Margin ≠ markup
Margin measures profit as a share of revenue. Markup measures profit as a share of cost. They use different denominators.
Margin = profit ÷ revenue
Markup = profit ÷ total entered cost
Markup = profit ÷ total entered cost
Big ideas. Small business. Smarter prices.
Make your
next price
your best move.
Know what to charge. See what you keep. A pricing & profit calculator for the business you’re building.
✓ Free to use · No account needed✓ English + Español
YOUR BUSINESS. YOUR NUMBERS.
THE PRICING PLANConnected to your calculator ↓
YOUR SELLING PRICE
—
Monthly operating profit—
Operating margin—
Before tax · Planning estimate
Less guesswork.
More clarity.
More clarity.
IDEA → COST → PRICE → POSSIBILITY
FOR THE BUSINESS YOU’RE BUILDING
✳ Makers✳ Sellers✳ Service pros✳ Freelancers
01 / FROM IDEA TO NUMBERS
A good idea deserves
a price that works.
Pick an example, then make it yours. Bring your time, costs, and goals together to see the whole picture.
Small business pricing & profit calculator
AStart with your business
Your pricing snapshot● Live estimate
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List price per unit · —
Monthly operating profit—
Operating margin—
Every sale, accounted for
Variable costs & flat fees—
Percentage selling fees—
Allocated fixed costs—
Operating profit per unit—
Break-even sales / monthWhole units to cover fixed costs
—Contribution per unit—
Markup on total entered cost—
Monthly labor hours—
Before sales tax and income tax. One unit = one item, order, hour, or job.
Your numbers stay in your browser.
Editable examples, not industry averages.
The what-if desk
A small price change.
A different bottom line.
Same costs. Same sales volume. Three effective prices to see how your monthly profit could move.
| Scenario | Effective price | Operating margin | Monthly profit | Break-even units |
|---|
Illustrative comparison: demand, unit costs and fixed costs are held constant. Actual sales may change with price.
● Monthly revenue— Monthly total costs
Chart uses effective price and constant unit costs. Fixed costs stay constant.
Keep the useful ones
Your saved scenarios
Keep up to three plans on this browser. Export important estimates for a lasting copy.
A little clarity goes a long way
Understand the numbers
Contribution pays the bills
Every sale first covers its variable costs and selling fees. What remains is its contribution toward monthly fixed costs and profit.
Contribution = effective price − variable costs − fees
Volume changes the picture
Overhead per sale falls when volume rises, assuming fixed costs stay fixed. Use a realistic volume and check capacity.
Monthly profit = contribution × units − fixed costs
Count the cost of every sale
Start with what you buy or consume for one sale: stock, ingredients, packaging, shipping subsidies, and disposable supplies. A bakery might price one box of six cookies as its unit; a retailer might use one item. Keep the unit consistent in every field. Buying a case of 100 containers for $30 means a packaging cost of $0.30 per unit, not $30.
Pay for your own time
Owner labor is easy to overlook because it may not appear on an invoice. Estimate the hands-on hours per sale and multiply by a reasonable hourly labor cost. Include payroll burden in the rate if it applies. For a cleaning job, count travel and setup time when you cannot bill them separately. Do not also add the same labor to monthly overhead.
Try this in the calculator ↗Separate margin from markup
A $20 item sold for $30 has a $10 gross profit before other costs. Its markup is 50% of cost, while its gross margin is 33.3% of revenue. Applying a 30% markup will not deliver a 30% margin. This calculator targets an operating margin after the variable costs, fees, and allocated fixed costs you enter. Its markup result uses that complete cost estimate.
Put overhead on the page
Rent, insurance, software, bookkeeping, and equipment leases keep running even when sales slow down. Enter the monthly fixed costs for the business or product line you are modeling. The tool allocates them across expected sales to estimate a price. If you model several products separately, allocate shared overhead once across them; assigning the full rent to every product overstates expenses.
