Margin and markup calculator

The top panel shows the essentials: margin, money per unit, and the price breakdown bar. Here you will find everything else that was calculated. Rows appear as you expand sections: while VAT, deductions, and fixed costs are all zero, there is nothing to show for them.

The browser does the calculations: neither cost nor price is sent anywhere. After loading, the page makes no requests, as you can see in the developer tools. Only the figures you entered are added to the address bar, so you can share the calculation by sending a link. The CSV file is also generated on your device.

A discount cuts revenue but leaves cost unchanged, so margin falls faster than the price. The last column answers a question people often forget to ask: how many times more units must you sell for the discount not to eat into your profit. Your discount and minimum margin are set in the collapsed “Discount” section in the top panel. Your row in the table is highlighted.

Three pricing options in three columns. Until you change them, they are based on your price: one-tenth lower, your price, and one-tenth higher. Enter your own prices, and the columns will stay as you set them.

How to use it

1. Fill in any two of the five fields. If you know the cost and price, margin and markup will be calculated. If you know the price and target margin, you will get the cost you need to stay within. If you know the profit and markup, you will get both of them. Each field indicates whether it was entered by you or calculated.

2. The settings are on the left and the result is on the right, where it stays: no matter how far you scroll through the VAT, deductions, and discount sections, the margin, per-unit amount, and price breakdown bar remain on screen. Below the panel is a navigation row linking to three sections: “All calculation figures,” “Discount,” and “Three prices side by side.” On a narrow screen, the columns stack into one, with the result directly below the settings.

3. Include everything spent specifically on this unit in the cost: purchase price, packaging, and delivery to the buyer. Do not include rent or salaries—they do not depend on a single unit; there is a separate fixed costs field for them.

4. Need a price for a target margin? Click the 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, or 50% chip. The margin will be entered in the field, your cost will stay unchanged, and the price will be recalculated.

5. If you work with VAT, expand the section and set the rate. There, also specify whether the entered prices include tax and whether the cost includes input VAT. The “All calculation figures” section below the panel will show “VAT payable” and “margin excluding VAT”: the latter is the real margin.

6. If you sell through a marketplace, expand “Deductions from a sale.” Fees, payment processing, logistics, returns, and tax are calculated for each unit, and net margin will appear next to gross margin in the panel. The “All calculation figures” section will also show “minimum price to break even”: below that price, the transaction is no longer worthwhile.

7. The discount table answers retail's main question: how much can you discount? The last column shows how many times more units you will have to sell so the discount does not eat into profit. Below the table is the maximum discount that keeps your margin above its floor.

8. You can export the completed calculation in four ways: as text copied to the clipboard, a link with the fields in the URL, a CSV file, or a printout. The buttons are below the result rather than at the end of the form, so you do not have to scroll through all twelve sections to reach them. When printed, only the result remains: fields and buttons are not sent to paper.

The formula and what it includes

• Cost — what one unit of a product or service costs
• Sale price — what the buyer pays for it
• Profit — the difference between them; it is the same in both formulas
• Margin — the share of profit in the price. With nonzero cost, it is always less than 100%
• Markup — the share of profit in the cost. There is no upper limit: it can be 500%
• Markup factor — how many times the price exceeds the cost; a 25% markup is a factor of 1.25
• VAT payable — sales tax minus input tax on the purchase. It comes entirely out of profit
• Deductions — marketplace and payment processing fees calculated as a percentage of the payment, a fixed transaction fee, and logistics costs in monetary terms
• Net margin — the same profit after VAT, fees, logistics, returns, and tax, expressed as a share of revenue excluding VAT
• Minimum price — the price at which net profit is zero; below it, the transaction loses money

Example breakdown: cost 800 ₽, price 1,000 ₽

The input data is the same as the default field values: you can calculate it mentally and confirm that the tool is telling the truth.

