Markup Calculator
CheckedThis markup calculator turns your cost and a markup percentage into a selling price, with the profit and margin that price gives you. Free, no sign-up, and the result updates as you type.
Enter your numbers
Markup and margin describe the same profit against two different denominators, and mixing them up is the most expensive arithmetic mistake in retail. Markup measures profit against what you paid; margin measures it against what you charged. Because the price is always the bigger number, the margin is always the smaller percentage — a 50% markup is only a 33.3% margin. This calculator shows both at once so you can price from cost without quietly under-earning.
How it's calculated
Selling price = cost × (1 + markup ÷ 100) Gross margin = (price − cost) ÷ price × 100
LaTeX source
\text{Price} = C \times \left(1 + \frac{m}{100}\right) \qquad \text{Margin} = \frac{\text{Price} - C}{\text{Price}} \times 100 Worked examples
A 50% markup on a $20 unit
$30.00 selling price
Half of $20 is $10, so the price is $30 and the profit is $10 a unit. But that $10 is only a third of the $30 you charged, so the gross margin is 33.3%. If you needed a 50% margin you would have had to price at $40, not $30.
The numbers used
- Unit cost
- 20
- Markup
- 50
Keystone pricing a $18 wholesale item
$36.00 selling price
Keystone means doubling the cost, a 100% markup. It is the one case where the arithmetic is tidy: doubling the cost always produces exactly a 50% gross margin. That is why the convention survived — it is a margin target disguised as a markup rule.
The numbers used
- Unit cost
- 18
- Markup
- 100
Questions sellers ask
How do you calculate a markup?
Multiply the cost by the markup percentage and add it to the cost. A 30% markup on a $50 item is $50 × 0.30 = $15, giving a $65 selling price. The shortcut is to multiply the cost by 1 plus the markup as a decimal: $50 × 1.30 = $65. To go the other way and find the markup from a known price, divide the profit by the cost: ($65 − $50) ÷ $50 = 30%.
What is a 25% markup on $100?
A 25% markup on a $100 cost gives a $125 selling price, with $25 of profit per unit. That $25 is a 20% gross margin, because $25 divided by the $125 you charged is 0.20. This is the gap that catches people out: the markup percentage and the margin percentage are never the same number unless both are zero.
What is a 30% markup?
A 30% markup adds 30% of the cost on top of the cost. On a $10 item that is $3, so you sell at $13. The resulting gross margin is 23.1%, since $3 divided by $13 is 0.231. As a rule of thumb, markup percentages always look more generous than the margin they produce, and the gap widens as the markup grows.
What is a 20% markup on $500?
A 20% markup on a $500 cost is $100, giving a $600 selling price and a 16.7% gross margin. If $500 is your landed cost on a wholesale order, remember that this margin has to cover marketplace fees, payment processing, returns and advertising before any of it is yours to keep. On most platforms a 16.7% gross margin will not survive a 13% selling fee.
How do I convert a markup to a margin?
Divide the markup by 100 plus the markup, then multiply by 100. A 50% markup becomes 50 ÷ 150 = 33.3% margin. Going the other way, divide the margin by 100 minus the margin: a 40% margin needs 40 ÷ 60 = 66.7% markup. If you price from cost but report on margin, keep both numbers visible — that conversion is where pricing errors hide.
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