Work out what a sale really earns, or what to charge to earn it. Enter any two of cost, selling price, profit, margin, and markup, and the calculator fills in the other three and shows the formula it used — so a $40 item at a 25% target margin comes out at $53.33, not the $50 you get by just adding 25%. A built-in converter and reference table translate between margin and markup, the two numbers most often confused when pricing. Figures are gross and per unit; nothing you type leaves your browser.
To see what a sale takes off that price, use the discount calculator; for tax at the register, the sales tax calculator. The percentage calculator covers any other percent question, and once the price is set, the invoice generator turns it into a PDF invoice.
Why do the two numbers drift so far apart? Read margin vs markup for the full conversion table, how to price from a target margin, and how quickly a discount eats into your profit.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Both describe the same profit, but divided by different bases. Margin is profit as a share of the selling price; markup is profit as a share of the cost. An item that costs $40 and sells for $60 makes $20 profit: that is a 50% markup ($20 ÷ $40) but only a 33.3% margin ($20 ÷ $60). Markup is always the larger number for the same sale. Mixing them up is a classic pricing mistake — a shop that wants a 50% margin but applies a 50% markup ends up with half the profit per sale it planned.
How do I set a price from a target margin?
Divide the cost by one minus the margin, written as a decimal: price = cost ÷ (1 − margin). For a $40 cost and a 25% target margin, that is $40 ÷ 0.75 = $53.33. Simply adding 25% to the cost gives $50, which is a 25% markup but only a 20% margin, so you under-price. Use the "Cost & margin" option to get the right price, or the "Cost & markup" option if your supplier or industry quotes markups instead. The converter below the results translates between the two.
Is this gross margin or net margin?
Gross, per unit. The calculator compares the selling price with the direct cost of the item — what you paid for it, or materials plus direct labour — and ignores overhead, marketing, shipping, payment-processing fees, and taxes. Net margin subtracts all of those from revenue and is always lower, often much lower. Use this tool to set unit prices and to compare products, then check that your overall gross profit covers fixed costs. For a full picture of a business, work from accounts rather than one product.
What is a good profit margin?
It depends heavily on the industry, volume, and whether you mean gross or net. As rough, typical ranges: grocery stores run on net margins in the low single digits and rely on volume; restaurants usually land in the mid single digits net; independent retail and consumer goods often target gross margins of 30–50% (the traditional "keystone" of a 100% markup is a 50% margin); and software companies commonly report gross margins above 70%. Treat these as ballparks, not benchmarks — compare against businesses like yours, and remember a high margin on a slow seller can earn less than a thin margin on a fast one.
Can a margin be more than 100%?
No. Margin is profit divided by price, and profit can never exceed the price unless the cost is negative. A 100% margin would mean the item cost nothing; in practice margins sit below 100%. Markup has no such ceiling — a $5 item sold for $50 has a 900% markup (and a 90% margin). Both can be negative when you sell below cost: a $50 item sold for $40 shows a −$10 profit, a −25% margin, and a −20% markup. The calculator accepts losses, but it rejects margins of 100% or more and markups of −100% or less as impossible.