---
Title: "What Is Tiered Support? Tier 0, 1, 2, 3 Explained"
Url: "https://computer.io/glossary/tiered-support"
Topic: "Support operations"
Description: "Tiered support organizes help into levels, from self-service (tier 0) to experts (tier 3), with escalation between them. What each tier handles and examples."
---

# What is tiered support?

Tiered support organizes customer or IT support into levels of increasing expertise, usually tier 0 (self-service and AI), tier 1 (frontline agents), tier 2 (technical specialists) and tier 3 (engineers or product experts), with tickets escalating up when lower tiers can't resolve them.

## Tiers

| Tier | Who | Example |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 0 | Self-service, AI | Password reset |
| 1 | Frontline agents | How-to questions |
| 2 | Specialists | Config issues |
| 3 | Engineering | Bugs |
| 4 | Vendors | Third-party issues |

## Pros and cons

Clear ownership and cost control, but handoffs can slow complex issues.

## FAQ

### What is L1, L2 and L3 support?

Another name for tier 1, 2 and 3 support.

### What is tier 0 support?

Self-service, such as help centers and AI agents.

### How is AI changing tiered support?

AI takes on more tier 0 and tier 1 work.

## Related terms

- [Shift left (support)](https://computer.io/glossary/shift-left)
- [Swarming (support)](https://computer.io/glossary/swarming)
- [Customer support engineer](https://computer.io/glossary/customer-support-engineer)

## How Computer helps

- [Customer agent](https://devrev.ai/solutions/customer-agent)

## Further reading

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