Price & Margin
Discount, margin
Input
Calculation result
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Margin is calculated against the selling price. Tax is not included.
How to use
Works out discounted prices and margins. Apply a percentage, work backwards from two prices to find the percentage, recover the price before the discount, or enter cost and selling price to get profit and margin — and from a target margin, the selling price or the highest cost it allows. Nothing is uploaded.
When to use it
- Seeing what "30% off" actually costs.
- Recovering the discount rate from a list price and a sale price.
- Checking profit and margin from cost and selling price.
How to use it
- Choose a mode — six of them: discount, reverse discount and price before discount; margin, target margin to selling price, and target margin to maximum cost.
- For a discount, enter the original amount and the rate.
- For margin, enter the cost and the selling price.
- Copy the result when you are done.
Good to know
- Margin is calculated on the selling price: (price − cost) ÷ price. Markup, which divides by cost, gives a different number.
- Tax is not included. For VAT or sales tax, separate the pre-tax and post-tax figures yourself.
- Discount rates are accepted between 0 and 100%. Price-before-discount and target-margin modes need a rate below 100%, otherwise the formula has no answer.
- Everything is calculated inside your browser.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between margin and markup?
The denominator. With a cost of 7,000 and a price of 10,000, the margin is 30% (3,000 ÷ 10,000) while the markup is about 42.9% (3,000 ÷ 7,000). This tool uses margin, the figure retail usually quotes.
Why leave tax out?
Rates and rules differ by country and product, so a single built-in rate would be wrong for most people. Split the net amount and the tax yourself, then use this tool on the figure you need.
What about two discounts in a row?
20% off followed by 10% off is not 30% — it is 28% (0.8 × 0.9 = 0.72). Feed the first result back into the original amount and calculate again.
How are fractions handled?
The maths keeps the decimals and the display rounds for readability. Real tills round in their own way, so treat an uneven amount as a guide.