Margin vs Markup Calculator

Yes — those two describe the same price. A $100 cost marked up 25% sells for $125, and the $25 of profit is 20% of the $125 price. It is the tidiest pair in the table, which is why it comes up so often. The general rule is markup = margin ÷ (100 − margin), so 20 ÷ 80 = 25%.

Both start from the same profit and differ only in what you divide it by: price for margin, cost for markup. To convert, divide the margin by 100 minus the margin, or the markup by 100 plus the markup. Common pairs worth memorising: 10% margin is 11.1% markup, 20% is 25%, 30% is 42.9%, 40% is 66.7%, 50% is 100%, and 60% is 150%.

On a $100 cost, a 10% markup gives a $110 price and a 9.1% margin. A 10% margin needs a $111.11 price, an 11.1% markup. At low percentages the two are nearly interchangeable and the error is about a dollar; at 50% the same confusion costs you a third of your profit. That is why the mistake usually goes unnoticed until margins are already high enough to matter.

A 45% margin is an 81.8% markup. Divide 45 by 55 and multiply by 100. On a $22 landed cost that means a $40 price. Apparel and giftware buyers frequently specify margin while the supplier's price list is built on markup, and 45 versus 81.8 is exactly the size of the gap between those two conversations.

A 150% markup is a 60% margin. Divide 150 by 250 and you get 0.60. Each further increase buys less: 200% markup gives 66.7% margin, 300% gives 75%, and 900% gives 90%. Margin approaches 100% but can never reach it, because some part of the price is always the cost.

If the figure was calculated from your selling price it is a margin; if it was calculated from what you paid, it is a markup. The test is the denominator, not the wording. When a number arrives without that context, ask what it was divided by — a 10% figure is only 1 percentage point out either way, but the same ambiguity at 50% is the difference between a $200 and a $150 price.