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Margin Calculator

Two prices, one common confusion. Enter your cost and selling price to see your margin and markup — or flip it around and find the price to charge for the margin you want.

Every calculation happens on your device — nothing you enter is uploaded or stored. Free · No sign-up

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Free markup & margin calculator

Everything is worked out on your own device. Nothing you type is uploaded, saved, or shared.

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What you paid for it, or what the materials cost. Not rent or wages — just the item itself.
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Your usual selling price.
Add it to see what a price change is worth over a month.

Optional — to see what's left after everything

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Rent, staff, transport, power, and what you take out for yourself.
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Everything the business sells in a month, not just this item.
— Watch

Gross margin — what's left from each sale after the goods

Where each sale goes

What this suggests

    Selling price
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    You keep per item
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    Margin
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    Markup
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    Net margin, after running costs
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    Markup is what you add. Margin is what you keep.

    Pricing is where margin starts — it isn't where it ends. Rent, staff and everything else still come out below it. Gross is what pricing gives you. Net is what you live on.

    Not sure what to fix first? The Business Health Check looks at your profit, your cash, how exposed you are to one big customer, and how much the business depends on you — then tells you where to start. Free, about 10 minutes. Take your free Business Health Check
    Ready to price the rest? Add your items with their costs and Monyvo suggests a selling price with your margin built in — for everything you sell, not one line at a time. Free plan available. Get the Monyvo app

    Gross margin only. Rent, staff, transport and tax come out of what's left. Typical ranges are working guides for each trade, not targets. Nothing here is stored or sent anywhere.

    Please noteFor learning and planning only. These figures are estimates worked out from what you enter, alongside general industry guides that may not fit your situation. They are not financial, accounting, tax or legal advice, and they cannot see your full circumstances. Check the numbers against your own records and speak to a qualified accountant or adviser before making decisions about your business. Monyvo accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of these results.

    Quick answer: how do you calculate margin?

    Margin % = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Selling price × 100

    Markup % = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Cost × 100

    These sound similar but they're not the same number. Margin is a share of your selling price. Markup is a share of your cost. These are the exact formulas used by the calculator above.

    What your result means

    Margin is what most people mean when they ask ‘am I making money on this?’ It's the share of every sale that's profit, before any other costs.

    Markup is what most people actually think in when pricing — ‘I bought it for X, I'm adding Y on top.’ The two numbers can look very different for the same sale.

    Why margin and markup aren't the same

    A 50% markup does not give you a 50% margin. If something costs 100 and you mark it up 50% to 150, your margin is 33%, not 50% — because margin is measured against the selling price, not the cost. This mix-up quietly under-prices a lot of goods.

    A thin margin

    You're covering your cost, but there's little room for discounts, waste, or a supplier price rise. Fine occasionally; risky as a habit.

    A healthy margin

    There's real room between what something costs and what it sells for — enough to absorb a bad week, a returned item, or a price change from your supplier.

    How to price backward from a target margin

    If you know what margin you need and want to know what to charge, the formula flips: Price = Cost ÷ (1 − Target margin). If something costs you 100 and you want a 40% margin, you need to charge 100 ÷ (1 − 0.40) = 166.67 — not 140. Adding a flat percentage on top of cost (a markup) always produces a lower margin than that same percentage — price by adding 40% to cost and your actual margin is closer to 29%, not 40%.

    A worked example: a shop buys an item for 800 and sells it for 1,200. Profit per unit is 400. Margin is 400 ÷ 1,200 = 33%. Markup is 400 ÷ 800 = 50%. Same sale, two different-looking numbers — margin is the one that tells you what share of the sale is actually profit. That's why ‘a 50% markup’ can sound better than it is.

    Your margin might not be your biggest problem. Or it might be.

    There's only one way to know. Your Business Health Check looks at cash flow stability, profit margin, customer concentration and risk together — then tells you which one to fix first.

    Free. About 10 minutes. No accounting knowledge needed.

    Not sure what to fix first? Take the free Business Health Check for a full diagnosis of your business.

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    Frequently asked questions

    Margin is profit as a share of your selling price. Markup is profit as a share of your cost. A 50% markup only produces a 33% margin — they answer different questions and shouldn't be used interchangeably.
    Margin % = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Selling price × 100. The calculator above does it for you.
    Markup % = (Selling price − Cost) ÷ Cost × 100.
    Markup = Target margin ÷ (1 − Target margin). For a 40% margin, that's 0.40 ÷ 0.60 = 66.7% markup — not 40%. Use the calculator above to work from either direction.
    It depends heavily on the type of business and item. As a general guide, thin-margin high-volume goods (retail, market trading) often run 20–40% margin per item, while services and made-to-order goods often run 50% or more. What matters more than hitting a benchmark is knowing your number and pricing every item deliberately, not by habit.
    Margin is the more honest number, because it tells you what share of each sale is actually profit. Many businesses think in markup because it's easier to calculate from cost, but it's worth converting to margin before deciding if a price is good enough.
    No — this is a single-item pricing tool: cost of the item versus what you charge for it. For your full monthly picture including running costs, tax and your own pay, use the Profit Margin Calculator instead.
    Yes. It's free, there's no sign-up, and nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere — the calculation happens on your own device.