A method and apparatus for providing an application utility metric for an application by taking into account of multiple protocols used by the application as well as at least one interaction of the application at the application-level that is deemed to be useful are disclosed. For example, the method computes a protocol overhead of one or more underlying Internet Protocol suite protocols supporting the application. The method also computes an application-level overhead based on at least one application-level interaction. Finally, the method computes the application-level utility metric in accordance with the protocol overhead and the application-level overhead.