Four modes in one: find your profit margin, calculate markup percentage, work out the selling price for a target margin, or find maximum allowable cost from a selling price. Built for retailers, wholesalers and anyone pricing products.
Select the mode that matches what you know and what you need to find. Find Margin — enter cost price and selling price to get profit margin % and markup %. Find Markup — same inputs, result emphasis is on markup %. Find Sell Price — enter cost price and your desired margin to get the exact selling price you need to charge. Find Cost — enter your selling price and target margin to find the maximum cost you can afford to pay. Enter your values and click Calculate.
Margin and markup both express profit as a percentage — but they use a different denominator, which makes them look very different for the same transaction. Margin uses selling price as the base. Markup uses cost price as the base. This means for the same product, markup will always be a larger percentage than margin.
| Scenario | Cost | Sell | Profit | Margin | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low margin product | $80 | $100 | $20 | 20% | 25% |
| Mid margin product | $40 | $100 | $60 | 60% | 150% |
| High margin product | $10 | $100 | $90 | 90% | 900% |
A common mistake in business is quoting margin and markup interchangeably. A buyer who asks "what is your margin?" and a supplier who answers with their markup figure will end up with a significant misunderstanding — especially at high percentages.
The sell price formula is the most useful for retailers: it answers "given my cost and my target margin, what do I charge?" Note that you cannot simply add the margin percentage to cost — a 60% margin on a $40 cost is not $40 + 60% = $64. The correct answer is $40 ÷ 0.40 = $100.
This calculator is provided for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, investment or legal advice. It uses standard cost-accounting formulas (Margin = (Price − Cost) / Price, Markup = (Price − Cost) / Cost), but actual figures depend on your lender, local regulations, fees and current market conditions, and may differ from your final terms.
Before making a financial decision, verify your numbers with a licensed financial advisor, accountant, mortgage broker, or your relevant national tax authority.
This calculator uses standard cost-accounting formulas (Margin = (Price − Cost) / Price, Markup = (Price − Cost) / Cost). The underlying logic was built and manually cross-checked against independent reference calculators and textbook worked examples across dozens of test cases before publication.
Every formula on elCalculador is reviewed by our editorial team for mathematical accuracy, and pages are re-audited whenever a calculator's logic or inputs are updated.