Use a realistic monthly volume
Expected volume affects how much overhead each sale needs to carry. Use a recent monthly average or a cautious estimate for a new business. A mobile detailer with capacity for 40 jobs should not price using 200 jobs just to make the numbers look better. Change the volume and see how the target price responds before you commit to a published price.
Include payment and platform fees
Percentage fees rise with the selling price; flat transaction charges add a separate cost. Enter both. If a marketplace charges 10% and processing adds 3%, use 13% only when both apply to the same pretax selling-price base. This model assumes one transaction per unit. Different fee bases, tiered rates, order minimums, and bundled orders require an adjusted estimate.
Try this in the calculator ↗Make room for waste and rework
Spoiled ingredients, damaged stock, and jobs that need a return visit all consume resources. Use your own records to estimate an average cost per completed sale and enter it under other variable costs. For example, $100 of monthly waste over 200 sales adds $0.50 per sale. This allowance is an estimate, so review it when processes or suppliers change.
Test the price you already charge
Switch to Check my price and enter your actual list price. The result shows what remains after the entered costs, rather than assuming that a busy business is a profitable business. A positive contribution per sale can still lead to a monthly loss when volume is too low to cover fixed expenses. Compare both the per-sale result and the monthly operating profit.
Price discounts before announcing them
A discount reduces revenue while many costs stay the same. In target mode, the tool raises the required list price so the discounted price can still meet your target. In check mode, it shows the effect on your current price. This assumes customers actually pay the discounted amount on every modeled sale; use separate scenarios for a promotion that reaches only some customers.
Try this in the calculator ↗Find your break-even sales count
Break-even units equal monthly fixed costs divided by contribution per unit, rounded up to a whole sale. Contribution is the selling price after discounts, minus variable costs and selling fees. If contribution is zero or negative, selling more at that price cannot cover overhead. Break-even assumes steady unit costs and prices; it is not a prediction of demand.
Try this in the calculator ↗Check your capacity against the plan
A service business can run out of time before it reaches break-even. Multiply the hours per job by expected monthly jobs and compare with available working hours. This tool displays modeled monthly labor hours to make that check easier. Leave room for scheduling, sales, travel, and administration when estimating capacity. You may need a higher price, a different scope, or help with delivery.
Build a minimum job charge
Small jobs still require scheduling, travel, setup, and payment collection. Choose one completed job as your unit and enter all the costs it creates. A minimum charge can help recover those costs when a job is too small for an hourly quote alone. Explain the minimum and the included scope before the customer books, so your pricing is clear from the start.
Treat delivery as a real expense
Free delivery is a customer offer, not a zero-cost activity. Add the shipping or delivery cost you absorb to each sale, including packing materials and paid labor where relevant. If customers pay delivery separately, include both the related revenue and costs consistently in the unit being modeled. Avoid including shipping expense while leaving out the delivery charge that covers it.
Keep collected sales tax separate
The calculator uses pretax selling prices and excludes collected sales tax or VAT. Tax collected for a government generally is not money available for operating profit. If your advertised price includes tax, determine the pretax amount before using Check my price. Local rules and recoverable input taxes vary; use your accounting records or a qualified adviser for the correct treatment.
Compare three price points
The comparison table tests prices 10% below and 10% above your effective selling price while holding sales volume constant. It helps reveal how sensitive profit is to price, but does not estimate how customers will respond. Save separate scenarios with lower volume at a higher price to explore that tradeoff. A better margin on paper still needs a market willing to pay.
Try this in the calculator ↗Quote scope, not just a number
For services and custom work, document what the customer receives, how many revisions or visits are included, and what costs extra. Model the standard job in the calculator, then price extras using their own labor and materials. Clear scope protects both sides and makes comparisons with competing quotes more meaningful. A profitable quote can lose money if unlimited extras are silently included.
Review subscriptions and quiet overhead
Small recurring charges can become a meaningful monthly expense. Review software, storage, banking charges, licenses, and memberships, then enter the business portion in fixed costs. Do not put a subscription in both overhead and per-sale expenses. Repeat this review when a free trial ends or a new employee requires another paid seat; otherwise the pricing model may lag behind your real expenses.
