🔺 Markup Calculator

Find the selling price from cost plus a target markup or margin.

About this tool

Solves the pricing question in the direction retailers usually need: given what an item cost you, what price should you charge to hit a target markup percentage, or a target profit margin percentage.

Both calculators live on this one page since the two questions — "price from markup" and "price from margin" — are common enough to each deserve a direct answer, not just a combined ratio tool.

Worked example

A $40 cost item with a 50% markup should sell for $60. The same $40 cost item priced for a 33.3% margin also sells for about $60 — showing how the two framings can converge on the same price from different formulas.

How to use it

Pick the calculator matching what you know: markup % or margin %.
Enter your cost price.
Enter your target markup or margin percentage.
Press Calculate to see the price you should charge.

Tips

If you know your desired profit margin (as a % of selling price), use the second calculator — solving for price from margin needs a different formula than solving from markup.
For the reverse question — given a cost and a price, what margin and markup does that imply — use the Profit Margin Calculator instead.
Small margin percentage differences compound a lot at scale; double-check the formula direction before pricing a whole product line.

FAQ

Why do I need two separate calculators here?

Solving "price from markup" and "price from margin" use different formulas (price = cost × (1 + markup) vs price = cost ÷ (1 − margin)) — combining them into one field would risk silently using the wrong formula for what you meant.

What happens if I enter a margin of 100% or more?

That's mathematically undefined (you'd be dividing by zero or a negative number) — a margin can approach 100% but never reach or exceed it, since margin is profit as a fraction of price, and price always includes the cost.

Can I use this for services, not just physical products?

Yes — the math works the same whether "cost" refers to inventory, materials, or your own time and overhead.

From the blog: getting the most out of this tool

Pricing conversations often start with someone saying "I want a 50% margin" and someone else quietly pricing it as a 50% markup instead — a mistake that quietly eats into profit on every single sale without anyone noticing until the books don't add up.

Splitting this into two explicit calculators, each labeled by exactly what you're solving for, is a small design choice aimed at making that mix-up harder to make by accident.

📖 Want the fuller explanation?

See Percentages Explained for the reasoning behind this calculation, with worked examples.