Profit margin calculator

How to use it

1. Choose “Cost and price” to check a price you already have, or “Cost and target margin” to find one.
2. Enter the cost of one sale: what the item cost you, plus any per-sale costs you want counted.
3. Enter your selling price, or the margin you are aiming for as a percentage.
4. Read the margin, the markup and the profit. They update as you type.

Margin and markup are not the same number

Both describe the same profit. They differ in what they measure it against. Margin is profit as a share of the price you sold at; markup is profit as a share of what the item cost you. An item that cost 60 and sells for 100 carries a 40% margin and a 66.7% markup — one sale, two true percentages.

The mistake that costs money is applying a margin target with the markup formula. Multiplying a 60 cost by 1.4 gives 84, which is a 28.6% margin, not the 40% you were aiming at. The price that actually yields a 40% margin is 60 ÷ (1 − 0.40) = 100.

What this does not include

Cost here means whatever you decide to count as the cost of one sale. This calculator does not know about payment processing fees, refunds, shipping, platform commission or the hours you spent — if those come out of the same sale, fold them into the cost before you type it, or your margin is the gross one rather than the one that reaches you.