Profit Margin Calculator – Profit, Margin and Markup from Cost and Price
Free profit margin calculator: enter cost and selling price to get profit, profit margin percentage, and markup. Analyse business margins. No sign-up, runs in your browser.
Profit Margin Calculator
Enter cost and selling price to see profit, profit margin percentage, and markup percentage. Understand your margins at a glance.
How the profit margin calculator works
The calculator uses cost and selling price to find profit and percentages:
profit = selling_price − cost
profit_margin_% = (profit ÷ selling_price) × 100
markup_% = (profit ÷ cost) × 100
For example, cost $80 and selling price $100 give profit $20, margin 20%, and markup 25%.
Understanding profit margins for business
Profit margin measures how much of your revenue becomes profit. A 30% margin means for every $100 in sales, you keep $30 after covering the cost of the product or service. It is one of the most watched metrics in business because it shows pricing power, cost control, and overall health. Investors and lenders use it to compare companies; business owners use it to set prices and track performance over time.
Gross profit margin uses only the direct cost of goods or services (COGS). The formula is (Revenue − COGS) ÷ Revenue × 100. This tells you how efficiently you turn raw costs into revenue. Net profit margin uses all expenses—overhead, taxes, interest—and is typically lower. This calculator works with gross margin when you enter cost (COGS) and selling price (revenue). For net margin, you would need to account for all operating expenses in your cost figure.
Margins vary widely by industry. Retail often has low margins (2–5% net) because of high volume and competition. Software and professional services can have margins of 20–40% or more because marginal cost per customer is low. Restaurants might aim for 5–15% net. Knowing your industry benchmark helps you judge whether your prices and costs are in a healthy range. Use our ROI calculator to see return on investment for specific projects, and the break-even calculator to see how many units you need to sell to cover fixed costs.
Markup and margin are easy to confuse. Markup is based on cost: if you add 50% to a $100 cost, you sell for $150. Margin is based on revenue: a 33.3% margin on $150 revenue means $50 profit (50 ÷ 150). The same $50 profit can be described as 50% markup or 33.3% margin. When setting prices, retailers often think in markup; when analysing financials, they use margin. This tool shows both so you can switch between views. The markup calculator helps when you know cost and want to find the selling price for a target margin.
This profit margin calculator runs in your browser and does not store your inputs. It works in any currency. It does not include tax, discounts, or other adjustments; use the VAT calculator if you need to add tax to a price.