Use supplier changes as a pricing trigger
When a supplier raises prices, update the material cost before reordering or accepting a large job. Save the old and new scenarios to see the monthly effect. You may decide to adjust price, change a supplier, reduce waste, or redesign the offer. A small cost increase multiplied across hundreds of sales can matter more than it first appears.
Check the market after checking the math
A cost-based price tells you what your plan needs, not what every customer will accept. Compare offers with similar quality, delivery, service, and guarantees. If your required price is much higher, investigate your costs and positioning before simply matching a competitor. The right next step may be a different customer segment or a more focused product rather than a blanket price cut.
Make pricing a monthly habit
Save a baseline scenario, export the CSV, and compare it with your actual sales and expenses at month-end. Update volume, labor, and costs when the business changes. Saved scenarios stay in this browser and are not a backup, so keep an exported copy for important decisions. A regular review turns a one-time estimate into a useful operating routine.
Try this in the calculator ↗
Useful answers
Before you
set your price.
Is this pricing and profit calculator free?
Yes. You can calculate, compare, save up to three scenarios in your browser, and export a CSV without creating an account. No payment is required.
What businesses can use it?
Retailers, online sellers, food businesses, makers, freelancers, and service providers can use the same model. Choose one consistent unit: an item, an order, an hour, or a completed job. Presets are editable examples, not industry benchmarks.
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Margin divides profit by selling revenue. Markup divides profit by cost. For $20 of total cost and a $30 price, profit is $10, margin is 33.3%, and markup is 50%. This tool includes entered selling fees and allocated overhead in its displayed total cost.
How is the recommended selling price calculated?
Effective price = (variable unit cost + flat transaction fee + monthly fixed costs ÷ monthly units) ÷ (1 − percentage fee rate − target margin). List price = effective price ÷ (1 − discount rate), rounded upward to a cent. Fees and target margin together must be below 100%.
Does the result include taxes?
No. Prices and revenue exclude sales tax or VAT. Operating profit is before income tax, interest, and any costs you did not enter. This is an estimate for planning, not accounting or tax advice.
What does contribution per sale mean?
It is effective selling price minus variable unit costs and transaction fees, before monthly fixed costs. Positive contribution helps cover overhead. Monthly operating profit equals contribution multiplied by monthly sales, minus fixed costs.
Why can break-even be unavailable?
If contribution is zero or negative, there is no finite sales volume that recovers positive fixed costs at that price. Raise the effective price or lower unit costs and fees. Zero overhead with positive contribution means break-even is zero units; with exactly zero contribution and zero overhead, all volumes have zero profit.
Can I use it for several products?
Model one product or service at a time and save scenarios for comparison. Allocate shared overhead appropriately. The break-even chart assumes one unit type; it does not calculate a weighted sales mix across different products.
Are my business numbers uploaded?
Calculator inputs are processed in your browser. They are not sent by this calculator to a server. Clicking Save stores a scenario in this browser’s local storage until you delete it or clear browser data. Your hosting provider may retain ordinary access logs; see Privacy.
What currency should I choose?
Choose USD, MXN, EUR, GBP, or CAD. Currency changes formatting only, not exchange rates. Enter every cost and price in the same selected currency. The tool uses a minimum price increment of 0.01.
What is a good profit margin?
There is no universal target. Labor intensity, risk, competition, overhead, and the owner’s goals differ. Start with your actual costs, test several targets, and compare the resulting prices with your market. The default target is an illustration, not a recommended industry margin.
How do I save or print my results?
Use Save scenario to store up to three estimates on this device, Export CSV for a spreadsheet-compatible record, or Print report to print or save a PDF through your browser. CSV exports include inputs and results. Changing the language starts that page with its default example; saved scenarios are available in both languages.
Learning resources
For broader planning, explore the SBA’s business planning guide and SCORE’s free business education. Examples here are illustrative; they are not industry averages.
SBA: startup costs ↗ SCORE ↗ Methodology ↗Make your next price a considered one.
Start with an example. Replace it with your real numbers.