Estimate the price to charge a client from your cost and desired profit target. Runs in your browser with no signup.
Calculate a price to charge
Use this lightweight tool to compare margin and markup. Margin calculates profit as a percentage of the final selling price. Markup calculates profit as a percentage of the original cost.
Used for display only. No currency conversion is performed.
Calculation type
Price to Charge Client0.00
Estimated Net Profit0.00
How this is calculated: Margin uses Price = Cost / (1 - Margin% / 100). Markup uses Price = Cost × (1 + Markup% / 100). Estimated profit is Price - Cost.
Note: This calculator is for planning and estimation only. Final pricing should consider taxes, overhead, discounts, contracts, local rules, and your actual business costs.
How To Use The Margin And Markup Calculator
Use this calculator before quoting a job when you know your cost and want to understand the difference between markup and profit margin. Markup is added on top of cost. Margin is the percentage of the final selling price that remains as gross profit.
For service businesses, a clear price should account for materials, labor, travel time, overhead, platform fees, payment processing, and the profit needed to keep the work sustainable.
Start with your true cost, including materials and labor.
Use markup when you want to add a percentage to cost.
Use margin when you want to target a profit percentage of the final selling price.
Move the final price into an estimate or invoice after reviewing the customer-facing wording.
Margin And Markup Are Not The Same Number
Markup is measured against what the job costs you. Margin is measured against what the customer pays. Same money, different denominator — which is why a 50% markup is only a 33.3% margin, and why quoting “we work on 30%” without saying which one you mean is how service businesses quietly underprice themselves.
In notation: in markup mode, Price = Cost × (1 + Markup% ÷ 100). In margin mode, Price = Cost ÷ (1 − Margin% ÷ 100). Either way, Estimated Profit = Price − Cost. Choose the mode with the toggle above the inputs, and enter your true job cost — labour hours, materials, fuel, subcontractors, consumables — not just the invoice from your supplier.
Two Worked Examples
Example figures — not real client data
Markup mode: a materials-heavy job
Total job cost: 400.00 (materials 250.00, labour 150.00).
Price 666.67 · profit 266.67 · equivalent to a 66.7% markup.
Between the two examples, the same 40% figure produced prices 106.67 apart. Across a year of quoting, that gap is the difference between a healthy business and a busy one.
Edge Cases, Rounding, And Input Limits
A margin of 100% or more is impossible. The formula divides by zero at 100%, so the tool shows “Enter margin below 100%” instead of a number. Markup has no such ceiling — a 150% markup is perfectly valid arithmetic.
Zero cost gives zero price. Both formulas are proportional to cost, so an empty cost field cannot produce a meaningful price. Fill in the cost first.
Negatives are clamped to zero in both the cost and percentage fields.
Results are rounded for display only, to two decimals. The 666.67 above is really 666.666…; round the final quoted price the way you normally would rather than re-entering the rounded figure.
Tax is not included. The price this produces is the pre-tax price. Add tax afterwards with the sales tax calculator or by marking taxable lines in the generator.
What This Calculator Does Not Do
It does not tell you what to charge. It converts a cost and a percentage into a price; deciding the percentage is a business judgement that depends on your overheads, your local market, how much risk the job carries, and how much of your week it consumes. It also does not allocate overhead across jobs, model break-even volume, account for discounts or write-offs, handle multi-item jobs with different margins on each line, or distinguish gross margin from net margin after fixed costs. If your cost figure only covers materials, the “profit” it reports is not profit — it is contribution before you have paid yourself.
How This Differs From The Other Calculators Here
Sales tax calculator works on a price that already exists. This one produces that price. Run them in that order.
Advance deposit calculator splits an agreed total into an upfront portion and a balance. It never changes the total; this calculator sets it.
Late fee calculator deals with money already invoiced and overdue — the far end of the same job.
Test Cases We Run
Margin & markup calculator — checks performed after any change
Input
Expected result
Why it matters
Cost 400 · markup 40%
Price 560.00 · profit 160.00
Baseline markup path
Cost 400 · margin 40%
Price 666.67 · profit 266.67
Baseline margin path
Cost 400 · margin 0%
Price 400.00 · profit 0.00
Zero margin must return cost
Cost 400 · margin 100%
“Enter margin below 100%”
Divide-by-zero guard
Cost 400 · margin 120%
“Enter margin below 100%”
Above-100% guard
Cost 0 · markup 40%
Price 0.00 · profit 0.00
Empty cost cannot price a job
Cost 400 · markup 150%
Price 1,000.00 · profit 600.00
Markup has no upper bound
These cases are re-run by hand in the browser whenever the calculator changes. The wider testing routine is described on how we test.
Privacy: this calculator runs entirely in your browser. Amounts you type are never sent to a server, never stored on our systems, and disappear when you close the tab. No account, no signup, nothing retained.
Formula, worked examples, and limitations last reviewed by Khurram Naeem Jaswal, operator of ClearPaperwork. Spotted an error? Tell us.
Calculator FAQ
Is markup the same as profit margin?
No. Markup is based on cost. Margin is based on the final selling price.
Can this calculator guarantee profit?
No. It provides math support only. Your final profit also depends on actual costs, discounts, taxes, and payment collection.
Does the calculator handle currency conversion?
No. It uses the numbers you enter and does not perform currency conversion.
Which one should I quote on — margin or markup?
Whichever one your business actually tracks. Margin is the more useful figure for judging the health of the business, because it answers “how much of every dollar the customer pays do I keep?” Markup is easier to apply quickly at the point of quoting. The danger is mixing them: aiming for “30%” in markup when you meant margin leaves money on the table on every single job.
What should I include in the cost field?
Everything the job consumes: materials, the hours you or your team spend, subcontractor invoices, fuel and travel, consumables, disposal or permit fees, and payment-processing charges if you absorb them. Costing only the materials is the most common reason a job that looked profitable was not.
Does this include sales tax?
No. The price shown is pre-tax. Work out tax separately with the sales tax calculator, or mark the taxable lines inside the invoice generator so tax lands only where it belongs.
Why does the margin field stop working at 100%?
Because the arithmetic breaks there. Price = Cost ÷ (1 − Margin) divides by zero at exactly 100%, and goes negative above it. A 100% margin would mean the job costs you nothing.