Markup Calculator
Markup answers the seller's question: starting from what an item costs, what percentage do I add on top to set its price? Use the first tool to price from cost and markup, or the second to recover the markup sitting between two prices you already know. Both also report the resulting margin, which is a different (and always smaller) number.
Price from cost and markup
Example: cost 40 with a 50% markup sells for 60.
Markup from two prices
Example: cost 60 sold at 100 is a 66.67% markup.
The markup formula
Markup measures profit against cost: selling price = cost × (1 + markup% ÷ 100). A cost of 40 with a 50% markup gives a price of 60 and a profit of 20 — every figure in this copy is produced at build time by the same engine that powers the forms above. Going the other way, markup% = (price − cost) ÷ cost × 100, which is what the second tool computes from two known prices.
Why a 40% markup is not a 40% margin
Markup divides by cost; margin divides by the selling price, a larger number for every profitable sale — so the margin percentage always comes out smaller. Apply a 40% markup to a 100 cost and the 40 profit is only 28.57% of the 140 price. Pricing to a markup while reporting to a margin target (or the reverse) is one of the quietest ways a small business underprices itself. When you want to check what the totals actually earned, the profit calculator works from revenue and costs directly.
Working with markup in practice
Markup is the natural direction for price-setting because you know cost first: double the cost ("keystone", a 100% markup) is a classic retail starting point, while grocery staples run on single-digit markups and services often run on several hundred percent. The useful discipline is consistency — decide what the cost base includes (freight? packaging? labor?) and apply the same rule to every product, letting the calculator translate each markup into the margin it actually delivers.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a markup into a margin?
margin% = markup% ÷ (100 + markup%) × 100. A 40% markup on a 100 cost prices the item at 140, and the profit of 40 is 28.57% of that price — so a 40% markup is only a 28.57% margin.
What is keystone pricing?
The retail habit of doubling cost: a 100% markup. An item costing 25 is priced at 50, which works out to exactly a 50% margin. It survives as a rule of thumb because the arithmetic can be done on sight.
Can a markup be negative?
Yes — a negative markup prices an item below cost, which is exactly what clearance sales do. The calculator accepts markups down to (but not including) −100%, the point at which the selling price would reach zero.
Should the cost include overhead and labor?
The markup is applied to whatever cost you enter, so that is a business decision rather than a math one. Manufacturers often mark up the full landed or fully-loaded cost; retailers usually mark up the wholesale price and cover overhead from the aggregate margin.
Is a 50% markup the same as a 50% margin?
No, and the gap is money. A 50% markup on a 40 cost gives a 60 price and a 33.33% margin. To achieve a genuine 50% margin on that cost you would need a 100% markup — double the percentage you might have applied by mistake.
Both tools run entirely in your browser — no prices or costs are transmitted anywhere. The formulas are implemented as tested, typed functions; see the methodology page for the rounding policy.