Profit Margin Calculator — Margin, Markup & Selling Price
Calculate profit margin, markup, and selling price from any two numbers — including reverse pricing from a target margin and optional tax or VAT handling. Free, no signup, all client-side.
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Free Break-Even Calculator — Units, Revenue & Target Profit
Enter your monthly fixed costs, price, and variable cost to see the break-even units and revenue, the volume you need to hit a target profit, and your margin of safety — for product sales or service revenue.
No uploads. Everything runs locally in your browser.
Our free break-even calculator turns your fixed costs, unit price, and variable cost into a clear break-even point — in units and in revenue. Sellers use it as a break-even analysis calculator to find the contribution margin, the volume needed to reach a target profit, and the margin of safety at their current sales. Service businesses can run the same analysis with variable costs as a percent of revenue. Everything runs in your browser — no sign-up, no data sent anywhere.
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Example loaded: $10,000 in monthly fixed costs, a $100 price, and a $25 variable cost. Adjust the numbers to match your business.
Quick scenarios:
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Choose Your Mode
Selling products one unit at a time? Use Units. Selling time or services where costs scale with revenue? Use Services.
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Unit Economics
Fixed costs are rent, salaries, and software you pay every month. Variable costs are the materials, packaging, and per-sale fees that scale with each unit you sell.
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Optional: Profit Target & Current Volume
Leave either field at 0 to skip those results. A profit target shows the volume you need; a current volume shows whether you are above or below break-even.
Break-Even Results
Break-even volume
134
units / month
Break-even revenue
$13,400
per month
Break-even volume is rounded up to the next whole unit — you can't sell a fraction of a unit, so 133.33 units of demand becomes 134 units of required sales.
Contribution margin per unit$75.00
Contribution margin (% of price)75.0%
Revenue vs total cost
RevenueTotal costBreak-even
Where the lines cross, revenue has just covered fixed costs and every unit after that adds profit at the contribution margin rate.
Results are estimates based on the numbers you enter. Real-world break-even points shift with taxes, shipping, marketplace fees, and demand — re-run the analysis whenever your costs change.
What is a break-even point?
The break-even point is the sales volume where total revenue equals total cost — profit is exactly zero. Sell one unit less and you lose money; sell one unit more and every additional sale adds profit at the contribution margin rate. It is the single most useful number for deciding whether a product, price, or side hustle is worth continuing, because it shows the minimum you must sell before anything is left over.
Break-even formulas
- Contribution margin per unit = price per unit - variable cost per unit
- Break-even units = fixed costs / contribution margin per unit (rounded up)
- Break-even revenue = break-even units x price per unit
- Target-profit units = (fixed costs + target profit) / contribution margin per unit
- Margin of safety = (current volume - break-even units) / current volume x 100
- Services break-even revenue = fixed costs / (1 - variable cost rate)
How to use Break-Even Calculator — Units, Revenue & Target Profit
- Choose Units for products or Services if your variable costs are a percentage of revenue, then enter your monthly fixed costs.
- Add your price per unit and variable cost per unit (or your variable cost rate), plus an optional target monthly profit and current sales volume.
- Read your break-even units and revenue, the units needed for your target profit, your margin of safety, and the chart where revenue overtakes total cost.
Key features of Break-Even Calculator — Units, Revenue & Target Profit
- Break-even point in units and revenue, computed from your fixed costs and contribution margin
- Break-even units always rounded up to the next whole unit — you can't sell a fraction of a unit
- Contribution margin per unit and as a percentage of price
- Target-profit mode: the units needed to cover fixed costs plus your monthly profit goal
- Current-volume analysis: profit or loss, an above/below break-even position, and margin of safety
- Services mode for businesses whose variable costs are a percent of revenue
- Inline revenue-vs-cost chart with the break-even intersection marked — no chart library
- Copy summary, a share link that restores your inputs, CSV download, and print-friendly results
- A clear explanation instead of a bogus number when the price cannot cover the variable cost
Break-Even Calculator — Units, Revenue & Target Profit — key benefits
- Completely free with no signup or registration required.
