Find your selling price, markup percentage, or profit margin — and see how the two relate.
Choose whether you want to find a selling price from a known cost and markup percentage, or find the markup percentage from a known cost and selling price. Enter the cost price, then either the markup percentage or the selling price, and the calculator fills in the rest — including the equivalent profit margin.
Markup is calculated as a percentage of cost: how much you add on top of what something cost you. Margin is calculated as a percentage of the selling price: how much of the final price is profit. The two numbers are always different for the same transaction, and confusing them is one of the most common pricing mistakes in retail and small business.
At low percentages, markup and margin look similar, but they spread apart quickly. A 100% markup, for example, results in only a 50% margin, not a 100% margin — because the markup is added on top of a smaller base (cost) while the margin is measured against a larger base (the resulting selling price).
No. A 50% markup on a $40 cost gives a $60 selling price, which works out to a 33.3% margin. Margin and markup only become close to each other at very small percentages, and diverge significantly as the percentage grows.
Margin % = Markup % ÷ (100 + Markup %) × 100. So a 25% markup converts to a 20% margin, and a 100% markup converts to a 50% margin. This calculator performs that conversion automatically.
This varies widely by industry — grocery retail often runs on thin markups of 10–15%, while apparel and jewellery commonly use markups of 100% or more. The right number depends on your costs beyond the product itself (overhead, labour, marketing) and what the market will bear, so it's worth comparing against typical margins in your specific industry.