Break-even calculator

How to use it

1. Enter your fixed costs for the period you care about, such as a month or a year.
2. Enter your price per unit.
3. Enter your variable cost per unit: what one more sale costs you.
4. Read the break-even units (rounded up to a whole unit) and the revenue at that point.

What break-even actually measures

Every unit you sell contributes price minus variable cost towards your fixed costs. That figure is the contribution, and break-even is simply your fixed costs divided by it — the number of units at which the contributions have covered the fixed costs exactly and the next sale is the first profitable one.

Fixed costs do not move with volume: rent, salaries, software, insurance. Variable costs are what one additional sale costs you: materials, packaging, shipping, the payment processor’s percentage. Put a cost in the wrong column and the answer is wrong in a way that looks plausible.

Why the answer is rounded up

The arithmetic often lands between two units, and you cannot sell part of one. The figure shown is the whole unit at which you are genuinely past the line — at one fewer, you are still slightly short.