• Cost 800 ₽
• Sale price 1,000 ₽
• Quantity: 100 units
• VAT, deductions, and fixed costs set to zero
• Discount: 10%; margin floor: 15%

1. Profit per unit: 1,000 − 800 = 200 ₽.

2. Margin: 200 ÷ 1,000 × 100% = 20%. The denominator is the price.

3. Markup: 200 ÷ 800 × 100% = 25%. The denominator is the cost.

4. Markup factor: 1,000 ÷ 800 = 1.25.

5. For 100 units: revenue is 100,000 ₽ and profit is 20,000 ₽.

6. With a 10% discount: price is 900 ₽, profit per unit is 100 ₽, and margin is 11.11%. Batch profit is cut in half—from 20,000 to 10,000 ₽. To maintain it, you need to sell twice as many units: 200 instead of 100.

7. A 15% margin floor holds up to a 5.88% discount: price is 941.18 ₽ and profit is 141.18 ₽. Beyond that, margin falls below the floor.

8. If you set VAT to 20% and clear the input tax checkbox—that is, you bought without VAT but sell with it—166.67 ₽ of tax comes out of the price, profit falls from 200 to 33.33 ₽, and margin excluding VAT becomes 4%.

The same transaction: margin is 20%, markup is 25%. In both cases, profit is 200 ₽ per unit. Only the denominators differ, and that is where people lose money when they ask for a “20% markup” but mean margin.

Frequently asked questions

• How is margin different from markup?

  The denominator. Margin divides profit by price, while markup divides it by cost. The numerator is the same, so markup is always higher than margin. With a cost of 800 and a price of 1,000, profit is 200: margin is 20%, markup is 25%.

• How do you calculate cost from price and margin?

  Enter the price and margin—the other three fields, including cost, will be calculated. That is what “any two of five” means: reverse calculations work the same way as forward ones. Formula: cost = price × (1 − margin ÷ 100). For a price of 1,000 and a margin of 30%, the result is 700.

• Why can't you enter margin and markup together?

  Because they are the same number expressed in two ways: markup = margin ÷ (100 − margin) × 100. Entering both tells us nothing about the money involved—you cannot derive either cost or price from them. That is why, when you enter one of these fields, the other switches to “calculated,” and it must be paired with a money field.

• Why can't margin be set to 100%?

  Because the price would then have to be infinite: the divisor (1 − margin ÷ 100) becomes zero. A 100% margin is possible only with zero cost. The calculator accepts values up to 99.99%.

• How is VAT calculated here?

  Enter the rate and specify whether prices include tax. The calculator then shows the price excluding VAT, VAT payable, and margin excluding VAT. If both price and cost use the same rate and input tax is deductible, the percentage margin does not change at all—only the amounts change. But if the supplier is not VAT-registered, clear the input tax checkbox: there is nothing to deduct, the entire sales tax goes to the government, and margin drops. This is the trap behind the claim “I sell with a 20% markup” sometimes meaning the business is operating at a loss.

• What is included in “deductions from a sale”?

  Everything deducted from a specific sale except the product cost: marketplace and payment processing fees calculated as a percentage of the payment, a fixed transaction fee, logistics and storage costs in monetary terms, the return rate, and tax. Fees are calculated from the price including VAT—the marketplace takes a percentage of what the buyer paid. A return zeroes out revenue, the product goes back into inventory, and its logistics cost has already been incurred.

• What does the “minimum price to break even” line show?

  The price at which net profit is zero after accounting for VAT, fees, logistics, returns, and tax. Anything below it is a loss-making sale, even if gross margin looks positive. This is the most useful line for marketplace sellers: it immediately tells you how low you can go in a promotion.

• How much of a discount can you offer?

  Check the discount table: it shows the price, margin, markup, and profit for each step, while the last column shows how many times more units you need to sell to keep profit from falling. Below the table, you will see the maximum discount at which margin still stays above your floor. The rule is simple: a discount cuts profit more than it cuts price because cost does not decrease with the discount.

• Does the currency affect anything?

  Only for labeling. The calculator does not know exchange rates and does not convert anything—calculate all figures in one currency.

• Is any data sent anywhere?

  The entire calculation runs in the browser: after the page loads, it makes no requests, as you can see in the “Network” tab of the developer tools. The only place your numbers go is your own browser's address bar, and only so the calculation can be shared by link. The CSV file is also generated on your device.