Pricing calculator
What should I charge? Put in any two numbers — what it costs, what you sell it for, the margin you want — and get the rest, including how many you need to sell to break even.
- It all happens here
- Every part runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, and it works with the internet off.
- No account, ever
- No sign-up, no email address, no trial that turns into a bill.
- Yours to use
- Nothing watermarked, nothing limited to a preview.
What do you want to work out?
The numbers
Only the ones the answer needs — the rest are worked out.
Everything that comes out of the sale: what you paid, the packaging, the postage, the payment fee. Not just the purchase price.
As a percentage of the selling price. If you are used to thinking in markup, the answer below shows both.
Break even (optional)
Everything that happens whether you sell anything or not.
Rent, software, insurance, wages — including your own. Leaving your own wage out is why a business can look profitable and feel poor.
Charge this
$22.73
That leaves $10.23 on each one, which is a 45.0% margin and a 81.8% markup.
All of it, on one sale
- What it costs you
- $12.50
- What you charge
- $22.73
- Profit on each one
- $10.23
- Margin — share of the price
- 45.0%
- Markup — added to the cost
- 81.8%
Margin and markup are not the same number. Margin is measured against what you sold it for; markup against what it cost you. Aiming for a 50% margin by adding 50% leaves you short on every single sale.
Break even
Put your fixed monthly costs in and this works out how many you have to sell before you are actually ahead. It is usually a smaller number than people fear, and knowing it makes a slow week much less alarming.
What this is, if you have never had to think about it
Most people arrive here having been told they need one of these, without being told what it is. Nothing below assumes you already know.
Margin and markup are not the same number
This catches out more businesses than anything else in pricing. Buy something for $10 and sell it for $15 and you have added fifty per cent — that is markup, measured against what it cost you. But your margin is thirty-three per cent, because it is measured against what you sold it for. Aim for a fifty per cent margin by adding fifty per cent and you will be short, every time, on everything.
The cost you forgot is the one that matters
The purchase price is the easy part. What genuinely comes out of that sale is also the payment processing fee, the packaging, the postage you undercharged for, the returns, and the twenty minutes somebody spent on the phone about it. Businesses that feel busy but not profitable are usually pricing off the purchase price and paying for the rest out of the margin without noticing.
Break-even is the number worth knowing by heart
Your rent, your software, your insurance and your own wage happen whether you sell anything or not. Break-even is how many you have to sell before those are covered and you start actually earning. It reframes the whole question: not "is this priced well" but "how many of these does this month need". It is usually a smaller number than people fear, and knowing it makes a slow week much less alarming.
Questions people ask
Working the number out is easy. Holding the line is the hard bit.
Money shows what actually came in, what went out and what you kept — per product and overall — so the margin you calculated in January is something you can check in June rather than assume.
