---
Title: "What Is a Service Level Agreement (SLA)? Example"
Url: "https://computer.io/glossary/service-level-agreement"
Topic: "Support operations"
Description: "A service level agreement (SLA) defines the service a provider commits to, such as response and resolution times. SLA types, example targets and SLA vs SLO."
---

# What is a service level agreement (SLA)?

A service level agreement (SLA) is a commitment between a service provider and a customer that defines the expected level of service, such as response times, resolution times and uptime, along with how performance is measured and what happens if targets are missed.

## Example support SLA

| Priority | First response | Resolution |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Urgent | 1 hour | 8 hours |
| High | 4 hours | 2 days |
| Normal | 1 business day | 5 days |

## Types

Customer SLAs, internal SLAs between teams, and multi-level SLAs by plan.

## SLA vs SLO vs SLI

An SLA is the promise; an SLO is the internal target; an SLI is the actual measurement.

## FAQ

### What happens if an SLA is breached?

It depends on the contract; often service credits or escalation.

### How do support teams track SLAs?

With help desk timers, alerts and SLA reports.

### Can AI help meet SLAs?

Yes, by responding instantly and flagging tickets at risk of breach.

## Related terms

- [First response time (FRT)](https://computer.io/glossary/first-response-time)
- [Mean time to resolution (MTTR)](https://computer.io/glossary/mean-time-to-resolution)

## How Computer helps

- [Customer agent](https://devrev.ai/solutions/customer-agent)
- [Service desk automation](https://devrev.ai/solutions/service-desk-automation)

## Further reading

- [Ticket escalation](https://devrev.ai/blog/ticket-escalation)