Free calculator

Markup vs margin calculator

Enter what the job costs you and the one number you know. The other two work themselves out.

Sell price

$13,000.00

Profit

$3,000.00

Markup

30%

Margin

23.1%

A 30% markup is a 23.1% margin.

The mistake that costs money

Markup is profit divided by what the job cost you. Margin is profit divided by what you sold it for. Same job, same profit, two different percentages, and the margin is always the smaller one.

Price at cost plus 30% expecting a 30% margin and you've made 23.1%. On a $20,000 job, that's $1,385 less profit than you thought you had.

The formulas

  • Markup = (price - cost) ÷ cost
  • Margin = (price - cost) ÷ price
  • Price from a markup = cost × (1 + markup)
  • Price from a margin = cost ÷ (1 - margin)

Markup to margin

Markup Margin
10% 9.1%
15% 13%
20% 16.7%
25% 20%
30% 23.1%
35% 25.9%
40% 28.6%
50% 33.3%
60% 37.5%
75% 42.9%
100% 50%

Stop working out margins by hand

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