Markup calculator
Enter cost and your intended markup; get the price and — crucially — the margin that markup actually produces. A 50% markup is a 33% margin, and mixing them up misprices shelves.
Markup starts from cost
Markup is the amount added to cost, expressed as a percentage of that cost: $60 with a 50% markup becomes $90. It is the natural way to price because cost is the number in front of you when the delivery arrives.
The same $90 sale has a margin of $30 ÷ $90 = 33.3%. Markup and margin are two descriptions of one transaction, and markup is always the larger number.
The trap of a target margin
If you want a 40% margin, marking up by 40% will not get you there — it produces a 28.6% margin. The markup needed for a target margin is margin ÷ (1 − margin), so a 40% margin requires a 66.7% markup.
Businesses that set markup rules by copying a competitor's advertised margin usually land here, and the shortfall is invisible until the year-end P&L.
Frequently asked questions
Markup or margin — which should I price by?
Price by whichever your team consistently understands, but REPORT in margin — that is what the P&L speaks.