Margin Calculator
Enter what an item costs you and what you sell it for to see profit, margin, and markup side by side.
- Profit
- $60.00
- Margin %
- 60.0%
- Markup %
- 150.0%
- Cost ratio
- 40.0%
Runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded.
What it does
Type your cost and your sell price and the calculator shows profit per unit, margin (profit as a share of the price), markup (profit as a share of the cost), and cost ratio. Seeing margin and markup together is the point: they describe the same profit from two directions and are easy to mix up.
Use it when pricing a product, a print-on-demand item, or a fixed-price service, and when checking whether a planned discount still leaves room. It looks at one unit at a time. It does not include ad spend or campaign returns, which is what the ROI and ROAS calculators are for.
How to use it
- 1
Enter your total cost per unit in Cost (materials, production, packaging, fees you pay per sale).
- 2
Enter the price the customer pays in Sell price.
- 3
Read Profit for the amount you keep per unit.
- 4
Compare Margin % and Markup %, and use Cost ratio to see what share of the price goes to cost.
What you get
Four stats: Profit per unit in dollars, Margin % and Markup % to one decimal place, and Cost ratio (cost as a share of price). Cost ratio shows a placeholder when Sell price is 0.
When to use it
- Price a new product
- Try different sell prices against your unit cost until the margin reaches the level you want.
- Check a print-on-demand item
- Enter the base cost the print provider charges, including shipping if you absorb it, to see what you keep per sale.
- Test a sale price
- Enter the discounted price from the discount calculator to see how far margin drops during a promotion.
- Quote wholesale pricing
- Retailers often talk in markup while you think in margin. Read both numbers so your quote matches their language.
Example
Input
Cost: 12 Sell price: 30
Output
Profit: $18.00 | Margin %: 60.0% | Markup %: 150.0% | Cost ratio: 40.0%
Margin divides the $18 profit by the $30 price. Markup divides the same $18 by the $12 cost.
Tips
- Include every per-unit cost in Cost, including payment processing and marketplace fees, or the margin will look better than it is.
- Margin can never reach 100%, but markup can go well above it. If someone quotes a 150% margin, they almost certainly mean markup.
- Before a sale, enter the discounted price here. A 20% discount on a 40% margin product halves the profit per unit.
- Margin covers one unit. To find how many units pay off your fixed costs, take the profit figure to the break-even calculator.
Questions
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Both use the same profit. Margin divides profit by the selling price; markup divides it by the cost. At cost 12 and price 30, profit is 18, margin is 60%, and markup is 150%.
Why is markup always higher than margin?
Cost is smaller than the selling price whenever you make a profit, so dividing the same profit by the cost gives a larger percentage.
What happens if my cost is higher than my price?
Profit, margin, and markup all show as negative numbers, which tells you each sale loses money at that price.
How is profit margin different from ROI or ROAS?
Margin measures profit on one unit sold. ROI compares total return with total investment, and ROAS compares revenue with ad spend. Use margin to set prices, and the others to judge campaigns.