Break Even Calculator

Find how many units you need to sell before a product or launch stops losing money.

Social SuiteAnalytics

Fixed costs

Price / unit

Variable / unit

Break-even units: 34
Contribution: $30.00
Revenue at BE: $1700
Fixed costs: $1000

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What it does

Enter your fixed costs, your price per unit, and your variable cost per unit. The calculator works out contribution (what each sale adds after its own costs), then divides fixed costs by it to give the number of units needed to break even, rounded up to a whole sale. It also shows the revenue you will have taken at that point.

Use it before committing to a merch run, a course launch, or a new product: the one-off costs of design, samples, equipment, or setup have to be recovered before any profit appears. It answers "how many do I need to sell", not "was this campaign worth it", which is a job for the ROI calculator.

How to use it

1
Enter one-off or period costs in Fixed costs (design, setup, tools, rent for the period).
2
Enter what the customer pays in Price / unit.
3
Enter the cost of making and delivering one unit in Variable / unit.
4
Read Break-even units, then check Contribution and Revenue at BE.

What you get

Four stats: Break-even units (rounded up to a whole unit), Contribution per unit, Revenue at BE (units multiplied by price), and the Fixed costs you entered.

When to use it

Plan a merch drop: Add design fees and sample costs as fixed costs to see how many shirts must sell before the drop pays for itself.
Price a digital product: Enter course or template production costs as fixed and payment fees as variable to see the sales target at each price.
Compare two price points: Change Price / unit and watch break-even units move, to judge whether a higher price is realistic for your audience.
Justify an equipment purchase: Treat a new camera or printer as a fixed cost to see how many paid jobs or sales it takes to pay it off.

Example

Input

Fixed costs: 600
Price / unit: 25
Variable / unit: 11

Output

Break-even units: 43 | Contribution: $14.00 | Revenue at BE: $1075 | Fixed costs: $600

600 / 14 is about 42.9, which rounds up to 43 units. 43 x 25 = $1,075 in revenue at break-even.

Tips

If Variable / unit is equal to or higher than Price / unit, break-even units show 0. That means you can never break even at that price, not that you already have.
Count shipping you absorb, packaging, and per-sale platform or payment fees as variable costs, since they grow with every order.
Only put costs in Fixed costs that you pay regardless of sales volume, for the same period you are planning.
Use the margin calculator first to settle a price, then come here to see whether the sales target is realistic for your audience size.

Questions

What counts as a fixed cost versus a variable cost?

Fixed costs stay the same however many you sell, like design work, samples, software, or equipment. Variable costs are paid per unit, like production, packaging, and transaction fees.

Why does the calculator round break-even units up?

You cannot sell part of a unit, and rounding down would leave you slightly short of covering costs. The result is the first whole unit at which you are no longer losing money.

Why is my break-even result 0?

Either fixed costs are 0, or the price does not exceed the variable cost, so each sale adds nothing towards fixed costs. Raise the price or lower the per-unit cost.

Is contribution margin the same as profit margin?

No. Contribution is price minus variable cost per unit, before fixed costs. Profit margin, as the margin calculator shows it, is profit as a share of the selling price.