Profit Margin Calculator
Margin and markup are not the same number, and pricing off the wrong one is one of the more expensive arithmetic mistakes in e-commerce. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin. A seller who wants 40% margin and applies a 40% markup has just underpriced by a fifth.
This shows both, after the marketplace has taken its cut. It works for any channel because you supply the fee percentage yourself.
Free, no signup, runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Last updated .
Your unit economics
Fee percentage is your channel's commission on the sale price. Flat costs are the per-order charges that do not scale with price — packaging, inbound freight per unit, and an allowance for returns.
Price needed for a target margin
Result
$10.99
Margin and markup are different numbers. A 50% markup is a 33.3% margin — pricing off the wrong one is a common and expensive mistake.
What it does
Inside the profit margin calculator
- Margin and markup side by side, never conflated
- Marketplace commission and flat per-order costs included
- The break-even price where profit reaches zero
- Reverse mode: the price required for a target margin
Guide
Profit Margin Calculator: what actually matters
Margin versus markup, definitively
Margin is profit as a percentage of the price the buyer pays. Markup is profit as a percentage of what the item cost you. Buy at $100 and sell at $150 and you have a 50% markup and a 33.3% margin — the same transaction described two ways. Suppliers and buying teams tend to speak in markup; accountants and marketplaces speak in margin. When someone quotes a percentage, establish which one they mean before you price against it.
Why the fee comes off the price, not the profit
Marketplace commission is charged on the full amount the buyer pays, including in most cases the shipping they paid. It is not a share of your profit. This is why a low-margin product is disproportionately punished by fees: a 15% commission on a product carrying a 20% margin takes three quarters of what you were going to make.
The costs that belong in the flat field
Packaging, inbound freight per unit, the fixed portion of payment processing, and the amortised cost of returns. Returns are the one most often left out. If one order in twenty comes back and cannot be resold, that is 5% off the top of everything — frequently larger than the margin the seller thought they were protecting.
What margin is actually enough
For a marketplace seller running ads, the common floor is 25–30% net after fees but before advertising. Below roughly 20% the product cannot tolerate Sponsored Products at competitive bids, because break-even ACoS falls under the cost of a click in most categories. The margin figure here is the budget you have for everything that happens after the sale, not your take-home.
FAQ
Common questions
Which fee percentage should I enter?
The commission your channel charges on the sale price. Amazon referral fees are commonly 15% and vary by category; Etsy and eBay publish their own rates. If you sell on Amazon FBA and want the fulfilment fee modelled too, the FBA fee calculator on this site works from dimensions and weight instead.
Does this include advertising?
No, deliberately. Ad spend varies far too much between sellers to model honestly, and folding it in would hide the number you need. Take the margin from here into the break-even ACoS calculator to find the ad spend percentage at which the sale stops making money.
Why is my break-even price higher than cost plus fees?
Because the fee is charged on the higher price, so raising the price also raises the fee. Solving for it algebraically rather than adding a percentage is what the break-even field does, and it is why the honest number is always a little above the one people estimate.
Is anything I enter stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is transmitted, logged or saved.
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Margin decided. Now the listing.
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