Calculator
What price gives you the margin you want?
This calculator turns what one sale costs you and a target markup, margin, or price into the other three numbers and your profit per sale.
Materials, parts, packaging, and anything else you spend to make one sale.
And you know the target:
Profit as a share of your cost. 0 to 1,000.
- Price per sale
- Unanswered
- Profit per sale
- Unanswered
- Markup
- Unanswered
- Margin
- Unanswered
Enter what one sale costs you and a target markup to see the price.
Profit = price − cost.
Markup = profit ÷ cost.
Margin = profit ÷ price.
Price from markup = cost × (1 + markup). Price from margin = cost ÷ (1 − margin). Prices round to the nearest cent.
How it works
Profit per sale is the price minus what that sale costs you. Markup and margin both describe that profit as a percentage, but of different things. Markup divides the profit by your cost. Margin divides the same profit by the price.
profit = price − costmarkup = profit ÷ costmargin = profit ÷ price
Going the other way, a target markup gives price = cost × (1 + markup) and a target margin gives price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). Prices round to the nearest cent.
Because the price is always bigger than the cost when you make a profit, the margin is always the smaller of the two percentages. A 100% markup is a 50% margin. Mixing them up is the most common pricing mistake: a seller who wants a 50% margin and adds 50% to cost ends up with a 33.33% margin.
A worked example
A small shop buys a mug for $8, including shipping to the shop. The owner wants a 60% margin.
Price = $8 ÷ (1 − 0.60) = $8 ÷ 0.40 = $20. Profit per sale is $20 − $8 = $12. As a markup, that is $12 ÷ $8 = 150%.
Had the owner added 60% to cost instead, the price would be $8 × 1.60 = $12.80, a profit of $4.80 and a margin of 37.5%. These are illustrative numbers, not typical prices.
Common questions
Is a 50% markup the same as a 50% margin?
No. On a $10 cost, a 50% markup gives a $15 price and a 33.33% margin. A 50% margin needs a $20 price, which is a 100% markup.
Why can't margin reach 100%?
Margin is profit as a share of the price, so 100% would mean the sale cost you nothing. As the target margin gets close to 100%, the price needed grows without limit, which is why the calculator stops at 99.99%.
What counts as the cost of one sale?
Anything you spend each time you sell one more: materials, parts, packaging, shipping you pay, and card processing fees. Rent, insurance, and software are monthly bills, not per-sale costs. Those belong in the break-even calculator.
What markup should I use?
The calculator can't tell you that. A price has to cover your monthly bills at a number of sales you can actually reach, and it has to be one your customers will pay. Start from your costs, then test the price with real customers.
For how to choose a price in the first place, read How to price a product or service.