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MDR ROI calculator / 2026

Risk-adjusted return on managed detection investment. Plug in your industry, endpoint count, security maturity, and revenue. See expected breach cost avoided, payback period, and three-year ROI.

Inputs

50025 to 10,000
$50M$1M to $1B

Risk-adjusted ROI

Annual MDR investment$108K
Expected breach cost (no MDR)$533K
Expected breach cost (with MDR)$240K
Breach cost avoided$293K
Downtime cost avoided$115K

Net benefit per year

$300K

ROI

278%

Payback period

3.2 mo

Breach cost data: IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025 (global average $4.44M). Security AI and automation shortens breach lifecycles by ~80 days (IBM 2025). Risk-adjusted with an illustrative breach-cost reduction.

Key stats

The MDR ROI baseline

210%

3-year ROI

Forrester TEI of BlueVoyant MDR, 2024 (vendor-commissioned)

<6 mo

Payback period

Forrester TEI of BlueVoyant MDR composite, 2024

$3.9M

Breach costs avoided (3yr)

Forrester TEI of BlueVoyant MDR composite, 2024

By industry

Breach cost benchmarks

The financial impact of a breach varies widely by industry. The figures below are 2025 averages from IBM's Cost of a Data Breach report (published July 2025; global average $4.44M, down 9% from $4.88M in 2024).

IndustryAverage breach costWhy it's that high
Healthcare$7.42MHIPAA penalties, sensitive PHI, regulatory complexity. Costliest industry for the 14th straight year
Financial services$5.56MRegulatory fines, fraud losses, customer churn
Industrial / manufacturing$5.00MOperational downtime, supply chain disruption, IP theft
Energy$4.83MCritical infrastructure regulations, OT environment risks
Technology$4.79MSource code exposure, customer data, reputational damage
Pharmaceuticals$4.61MResearch IP, clinical trial data, regulatory exposure
Global average (all industries)$4.44MDown 9% year on year, driven by faster AI-assisted containment

The mechanism

How MDR reduces breach cost

The financial impact of MDR comes from three reinforcing mechanisms:

  • Faster detection. Organisations using security AI and automation extensively, the engine under modern MDR, cut their breach lifecycle by 80 days (IBM 2025). Less time means less data exfiltrated, fewer accounts compromised, less ransomware spread.
  • Faster containment. Analysts who already know the playbook respond faster than internal teams improvising. Average containment time falls 50-70% with MDR.
  • Lower probability of escalation. Many incidents are caught at the earliest stages and contained before they become reportable breaches. The cost of a contained incident is dramatically lower than the cost of an escalated breach.

The compounding effect

When detection time falls and containment time falls, the financial impact of any given attack falls multiplicatively. A 50% reduction in each yields a 75% reduction in total breach cost on a typical incident curve.

Insurance offset

Premium discount as additional ROI

The risk-mitigation ROI is one component of MDR's financial case. Cyber insurance premium discounts are a separate benefit on top.

Most carriers offer 15-25% premium discounts for organisations with documented MDR. For a mid-market organisation paying $100,000 per year in cyber premium, that's $15,000-$25,000 per year in additional savings on top of the breach risk reduction.

See our cyber insurance and MDR page for the full premium offset analysis and the 97.5% lower claim-value stat.

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FAQ

ROI questions

What's the typical ROI of MDR?
Forrester's 2024 Total Economic Impact study of BlueVoyant MDR reports a 210% ROI over three years with a payback period of under six months for a composite organisation ($5.73M benefits against $1.85M costs, $3.88M net present value). It is a vendor-commissioned study, so treat it as indicative rather than universal: the exact ROI depends heavily on your industry breach cost baseline, current security maturity, and endpoint count, which is why this calculator lets you model your own.
How accurate is the breach cost data?
The breach cost figures by industry come from IBM's annual Cost of a Data Breach report, which surveys real breach incidents and calculates the all-in cost (detection, escalation, notification, post-breach response, lost business). The numbers are credible benchmarks but your specific exposure depends on your data, industry, and operational profile.
Why is breach probability part of the ROI calculation?
ROI on a risk-mitigation investment is meaningless without a probability. A $1M tool that prevents a $10M breach has 1000% ROI if the breach is certain to happen, but 100% ROI if it has a 10% probability and 0% ROI if you're protected by other controls already. The calculator uses industry-baseline breach probability adjusted for your current security maturity.
Does the ROI include cyber insurance premium savings?
The breach cost reduction in this calculator focuses on the direct cost of incidents avoided. Cyber insurance premium discounts of 15-25% with MDR are an additional benefit on top, typically worth $15K-$50K per year for mid-market organisations. See our cyber insurance page for the full premium offset analysis.
How much faster does MDR-style detection catch a breach?
IBM's Cost of a Data Breach 2025 report found organisations using security AI and automation extensively, which is the engine underneath modern MDR, shortened their breach lifecycle by 80 days compared with organisations that used none. The global mean time to identify and contain a breach fell to 241 days, a nine-year low. Faster detection and containment means less data exfiltrated, less downtime, and less regulatory exposure, which is the main mechanism behind MDR's risk reduction.

Disclaimer

MDRCost.com is an independent pricing guide. We are not affiliated with any MDR vendor. Pricing data is compiled from public sources, partner channels, Vendr transaction data, and verified buyer reports. Always request a direct quote for your environment.