- Runs entirely in your browser — your data is never uploaded.
- Works on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
- Instant results with no waiting or processing queues.
- Part of the ToolCircuit suite of free online ecommerce tools tools.
Worked Break-Even Examples
The same formulas run every scenario below. Pick the closest one and load it with the quick scenario buttons above to see the full breakdown — including what you need to sell for a profit target.
| Scenario | Fixed costs | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Break-even |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online store | $10,000/mo | $100/unit | $25/unit | $75 (75%) | 134 units = $13,400/mo |
| Coffee shop | $6,000/mo | $5.00/cup | $1.50/cup | $3.50 (70%) | 1,715 cups = $8,575/mo |
| Freelance service | $2,000/mo | - | 40% of revenue | 60% contribution rate | $3,333.33/mo in revenue |
How the online store example works
1. Contribution margin: $100 - $25 = $75 per unit. 2. Break-even units: $10,000 / $75 = 133.33, rounded up to 134 units. 3. Break-even revenue: 134 x $100 = $13,400 per month. Add a $2,000 monthly profit target and the volume becomes ($10,000 + $2,000) / $75 = 160 units — the extra 26 units are pure profit at $75 each.
Tips to Reach Break-Even Sooner
- Attack fixed costs first. Cutting $500 from monthly fixed costs removes about 7 units from the break-even volume in the $75-contribution example. Renegotiate rent, cancel unused software, and consolidate subscriptions before chasing more sales.
- Raise your contribution margin. A 5% price increase flows almost entirely to margin: at a $100 price, $5 more per unit moves the break-even from 10,000 / 75 = 134 units down to 10,000 / 80 = 125 units. Cutting supplier or shipping costs has the same effect.
- Watch your margin of safety. Below roughly 20%, there is little room for a slow month or a surprise cost. Rebuild the cushion before scaling ad spend or adding staff.
- Re-run the numbers when costs move. Supplier price changes, shipping rate hikes, and marketplace fee updates all shift your variable cost — and with it your break-even point.
Other Seller Tools
FAQ
How do I calculate the break-even point?
Divide your monthly fixed costs by the contribution margin per unit (price minus variable cost), then round up to the next whole unit. With $10,000 in fixed costs, a $100 price, and a $25 variable cost, the contribution margin is $75 per unit, so the break-even point is 10,000 / 75 = 133.33, rounded up to 134 units — about $13,400 in monthly revenue.
What is contribution margin?
Contribution margin is the money each sale leaves behind after variable costs — the amount that contributes toward fixed costs and then profit. It is the price per unit minus the variable cost per unit, and it is often shown as a percentage of price: $100 - $25 = $75 per unit, or 75% of the price. A higher contribution margin means fewer sales are needed to break even.
How is the break-even point different from the target-profit volume?
Break-even volume sells exactly enough to cover fixed costs and leaves $0 profit. Target-profit volume adds your profit goal to fixed costs before dividing: ($10,000 + $2,000) / $75 = 160 units. The 26 extra units beyond break-even are the sales that turn into profit.
What is margin of safety?
Margin of safety is how far sales can fall before you lose money: (current volume - break-even volume) / current volume x 100. Selling 200 units against a 134-unit break-even gives a margin of safety of (200 - 134) / 200 = 33% — a third of your volume could disappear before you drop below break-even. A larger margin of safety means more cushion for slow months.
What does it mean if my price is lower than my variable cost?
Then every sale loses money before fixed costs are even considered, so no sales volume can ever reach break-even. This calculator tells you that instead of showing a misleading number. To fix it, raise the price above the variable cost per unit, cut the variable cost below the price, or stop selling the product.
Can I use this calculator for a service business?
Yes. Switch to Services mode and enter your monthly fixed costs plus your variable cost rate as a percentage of revenue — the costs that scale with every job, such as contractors, materials, or payment fees. With $2,000 in fixed costs and a 40% variable rate, you need 2,000 / (1 - 0.40) = $3,333.33 in monthly revenue to break even.