Markup Calculator
Setting a price? This markup calculator takes the cost of one item and shows what to charge — with markup and margin side by side, because they are never the same number.
Free · No signup · Runs entirely in your browser
Fill in any two. The other three calculate themselves.
What it costs you.
What you charge.
Profit as a share of cost.
Profit as a share of price.
Price minus cost.
Same sale, two numbers: 50% markup is the same as 33.3% margin. Markup measures profit against your cost, margin against your price — which is why markup is always the bigger number, and why quoting the wrong one overstates what the business actually keeps.
Pricing is the easy part. If you are building the product on your own, Tekk turns what you want into specs your coding agent can actually execute.
The two formulas
Markup measures profit against what you paid:
markup % = (price − cost) ÷ cost × 100
Margin measures profit against what you charged:
margin % = (price − cost) ÷ price × 100
Same sale, same profit, different denominator. That single difference is why the two numbers never match.
Worked example
You buy a unit for $10 and sell it for $15.
| Calculation | Result | |
|---|---|---|
| Profit | $15 − $10 | $5 |
| Markup | $5 ÷ $10 | 50.0% |
| Margin | $5 ÷ $15 | 33.3% |
A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin. If you quoted "50% margin" to a buyer or an investor, you just overstated what the business keeps by half.
Working backwards from a target
To hit a target markup, multiply your cost:
price = cost × (1 + target markup)
To hit a target margin, divide by what's left after it:
price = cost ÷ (1 − target margin)
On a $10 cost, a 40% markup means charging $14.00. A 40% margin on the same cost means charging $16.67. The gap widens as the target rises — which is why margin targets are harder to hit than they look.
Markup to margin, converted
The quickest way to stop mixing them up is to read them off against each other. Every row is the same sale described two ways:
| Markup | Margin | On a $10 cost you charge |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9.1% | $11.00 |
| 25% | 20.0% | $12.50 |
| 50% | 33.3% | $15.00 |
| 75% | 42.9% | $17.50 |
| 100% | 50.0% | $20.00 |
| 200% | 66.7% | $30.00 |
| 400% | 80.0% | $50.00 |
To convert without the markup calculator: divide the markup by one plus itself. A 25% markup is 0.25 ÷ 1.25 = 20% margin.
Why a 100% margin is impossible
Markup has no ceiling: sell a $10 item for $110 and that's a 1,000% markup. Margin is capped at 100% and can never reach it, because profit can only ever approach the full selling price without equalling it — that would mean the item cost you nothing.
How it works
- 1
Enter cost and price
Type what the item costs you and what you charge. The markup calculator updates as you type — there's no button to press and nothing is sent anywhere.
- 2
Read both numbers
Markup and margin appear together, because the whole reason this calculation gets botched is that people quote one while meaning the other.
- 3
Work backwards from a target
Set the rate you want and the tool solves for the price that gets you there, for either markup or margin.
Frequently asked questions
- What is markup?
- Markup is the profit on a sale expressed as a percentage of what the item cost you. Buy for $10, sell for $15, and the $5 profit is 50% of your $10 cost — a 50% markup, which is what the markup calculator above returns alongside the equivalent margin. It's the number you use when pricing up from a known cost, which is why wholesalers, agencies and retailers tend to think in markup.
- What is the difference between markup and margin?
- They measure the same profit against different bases. Markup divides profit by cost; margin divides profit by selling price. Because the selling price is always larger than the cost on a profitable sale, the margin percentage is always smaller than the markup percentage. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin, and a 100% markup is a 50% margin.
- How do you calculate markup percentage?
- Subtract cost from selling price, divide by cost, then multiply by 100. For a $10 cost and a $15 price: (15 − 10) ÷ 10 × 100 = 50%.
- How do I convert markup to margin?
- Divide the markup by one plus the markup. A 25% markup becomes 0.25 ÷ 1.25 = 20% margin. Going the other way, divide the margin by one minus the margin: a 20% margin is 0.20 ÷ 0.80 = 25% markup.
- What price do I need to charge for a 40% markup?
- Multiply your cost by 1.40. A $10 cost becomes $14.00. Note that this is not the same as a 40% margin, which on the same cost would mean charging $16.67.
- Is a higher markup always better?
- Only if the price still sells. Markup is a pricing input, not a performance measure — a 300% markup on something nobody buys earns less than a 20% markup on something that moves. It also ignores the costs that sit outside unit cost, like support, hosting and refunds.
- What is a good markup percentage?
- It depends entirely on the category and what your cost figure includes. Grocery retail runs on single-digit margins; software often runs above 80% because the marginal cost of one more customer is close to zero. Comparing your markup to a benchmark from a different industry tells you almost nothing.
- Can margin ever be 100%?
- No. A 100% margin would mean the item cost you nothing, since margin is profit as a share of the selling price. Margin approaches 100% but never reaches it. Markup has no such ceiling — it can exceed 100% as soon as you sell for more than double your cost.
- Does this markup calculator work for services?
- Yes, if you can state a cost per unit of work. Use your loaded hourly cost as the cost and your billed rate as the price. The arithmetic is identical; only the labels change. If you want whole-business margins from a P&L rather than the price of one unit, use the profit margin calculator instead.
- Do you store the numbers I enter?
- No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is logged, and there is no account. You can disconnect from the internet and it will still work.
- Why is this free, and what is Tekk?
- Tekk is a spec-driven development platform for people building software with AI coding agents. This calculator is free because it costs us nothing to run and because the people pricing a product are often the same people building one. There's no signup, no run limit, and no upsell inside the tool.
- Can I use this on my phone?
- Yes. The layout adapts to small screens and the number inputs open a numeric keypad on mobile.
- Is there an online markup calculator I can use without signing up?
- This one. It runs as an online markup calculator with no account, no run limit and no email wall. The maths happens in your browser, so it also keeps working if your connection drops mid-session.
- Does this work as a business markup calculator for wholesale or retail?
- Yes. As a business markup calculator it handles any situation where you buy or produce at one price and sell at another — wholesale, retail, agency work, or a product line. What changes between those cases is what you count as cost, not the formula. Include everything that scales with each unit sold and leave fixed overhead out of it.
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