Profit Margin Calculator Free
Enter your cost and price to see your margin, markup, and profit per unit — updated instantly as you type.
What is profit margin calculator
A profit margin calculator shows you exactly how much profit you’re making on a sale expressed as a percentage. Enter your cost and selling price and the calculator works out your margin instantly no manual formula needed.
Profit margin matters because it tells you whether a price is actually sustainable.
A product that sells well but carries a thin margin can still lose money once expenses are factored in. Checking your margin before finalizing a price helps catch that problem early.
This tool calculates standard profit margin. If you’re looking for a specific type of margin calculation see our guides on gross profit margin and net profit margin,or check the industry-specific calculators below for e-commerce and retail businesses.
About This Profit Margin Calculator
This free profit margin calculator lets you:
- Enter your cost and selling price to instantly get your profit margin percentage
- See your markup percentage alongside it, so you can tell the two apart
- Calculate the selling price you need to hit a target margin, working backward from your cost
- Avoid the pricing mistake that trips up most small business owners: confusing margin with markup
It’s built for shop owners, freelancers, and online sellers who need to price a product or service correctly without doing the math by hand or mixing up two numbers that sound similar but aren’t.
FAQs
What’s the difference between margin and markup?
Margin is your profit as a percentage of the selling price (profit ÷ revenue). Markup is your profit as a percentage of your cost (profit ÷ cost). They’re calculated from different bases, so they’re never the same number. A 50% markup, for example, actually works out to a 33.3% margin a gap that catches a lot of business owners off guard.
If I want a 50% margin, what markup do I need to apply?
You can’t apply a 50% markup and expect a 50% margin that only gives you a 33.3% margin. To actually hit a 50% margin, you need a 100% markup. Use the calculator to check the exact numbers for your own cost and target margin rather than guessing.
What’s a good profit margin for a small business?
It varies a lot by industry retail and restaurants often run on margins in the 5–20% range, while services and software can run much higher. There’s no universal “good” number; it depends on your costs, competition, and industry norms.
Does this calculator show gross margin or net margin?
This calculates gross margin, based on your cost price and selling price. It doesn’t account for other business expenses like rent, salaries, or marketing for that you’d need to calculate net margin using your full cost structure.
Can I use this to price a service instead of a product?
Yes enter your cost (time, materials, or overhead per job) as the cost, and your quoted price as the selling price, and it works the same way.