Markup Percent Calculator
Markup percentage is the share you add on top of cost to reach a selling price, and it is the fastest sanity check in pricing: if the percentage is wrong, every unit you sell locks in the same mistake. Enter a cost price and a selling price and this calculator returns the markup percentage and the markup amount in dollars, with the equivalent gross margin shown alongside so the two numbers are never confused.
Markup Percentage
0.00%
Quick Answer
An item that costs $50 and sells for $75 carries a 50.00% markup: a markup amount of $25.00 on every unit. That same $25 is a 33.33% gross margin, because margin divides the profit by the selling price instead of the cost. The calculator above is pre-filled with this exact pair of prices.
Key takeaways
- Markup divides profit by cost; margin divides profit by selling price. The markup percentage is always the larger of the two on a profitable sale.
- A 100% markup is not a 100% margin. Doubling your cost gives a 50% margin, and no sale can have a margin above 100%.
- This calculator refuses a selling price below cost. That is deliberate: it is a pricing check for profitable prices, not a clearance or loss calculator.
- Markup is gross, not net. Rent, wages, platform fees and tax still come out of the markup amount before anything is truly profit.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the markup percent calculator
- The markup formula, and the two formulas it is confused with
- Markup vs margin: the conversion table worth bookmarking
- Worked example: four price pairs, checked line by line
- What belongs in the cost price before you mark it up
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently asked questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the markup percent calculator
Enter the two prices for one unit and click Calculate; the tool returns the markup percentage and the markup amount, and results stay hidden until you click.
- Cost price: enter what one unit costs you. Use the full unit cost you would report in cost of goods sold, not just the sticker price from a supplier invoice, or the percentage will flatter you. Guidance on what belongs in inventory and cost of goods sold is set out in IRS Publication 538, on inventories and cost of goods sold.
- Selling price: enter the price the customer pays for that same unit, before sales tax.
- Read both outputs: the markup percentage tells you how far above cost you priced; the markup amount is the gross dollars each sale contributes before overhead.
- Check the badge: the result also restates the same profit as a gross margin, which is the number lenders, marketplaces and accountants usually quote. If you price labour rather than goods, the same cost-plus logic runs through the labor markup calculator, which builds the charge-out rate from wages and burden.
Two validation rules are worth knowing before they surprise you. Both prices must be positive numbers, and the selling price must be at least the cost price: enter a selling price below cost and the tool answers "Selling price should be greater than or equal to cost price." instead of printing a negative markup. Selling at exactly cost is accepted and returns 0.00%.
The markup formula, and the two formulas it is confused with
Markup percentage is the markup amount divided by the cost price, times 100. Every other formula in this article is that one line rearranged.
Markup % = (Markup Amount ÷ Cost Price) × 100
Selling price from a target markup = Cost Price × (1 + Markup % ÷ 100)
Gross margin % = (Markup Amount ÷ Selling Price) × 100
The third line is the one most readers actually come for, so be clear about what the tool does: it runs the second line. It does not have a target-markup mode, and the old version of this page wrongly claimed it could determine a selling price. To price from a target markup by hand, multiply the cost by one plus the markup as a decimal: a $50 cost at a 50% target markup is $50 × 1.50 = $75. To check a price you already have, which is the daily task in most shops, enter it above and read the percentage directly. Trade-specific versions of the same sum exist for materials work in the material markup calculator drafted alongside this page.
Markup vs margin: the conversion table worth bookmarking
The same profit produces two different percentages because the denominators differ, and the gap widens as the percentage grows. Every row below is exact arithmetic, and each markup figure reproduces in the calculator above on a $100 cost.
| Markup on cost | Selling price on $100 cost | Markup amount | Gross margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $110.00 | $10.00 | 9.09% |
| 25% | $125.00 | $25.00 | 20.00% |
| 50% | $150.00 | $50.00 | 33.33% |
| 75% | $175.00 | $75.00 | 42.86% |
| 100% | $200.00 | $100.00 | 50.00% |
| 150% | $250.00 | $150.00 | 60.00% |
| 200% | $300.00 | $200.00 | 66.67% |
Read the two percentage columns as bars and the relationship is hard to forget: markup can climb without limit, while margin squeezes toward 100% and never reaches it.
The practical trap runs in one direction: a seller who wants a 50% margin but applies a 50% markup prices at $150 instead of $200 on a $100 cost and gives away $50 of gross profit on every unit. If your target is stated as a margin, work from the margin side with the 20 percent margin calculator pattern in mind: price equals cost divided by one minus the margin as a decimal. Discounts pull the other way, cutting the realised price after the markup is set, which is why clearance lines get checked with the discount percent calculator before a sale is advertised.
