What is a good uptime guarantee for an SLA?

99.9% uptime (also called 'three nines') is the most common standard for business-critical services, allowing approximately 8.7 hours of total downtime per year. Mission-critical or financial services often require 99.95% or 99.99% ('four nines,' allowing ~52 minutes per year). 99.9% is a reasonable baseline for most B2B software and IT managed services.

What are SLA credits and are they the only remedy?

SLA credits are service bill credits applied to future invoices as compensation for failing to meet performance targets. Most SLAs cap total credits at 100% of one month's service fee. SLA credits are typically defined as the sole and exclusive remedy for performance failures — meaning the client cannot also sue for breach of contract damages solely for SLA metric misses.

What should be excluded from uptime calculations?

Standard exclusions include: scheduled maintenance windows (announced in advance), outages caused by the client's own actions or misconfigurations, failures in third-party services outside the provider's control (internet backbone, DNS providers), force majeure events, and beta or preview features. These exclusions should be clearly defined to prevent disputes.

How is uptime typically measured?

Uptime is usually measured by external monitoring tools that perform synthetic checks at regular intervals (every 1-5 minutes) to detect service unavailability. The measurement method, tooling, and time zone for calculations should be specified in the SLA. Clients should independently monitor service availability and compare against provider reports.

Can a client terminate for repeated SLA violations?

Unless the SLA specifically provides for termination rights upon SLA breach, clients typically cannot terminate the service contract solely because SLA credits were issued. For critical dependencies, negotiate a termination right trigger (e.g., SLA credits exceeding X% of monthly fees for 3 consecutive months). Without this, the client's only remedy is credits.

Free Service Level Agreement Template — Fill Out & Download Instantly

Free — No Sign-Up RequiredPDF & WordUpdated April 8, 2026

A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and a client that defines the expected level of service, performance metrics, uptime guarantees, response and resolution times, and the remedies available when service standards are not met. SLAs are commonly used in IT managed services, cloud hosting, software-as-a-service (SaaS), telecommunications, customer support, and any service relationship with measurable performance commitments.

⚠️ Legal Disclaimer: This template is attorney-reviewed and built to US legal standards. It does not substitute for professional legal advice. For complex situations, we recommend consulting a licensed attorney.

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Governing State*

Service Provider Name*

Full legal name of the company providing the service

Provider Address*

Client Name*

Client Address*

Effective Date*

MM/DD/YYYY

Service Description*

Describe the specific services covered by this SLA

Service Availability Hours*

Uptime Guarantee*

Percentage of time the service will be available, measured monthly

Incident Response Time (Initial Acknowledgment)*

Target Resolution Times by Severity*

Define resolution targets per incident severity level

Scheduled Maintenance Windows*

Scheduled maintenance does not count against uptime calculations

Incident Reporting Process*

SLA Credit / Penalty for Breach*

Credit issued to client per qualifying SLA breach event, OR enter percentage below

Escalation process is optional (advanced)

Service Measurement Method*

Performance Reporting Frequency*

Agreement Term and Renewal*

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SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENT

This Service Level Agreement ("SLA" or "Agreement") is entered into as of [Effective Date], by and between:

[Service Provider Name] ("Provider")

Address: [Provider Address]

and

[Client Name] ("Client")

Address: [Client Address]

1. SERVICES COVERED

This SLA governs the following services:

[Service Description]

This SLA supplements any master services agreement or statement of work between the parties. In the event of a conflict, this SLA governs service level commitments.

2. SERVICE AVAILABILITY

Service Hours: business-hours

Uptime Guarantee: 99.9% measured on a monthly basis

Uptime is calculated as: ((Total Minutes in Month – Downtime Minutes) / Total Minutes in Month) × 100

The following are excluded from uptime calculations:

(a) Scheduled maintenance windows;

(b) Outages caused by Client actions, misconfigurations, or third-party systems outside Provider's control;

(d) Client-requested modifications performed outside standard maintenance windows.

3. SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE WINDOWS

[Scheduled Maintenance Windows]

4. INCIDENT RESPONSE AND RESOLUTION

Initial Acknowledgment: 4 hours from incident report during service hours

Target Resolution Times:

[Target Resolution Times by Severity]

Resolution times are targets, not guarantees, as actual resolution depends on the complexity of the issue. Provider will communicate status updates at regular intervals for unresolved incidents.

5. INCIDENT REPORTING

[Incident Reporting Process]

6. SLA CREDITS

In the event Provider fails to meet the uptime guarantee in any calendar month, Client shall receive a credit of $[SLA Credit / Penalty for Breach] for each qualifying breach event, applicable against the next month's invoice.

Credits are the Client's sole and exclusive remedy for SLA breaches and do not entitle Client to early termination. Total credits in any monthly period shall not exceed 100% of the monthly service fee. Credits must be claimed in writing within 30 days of the qualifying event.

