Free tools / Selling price calculator
Free toolSelling price calculator
Enter what a unit costs you and the profit margin you want to make. We will tell you what to charge, what you keep on every sale, and where most people get the maths wrong.
Your numbers
Nothing you type here is stored.
Your price will appear here
Fill in your cost and target margin, then press Calculate.
Margin and markup are not the same thing
How this calculator works
The formula
Selling price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)
If a unit costs you 10,000 and you want a 30% margin, you divide 10,000 by 0.70. That gives 14,285.71. Check it: profit of 4,285.71 divided by the price of 14,285.71 is exactly 30%.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Adding 30% to your cost gives 13,000, not 14,285.71. That is a 30% markup, and it only earns you a 23% margin. On every single sale you would be leaving 1,285.71 on the table without realising it.
What this figure does and does not include
- It covers the direct cost of the unit and the margin you asked for.
- It does not deduct sales tax or VAT. Add those on top of this price where they apply.
- It does not cover your fixed overheads such as rent and salaries. That is what the break-even calculator is for.
- It assumes every unit sells at full price. Discounts, returns and platform fees all eat into the margin shown here.
Questions people ask
Margin is your profit as a percentage of the price you sell at. Markup is your profit as a percentage of what the item cost you. The same money, measured against two different bases. A 50% markup is only a 33.3% margin. Margin is the one that matters, because it tells you what share of every sale you actually keep.
Because a 100% margin means your cost is zero and your price is entirely profit. Mathematically the formula divides by zero and the price becomes infinite. If you are selling something that costs you nothing, price it on value instead.
It depends entirely on your industry. Retail and distribution often run on thin gross margins because volume is high. Services and software run much higher because the cost of delivering one more unit is small. The number that matters is not the industry average, it is whether your gross profit covers your fixed costs with something left over.
The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. If you ask Buff CFO a question, only the figures on screen and your question are sent so it can answer, and we do not attach them to you or keep them for marketing.
Pricing is one number. There are a hundred others.
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