Worked example: four price pairs, checked line by line
Each run below was produced by the calculator above, including the rounding on awkward prices.
| Run | Markup % | Markup amount | Margin equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worked example: $50 cost, $75 selling price | 50.00% | $25.00 | 33.33% |
| $80 cost, $120 selling price | 50.00% | $40.00 | 33.33% |
| $33.33 cost, $44.44 selling price | 33.33% | $11.11 | 25.00% |
| $100 cost, $100 selling price (sold at cost) | 0.00% | $0.00 | 0.00% |
| $1,000,000 cost, $2,500,000 selling price | 150.00% | $1,500,000.00 | 60.00% |
The first two rows are the lesson in miniature: doubling the size of the deal changes the dollars and leaves the percentage untouched, because markup is a ratio. The third row shows the tool's rounding honestly: $11.11 over a $33.33 cost is a repeating decimal, and the calculator prints 33.33%.
What belongs in the cost price before you mark it up
The cost price should be the unit's full direct cost: what you paid or spent to make it, plus the direct costs your accounting puts in cost of goods sold. Leave a direct cost out and the markup percentage overstates your position on every sale.
For a reseller, that is normally the invoice price plus inbound freight and any non-recoverable duties. For a maker, it is materials plus the direct labour that produced the unit. Overhead such as rent and marketing is real, but it is not part of this formula: markup dollars across all sales have to cover it, which is a volume question, not a percentage question. The U.S. Small Business Administration's marketing and sales guidance for small businesses makes the same point from the pricing side: price has to be set against your costs, your market and what customers will pay, all three at once. Recheck the percentage whenever a supplier raises prices, because a fixed selling price on a rising cost quietly compresses the markup: a $50 cost rising to $60 against a $75 price cuts the markup from 50.00% to 25.00% without a single price tag changing.
What competing calculators miss
The big multi-mode tools solve for any variable and show margin alongside markup, which is genuinely useful. Where they and the thinner pages fall short is explanation and honesty about limits:
- Omni Calculator's markup tool: solves for selling price, cost or margin from any two values and explains the concept well. It never states what its tool does with a below-cost price, and its worked examples use round numbers a real price list rarely has.
- ToolCrank and EasyUnitConverter: both run the forward and reverse directions and print a conversion table. Neither warns that the reverse formula most readers want is a margin formula in disguise when the target was quoted as a margin.
- Xero and Sage's glossary pages: accurate formula explainers with no working calculator on the page, so a reader still has to do the division by hand.
- The thin two-field clones: a cost box, a price box and a percentage, with no conversion table, no validation behaviour stated, and no mention that markup excludes overhead entirely.
- The gap this page fills: the exact conversion table on a $100 cost, the margin equivalent printed inside the result itself, verified runs on awkward prices ($33.33 to $44.44), and the below-cost refusal stated up front instead of discovered by trial.
Frequently asked questions
Markup percentage is the amount added to a product's cost, expressed as a percentage of that cost. If an item costs $50 and sells for $75, the $25 added is 50% of the cost, so the markup is 50%.
Subtract the cost price from the selling price to get the markup amount, divide that amount by the cost price, and multiply by 100. For a $50 cost and a $75 selling price: ($75 - $50) / $50 x 100 = 50%.
Markup divides the profit by the cost price; margin divides the same profit by the selling price. A $25 profit on a $50 cost is a 50% markup but only a 33.33% margin, because $25 is a third of the $75 selling price.
Because it is built as a pricing check for prices at or above cost. Enter a selling price below the cost price and it asks you to correct it instead of printing a negative markup. Selling at exactly cost is accepted and returns a 0.00% markup.
Not directly. The tool runs from two known prices to a percentage. To price from a target markup, multiply the cost by one plus the markup as a decimal: a $50 cost at a 50% target markup gives $50 x 1.50 = $75. You can then enter that price here to confirm the percentage.
No. A 100% markup means the selling price is double the cost, and the profit is half of that selling price, so the margin is 50%. A margin can never reach 100% on a real sale, because the cost would have to be zero.
Divide the dollar profit you want by the cost price and multiply by 100. Wanting $25 of gross profit on a $50 cost means a 50% markup and a $75 selling price. Wanting $25 on a $200 cost means only a 12.5% markup, which is why expensive items often carry lower percentages and higher dollars.
No. Markup is calculated on the direct cost of the item only, and the markup amount is gross: rent, wages, fees and other overhead still have to be covered out of it across all your sales. Sales tax collected from the customer is not part of either price.
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References
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 538: Accounting Periods and Methods (Inventories and Cost of Goods Sold). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 334: Tax Guide for Small Business. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- U.S. Small Business Administration. Marketing and Sales: Pricing and Promotion for Small Businesses. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Xero. How to Calculate Markup (Glossary). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Sage. Markup Calculator and Formula. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- U.S. Small Business Administration. Calculate Your Startup Costs (Including Break-Even Analysis). Accessed October 22, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau. Annual Retail Trade Survey. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Producer Price Indexes: Handbook of Methods Overview. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. 16 CFR Part 233: Guides Against Deceptive Pricing. Accessed October 22, 2026.
- Internal Revenue Service. Recordkeeping for Small Businesses. Accessed October 22, 2026.