diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a4cb04d569..a6cabe555f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](http://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/).
 ### Added
 - [#7812](https://github.com/apache/trafficcontrol/pull/7812) *Traffic Portal*: Expose the `configUpdateFailed` and `revalUpdateFailed` fields on the server table.
 - [#7870](https://github.com/apache/trafficcontrol/pull/7870) *Traffic Portal*: Adds a hyperlink to the DSR page to the DS itself for ease of navigation.
+- [#7896](https://github.com/apache/trafficcontrol/pull/7896) *ATC Build system*: Count commits since the last release, not commits
 
 ### Changed
 - [#7614](https://github.com/apache/trafficcontrol/pull/7614) *Traffic Ops* The database upgrade process no longer overwrites changes users may have made to the initially seeded data.
diff --git a/build/functions.sh b/build/functions.sh
index 97355df8ec..718516d833 100755
--- a/build/functions.sh
+++ b/build/functions.sh
@@ -93,7 +93,16 @@ getBuildNumber() {
 	local in_git=''
 	if isInGitTree; then
 		local commits sha
-		commits="$(git rev-list HEAD 2>/dev/null | wc -l | awk '{print $1}')" # awk is for BSD compatibility
+		# The number of commits since the last tag
+		if ! commits="$(git describe --long --tags \
+			--match='RELEASE-[0-9].[0-9].[0-9]' \
+			--match='RELEASE-[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9]' \
+			--match='v[0-9].[0-9].[0-9]' \
+			--match='v[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9]' |
+			awk -F- '{print $(NF-1)}')";
+		then
+			commits=0
+		fi
 		sha="$(git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD)"
 		echo "$commits.$sha"
 	else
diff --git a/docs/source/api/v3/about.rst b/docs/source/api/v3/about.rst
index 259956146c..39fa050c08 100644
--- a/docs/source/api/v3/about.rst
+++ b/docs/source/api/v3/about.rst
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ No parameters available.
 Response Structure
 ------------------
 :commitHash:    The `Git <https://git-scm.com/>`_ commit hash that Traffic Ops was built at.
-:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by running ``git rev-list HEAD | wc -l``.
+:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by extracting the commit count from running ``git describe --tags --long``.
 :goVersion:     The version of `Go <https://golang.org/>`_ that was used to build Traffic Ops.
 :release:       The major version of CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux that the build environment was running.
 :name:          The human-readable name of the `RPM <https://rpm-packaging-guide.github.io/#packaging-software>`_ file.
diff --git a/docs/source/api/v4/about.rst b/docs/source/api/v4/about.rst
index f0e56831c3..78b7e38258 100644
--- a/docs/source/api/v4/about.rst
+++ b/docs/source/api/v4/about.rst
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ No parameters available.
 Response Structure
 ------------------
 :commitHash:    The `Git <https://git-scm.com/>`_ commit hash that Traffic Ops was built at.
-:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by running ``git rev-list HEAD | wc -l``.
+:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by extracting the commit count from running ``git describe --tags --long``.
 :goVersion:     The version of `Go <https://golang.org/>`_ that was used to build Traffic Ops.
 :release:       The major version of CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux that the build environment was running.
 :name:          The human-readable name of the `RPM <https://rpm-packaging-guide.github.io/#packaging-software>`_ file.
diff --git a/docs/source/api/v5/about.rst b/docs/source/api/v5/about.rst
index 7841e66921..62af25b199 100644
--- a/docs/source/api/v5/about.rst
+++ b/docs/source/api/v5/about.rst
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ No parameters available.
 Response Structure
 ------------------
 :commitHash:    The `Git <https://git-scm.com/>`_ commit hash that Traffic Ops was built at.
-:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by running ``git rev-list HEAD | wc -l``.
+:commits:       The number of commits in the branch of the commit that Traffic Ops was built at, including that commit. Calculated by extracting the commit count from running ``git describe --tags --long``.
 :goVersion:     The version of `Go <https://golang.org/>`_ that was used to build Traffic Ops.
 :release:       The major version of CentOS or Red Hat Enterprise Linux that the build environment was running.
 :name:          The human-readable name of the `RPM <https://rpm-packaging-guide.github.io/#packaging-software>`_ file.
diff --git a/experimental/traffic-portal/server.config.ts b/experimental/traffic-portal/server.config.ts
index 83657b7f2a..26485be520 100644
--- a/experimental/traffic-portal/server.config.ts
+++ b/experimental/traffic-portal/server.config.ts
@@ -340,9 +340,12 @@ export async function getVersion(path?: string): Promise<ServerVersion> {
 	};
 
 	try {
-		ver.commits = String(execSync("git rev-list HEAD", {encoding: "utf8"}).split("\n").length);
 		ver.hash = execSync("git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD", {encoding: "utf8"}).trimEnd();
+		ver.commits = String(execSync("git describe --long --tags " +
+			"--match=RELEASE-[0-9].[0-9].[0-9] --match=RELEASE-[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9] " +
+			"--match=v[0-9].[0-9].[0-9] --match=v[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9]", {encoding: "utf8"}).split("-").slice(-2)[0]);
 	} catch (e) {
+		ver.commits = "0";
 		console.warn("getting git parts of version:", e);
 	}
 
diff --git a/infrastructure/cdn-in-a-box/Makefile b/infrastructure/cdn-in-a-box/Makefile
index 6d9ca65a80..f0890f989c 100644
--- a/infrastructure/cdn-in-a-box/Makefile
+++ b/infrastructure/cdn-in-a-box/Makefile
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ TC_DIR := $(CIAB_DIR_RELATIVE)../..
 PKG_COMMAND := $(TC_DIR)/pkg
 PKG_FLAGS := -v -$(RHEL_VERSION)
 BUILD_SUFFIX := _build
-BUILD_NUMBER := $(shell git rev-list HEAD 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d '[[:space:]]').$(shell git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD)
+BUILD_NUMBER := $(shell bash -c 'set -o pipefail -o xtrace; git describe --long --tags --match="RELEASE-[0-9].[0-9].[0-9]" --match="RELEASE-[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9]" --match="v[0-9].[0-9].[0-9]" --match="v[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9].[0-9][0-9]" | awk -F- "{print \$$(NF-1)}"' || echo 0).$(shell git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD)
 BUILD_ARCH   := $(shell docker run --name=ciab-get-$(BASE_IMAGE)-$(RHEL_VERSION)-arch --rm $(BASE_IMAGE):$(RHEL_VERSION) rpm --eval %_arch )
 TC_VERSION := $(shell cat "$(TC_DIR)/VERSION")
 TOMCAT_VERSION := $(shell grep '^\s*TOMCAT_VERSION=' "$(TC_DIR)/traffic_router/build/build_rpm.sh"  | cut -d= -f2)