99% utilization can have waits that are tens or hundreds of times larger.
This is a fundamental property of queueing systems and explains why real-world systems (hospitals, call centers, support desks, airports) avoid operating near full capacity.