Markup Calculator

Markup is how much you add on top of a cost when you set a price. Enter the cost together with either a target markup or a target selling price, and the rest is filled in for you.

• Selling price — the cost with the markup added, or the price you entered yourself.
• Profit — the selling price with the cost taken off.
• Markup — what share of the cost that profit is.
• Margin — what share of the selling price that same profit is.

The result is an informational estimate based only on the values you enter. Nothing here works out a tax or a fee for you, no industry average is held in the code, and no price or markup is recommended.

1. Enter what the item cost you to buy or make in Cost. If you want packaging, shipping or a fee included, add it into this field yourself.
2. Choose how the price is set. Pick Target markup to add a percentage on top of the cost, or Target selling price if you have already decided what to charge.
3. Fill in the field for the mode you chose. The value from the other mode is not used.
4. Select Calculate to see the selling price, the profit, both rates and the step-by-step details.
5. Select Reset example to put the opening illustration back.

Keep the same basis in both fields. If you are looking at one item, the cost and the price must both be per item; if you are looking at one order, both must be for that order. A per-item cost next to a month of sales produces a number that means nothing.

The values shown when the page opens are a hypothetical example chosen to show how the calculation works. They are not a real price, not an industry average and not a recommended markup.

The two rates have the same numerator and different denominators. Only the base changes, but that alone moves the number a long way.

• Markup = profit ÷ cost × 100 — the denominator is the cost. It answers “of every 100 I put in, how much did I add on top?” and it can exceed 100%.
• Margin = profit ÷ selling price × 100 — the denominator is the selling price. It answers “of every 100 I take in, how much is left?” and because the denominator is the selling price, it cannot exceed 100%.

Markup and margin are not the same percentage. While there is a profit, the markup is always the larger of the two, because dividing by the bigger number gives the smaller rate. A markup of 50% is a margin of about 33.3333%, and a markup of 100% is a margin of 50%. Saying “I make 50%” means two different things depending on which rate you mean.

When the profit is exactly 0 the two rates meet at 0%. When the sale loses money both rates go negative, and there the margin is the smaller of the two.

Target markup and Target selling price differ only in how the selling price is decided. Once the selling price is known, the profit and both rates come from the same formulas, so the same cost and selling price always give the same core result.

• Target markup — you supply the percentage and the selling price is worked out from the cost.
• Target selling price — you supply the price and the markup is read back from it.

Only the field for the mode you chose is used. The other field is not shown and its value never reaches the calculation, so a leftover number cannot quietly change your result. The result card also names, in words, which mode produced the figures on screen.

These are the formulas this page uses. Follow them in order and you can check every value by hand.

• Selling price = C × (1 + m ÷ 100) — target markup mode
• Profit = S − C
• Markup (%) = (S − C) ÷ C × 100
• Margin (%) = (S − C) ÷ S × 100

• C — cost
• S — selling price
• m — target markup (%)

In target selling price mode the first line is not used: the price you entered is S, and the other three lines follow unchanged.

Intermediate values are not rounded. Only the numbers on screen are rounded, and a rate that is not 0 but would round to 0 is written as “less than 0.0001%” rather than a false 0%.

These are the same values the calculator shows when the page opens. They are a hypothetical example, not a real price and not a recommended markup, and every step can be checked by hand.

1. Cost 60, target markup 50%
2. Selling price = 60 × (1 + 50 ÷ 100) = 90
3. Profit = 90 − 60 = 30
4. Markup = 30 ÷ 60 × 100 = 50% (the cost is the denominator)
5. Margin = 30 ÷ 90 × 100 ≈ 33.3333% (the selling price is the denominator)

Enter the same situation the other way round and nothing changes: a cost of 60 with a target selling price of 90 gives the same profit of 30, the same markup of 50% and the same margin of about 33.3333%.

Notice that 50% and about 33.3333% are not the same number. They are the same sale measured against two different bases. Neither one is wrong; quoting one while meaning the other is.

• A target markup of 0% means selling at cost. The selling price equals the cost, and the profit, the markup and the margin are all exactly 0%. That 0% is a real zero, not a missing value, and the result is labelled Break-even in words.
• A negative markup is a loss, not an error. Selling below cost is calculated exactly as entered. The negative amount is shown as it is, with the word Loss next to it rather than colour alone, and both rates stay negative.
• A target markup of −100% is the point where the selling price is exactly 0.Below that the price would be negative and would stop meaning “a price someone pays you”, so it is not accepted.
• If the selling price is 0, the margin is shown as “Not available”. The margin divides by the selling price, so there is nothing to divide by. No 0% and no infinity is invented in its place; the profit becomes the cost as a negative amount, the markup is −100%, and both are still shown.
• The cost must be greater than 0.The markup divides by the cost, so with a cost of 0 the question “what share of the cost is this?” has no answer. Negative costs are not accepted either.
• Empty fields, letters and values outside the limits are not calculated. The calculator tells you which field is wrong and why, and an empty field is never silently read as 0.
• Some combinations fail even when each field on its own is fine. A markup so close to 0 that the selling price comes back equal to the cost, or a cost so much smaller than the price that it disappears completely in the subtraction, cannot produce a meaningful result. Rather than show a truncated figure, the calculator refuses and points at the field to fix.

The upper limit on the amounts and the −100% to 500% markup range are not legal, regulatory or industry figures. They are a safety limit chosen to catch typing mistakes and keep the arithmetic meaningful. A markup above 500% is not being discouraged.

• Results are informational estimates based only on the values you enter.
• Taxes such as VAT and income tax are not automatically included. No tax rate is guessed or held in the code, and whether your cost and price include tax is your decision.
• Card payment fees, marketplace and platform selling fees, shipping, packaging and any other cost are not automatically included. They only affect the result if you add them into the cost field yourself.
• Fixed costs such as rent, wages and advertising are not spread across units for you.
• Returns, exchanges, stock losses, discounts and exchange rates are not included.
• If a cost is missing, your real profit is smaller than this result. The calculator cannot know about a cost you did not enter.
• This is a per item or per order calculation and does not total up a whole product range.
• Intermediate values are not rounded; only the numbers on screen are rounded for display.
• This is not accounting, tax or legal advice. No price and no markup is recommended and no profit is guaranteed. Your real filings and payouts may follow different rules.
• Your inputs are calculated only in this browser and are never sent to or stored on a server.

This page starts from a cost and decides a price. To go the other way and read what is actually left when the selling price is already known, the Margin Calculator takes a selling price, a purchase cost and the other costs you enter yourself, and separates gross profit from the final profit.

Markuphere answers “of every 100 I put in, how much did I add on top?” To ask that about an investment rather than a sale, the ROI Calculator takes an investment cost and an amount recovered. Both are simple ratios that do not take time into account, and neither applies any tax rate or fee rate for you.

If the money was tied up for a period and you want that reflected, the Investment Return Calculator adds a time period and a simplified annualised view on top of the same idea. It is still an informational estimate that guarantees no return.

• Margin Calculator — the same sale read from a price you already know
• ROI Calculator — the same ratio asked about an investment
• Investment Return Calculator — add a time period and an annualised view