Markup calculator
Apply a markup percentage to your cost to get a selling price, and see the gross margin that markup actually produces.
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- Nothing you enter is sent
- Free, no account
Selling price
$100.00
solved
Margin
60.00%
solved
Cost
$40.00
Selling price
$100.00
Gross profit per unit
$60.00
Price multiplier
× 2.500
price ÷ cost
Margin
60.00%
profit ÷ price
Markup
150.00%
profit ÷ cost
- Cost of goods40.0%$40.00
- Gross profit60.0%$60.00
How the selling price splits. Margin is the green slice as a share of the whole bar.
Formula and working
Gross profit
profit = price − cost = 100 − 40 = $60.00
Margin (share of the selling price)
margin % = profit ÷ price × 100 = 60 ÷ 100 × 100 = 60.00%
Markup (share of the cost)
markup % = profit ÷ cost × 100 = 60 ÷ 40 × 100 = 150.00%
Price from a markup
price = cost × (1 + markup) = 40 × (1 + 1.5000) = $100.00
Converting between the two
margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup) · markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin) margin = 1.5000 ÷ (1 + 1.5000) = 0.6000 = 60.00% margin = 150.00% markup
The classic mistake: adding 30% to cost gives a 23.1% margin, not 30%. Retailers quote margin, suppliers quote markup, and the gap is real money.
Nothing pasted yet.
| Markup on cost | Equals margin | Price multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | 4.8% | × 1.05 |
| 10% | 9.1% | × 1.10 |
| 15% | 13.0% | × 1.15 |
| 20% | 16.7% | × 1.20 |
| 25% | 20.0% | × 1.25 |
| 30% | 23.1% | × 1.30 |
| 40% | 28.6% | × 1.40 |
| 50% | 33.3% | × 1.50 |
| 60% | 37.5% | × 1.60 |
| 75% | 42.9% | × 1.75 |
| 100% | 50.0% | × 2.00 |
| 150% | 60.0% | × 2.50 |
| 200% | 66.7% | × 3.00 |
| 300% | 75.0% | × 4.00 |
| 400% | 80.0% | × 5.00 |
Assumptions
- These are gross figures based on the cost of goods only. Overheads, salaries, rent, marketing, shipping, payment-processing fees, returns and write-offs all come out of the gross profit before anything reaches the bottom line.
- Prices are shown excluding sales tax or VAT. Add tax after pricing — margin should always be calculated on the net price.
- Margin is capped below 100% by definition, because profit is a share of the price. Markup has no ceiling: a 900% markup is a 90% margin.
- Bulk mode reads the last numeric field on each line as the cost and the first non-numeric field as the name, so both "Widget, 4.20" and a bare column of numbers work.
- Everything runs in this tab. Your cost prices are commercially sensitive and there is no server here to send them to.
Markup is what you add to the cost
selling price = cost × (1 + markup)
markup % = (price − cost) ÷ cost × 100Markup is a pricing instruction: start from what you paid, add a percentage, that is the price. Buy at 8, apply a 150% markup, sell at 20. It is the natural way to price when you have a cost list and need a price list, which is why wholesalers, distributors and trades quote in markup almost universally.
Keystone and the multiples
Retail has traditional shorthand for common markups, and thinking in multipliers is faster than thinking in percentages:
| Name | Multiplier | Markup | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost plus a third | × 1.33 | 33% | 25% |
| Half up | × 1.50 | 50% | 33.3% |
| Keystone | × 2.00 | 100% | 50% |
| Keystone plus | × 2.50 | 150% | 60% |
| Triple | × 3.00 | 200% | 66.7% |
"Keystone" — doubling the wholesale cost — is the old default in general retail. It exists because it produces a clean 50% margin, and because doubling a number is something you can do in your head on a shop floor.
The markup you need for the margin you want
This is the calculation most people actually need, and the one that catches them out. To achieve
a target margin, the markup is margin ÷ (1 − margin):
| Target margin | Markup required |
|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 20% | 25.0% |
| 25% | 33.3% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
| 60% | 150% |
| 75% | 300% |
Notice the divergence. Up to about 20% the two numbers are close enough that confusing them barely hurts. Above 40% they separate fast, and a business that thinks a 60% markup gives a 60% margin is quietly running at 37.5%.
Cost-plus pricing: when it works and when it fails
Markup pricing is genuinely good for high-volume, low-differentiation goods where costs are known and competition sets a narrow band. It is fast, defensible to a customer, and impossible to get catastrophically wrong.
It fails in three places. It ignores what the customer will pay, so it leaves money on the table for anything distinctive. It bakes inefficiency into the price — if your costs are high, your price is high, and the market does not care. And on slow-moving stock it undercharges for capital tied up on a shelf for a year.
Building a markup up from the parts
A markup has to cover more than profit. Working backwards from what it must absorb is a better way to set it than copying a sector average:
- Overhead recovery — rent, wages, software, insurance, spread across expected volume.
- Shrinkage and returns — a few per cent in most retail, far more in fashion.
- Markdowns — if a fifth of stock eventually sells at 30% off, the full-price items must carry it.
- Payment and platform fees — 2–3% for cards, up to 15% on some marketplaces.
- Actual profit — what is left, and the only part that is yours.
Marking up a whole cost list
Paste a column of costs into the bulk panel — names optional, comma or tab separated — set the markup once, and every line comes back with its price, its profit and the margin that markup actually produces. Export the result as CSV, Excel or PDF straight into your price list.
Mark up the net figure
Apply markup to the cost excluding recoverable VAT or GST, and add sales tax to the finished price afterwards. Marking up a tax-inclusive cost silently inflates the price by the markup applied to the tax, and if you are VAT-registered that tax was never a cost to you in the first place.
Nothing is uploaded
Your cost list stays on your machine. This page is static HTML and a small JavaScript island; there is no server behind it, no analytics on it, and no request to anything external. Turn off your connection and every calculation, table and export still works.
Questions
What is the markup formula?
Markup % = (price − cost) ÷ cost × 100, and price = cost × (1 + markup). A 100% markup — "keystone" pricing in retail — doubles the cost and produces a 50% margin.
What markup do I need for a given margin?
Markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). For a 40% margin you need a 66.7% markup; for 50% you need 100%. The conversion table on this page lists the common pairs.
Is markup the same as profit?
No. Markup is a percentage of the cost; profit is the cash difference between price and cost. The same profit is a different markup on a cheap item than on an expensive one.
Can I mark up a whole price list at once?
Yes — paste your costs into the bulk panel and every line comes back priced, with the resulting margin shown alongside so nothing is hidden.