7. SERVICE MEASUREMENT

[Service Measurement Method]

8. PERFORMANCE REPORTING

Provider shall deliver a service performance report to Client on a monthly basis. Reports shall include: uptime percentage, number and severity of incidents, average response and resolution times, and any SLA credits issued.

9. ESCALATION PROCESS

For critical incidents, Client may escalate by contacting Provider's management team. Provider shall acknowledge all escalation requests within 1 hour and provide a dedicated senior point of contact.

10. TERM AND RENEWAL

[Agreement Term and Renewal]

Either party may terminate this SLA for material breach upon 30 days' written notice if the breach is not cured within the notice period.

11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

Provider's total liability for SLA breaches in any month shall not exceed the monthly service fee paid for that month. Provider shall not be liable for indirect, consequential, or incidental damages arising from service disruptions.

12. GOVERNING LAW

This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of [Governing State].

13. ENTIRE AGREEMENT

This SLA, together with any referenced master services agreement, constitutes the entire agreement between the parties regarding service level commitments.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this Service Level Agreement as of the date first written above.

_________________________________

[Service Provider Name]

Authorized Representative

Date: _______________

_________________________________

[Client Name]

Authorized Representative

Date: _______________

Document Completeness24%

Governing State*

Service Provider Name*

Full legal name of the company providing the service

Provider Address*

Client Name*

Client Address*

Effective Date*

MM/DD/YYYY

Service Description*

Describe the specific services covered by this SLA

Service Availability Hours*

Uptime Guarantee*

Percentage of time the service will be available, measured monthly

Incident Response Time (Initial Acknowledgment)*

Target Resolution Times by Severity*

Define resolution targets per incident severity level

Scheduled Maintenance Windows*

Scheduled maintenance does not count against uptime calculations

Incident Reporting Process*

SLA Credit / Penalty for Breach*

Credit issued to client per qualifying SLA breach event, OR enter percentage below

Escalation process is optional (advanced)

Service Measurement Method*

Performance Reporting Frequency*

Agreement Term and Renewal*

What Is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) Template?

When Do You Need It?

You need a service level agreement when: a managed IT service provider is contracted for ongoing support, a SaaS vendor must guarantee uptime for business-critical software, a company is outsourcing customer support or helpdesk operations, a cloud hosting provider is committing to availability standards, or any ongoing service relationship requires measurable performance commitments with defined remedies for failure..

What's Included in This Template

Service provider and client identification
Detailed service description
Service availability hours
Uptime guarantee percentage
Incident response time commitment
Issue resolution time commitment
Scheduled maintenance window provisions
Incident reporting process
SLA credit or penalty for breach
Service measurement and monitoring method
Reporting frequency and format
Agreement term and renewal
Escalation process for major incidents
Governing law and dispute resolution
Signature blocks for both parties

How to Fill It Out

Select Your State — Choose the governing state for the agreement. This is typically the state where the service provider is located or where the client's primary operations are based.

Enter Party Details — Provide the service provider's full legal name and address, and the client's full legal name and address. Include the effective date of the SLA.

Describe the Service — Clearly define what service is covered by this SLA. Be specific — an SLA should apply to a defined set of services, not broadly to everything the provider offers.

Set Service Hours and Uptime — Choose service availability hours (24/7 or business hours) and the uptime guarantee. 99.9% uptime is the most common standard for business-critical services, allowing approximately 8.7 hours of downtime per year.

Define Response and Resolution Times — Set how quickly the provider must acknowledge an incident (response time) and how quickly they must resolve it (resolution time). These should vary by incident severity.

Configure SLA Credits and Reporting — Specify the credit or penalty when SLA targets are missed, how performance will be measured, and how often the provider will report metrics to the client. Escalation contacts should be defined for critical incidents.

Legal Requirements & Notes

Service Level Agreements are governed primarily by general contract law principles and may be subject to additional regulations depending on the industry:

IT and Cloud Services: SLAs for cloud computing and managed IT services are common commercial contracts. AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud publish their own SLAs as industry benchmarks (typically 99.9%+ for production services).

Healthcare: SLAs covering systems handling protected health information (PHI) must comply with HIPAA (45 C.F.R. Parts 160 and 164). Business Associate Agreements (BAAs) are required when service providers handle PHI.

Financial Services: SLAs for services to banks or financial institutions may be subject to OCC guidance on third-party risk management (OCC Bulletin 2013-29).

Credit/SLA Caps: Courts generally enforce credit cap provisions. Excessive liability for SLA breaches may be challenged as a penalty clause rather than a genuine pre-estimate of damages.

Service Continuity: For critical services, consider including business continuity and disaster recovery obligations (RTO and RPO targets) as supplements to uptime metrics.

Frequently Asked Questions

A service agreement defines what services will be provided and the general commercial terms (price, payment, IP rights). A service level agreement (SLA) specifically defines the performance standards that apply to those services — uptime guarantees, response times, resolution targets, and what happens when those standards are not met. SLAs are typically documents that supplement a broader service or master services agreement.