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Free profit margin and markup calculator

Short answer

Margin is profit ÷ selling price; markup is profit ÷ cost. Buy at ₹80, sell at ₹100: ₹20 profit is a 20% margin and a 25% markup. For a target margin, price = cost ÷ (1 − margin), so a 30% margin on ₹100 needs ₹142.86, not ₹130. The calculator below does both, and can strip GST first.

  • No account, no email
  • Offline after first load
  • No data sent anywhere
  • GST-aware
I know…

Margin vs markup: the conversion table

The same profit, measured two ways. The last column is the selling price you need on an item that costs ₹100 to hit each margin.

Margin Same as a markup of Price on ₹100 cost
10% 11.11% ₹111.11
15% 17.65% ₹117.65
20% 25% ₹125.00
25% 33.33% ₹133.33
30% 42.86% ₹142.86
40% 66.67% ₹166.67
50% 100% ₹200.00

The formulas

  • Profit = selling price − cost.
  • Margin % = profit ÷ selling price × 100.
  • Markup % = profit ÷ cost × 100.
  • Price for a target margin = cost ÷ (1 − margin ÷ 100).
  • Price for a target markup = cost × (1 + markup ÷ 100).
  • Margin from markup = markup ÷ (100 + markup) × 100; markup from margin = margin ÷ (100 − margin) × 100.

Why GST changes the answer

Say a GST-registered shop buys a shirt for ₹590 including 18% GST and sells it for ₹1,180 including 18% GST. On those inclusive figures the margin looks like 50%. Strip GST from both — ₹500 cost, ₹1,000 price — and the margin is still 50%, but the profit is ₹500, not ₹590: the other ₹90 is GST owed to the government after input credit. Margin percentages survive GST at a single rate; rupee profit does not. For a composition dealer the ₹90 of purchase GST is a real cost, so work on ₹590.

Who this calculator is for — and who should skip it

Use it if…

  • You run a shop or trading business and are pricing a new item from its purchase bill.
  • A distributor quoted you a "margin" and you want to know whether they meant markup.
  • Your purchase and selling prices both include GST and you want the real profit per unit.
  • You are a commerce student or CA checking a pricing sum.

Skip it if…

  • You need your margin after rent, salaries and other overheads — that is net margin, and it needs your profit and loss statement, not a per-item calculator.
  • You only need the GST on a price — use our free GST calculator.
  • You price hundreds of items and want cost and selling price side by side without re-typing them. That is inventory and billing software, and ours is ₹399 a month per app with unlimited users.

Put this calculator on your own site

This page is free to link to, quote and recommend — in a blog post, a forum answer, a WhatsApp group or a class handout. No permission needed and no attribution required: https://399apps.com/tools/margin-calculator/

FAQ

Questions people ask about margin and markup

I buy an item for ₹80 and sell it for ₹100 — is my margin 20% or 25%? +
Both numbers are right, they just measure different things. Your margin is 20%: the ₹20 profit as a share of the ₹100 selling price. Your markup is 25%: the same ₹20 as a share of the ₹80 cost. Margin is always the smaller of the two. When a supplier, a buyer or a loan officer says "margin", they mean profit ÷ selling price.
What selling price do I need to make a 30% margin on something that costs me ₹100? +
Divide the cost by (1 − margin): ₹100 ÷ 0.70 = ₹142.86. Adding 30% to the cost gives ₹130, which is only a 23.08% margin — the most common pricing mistake. Choose "I want a target margin" in the calculator and it works out the price for any cost and margin.
My purchase bill and my selling price both include GST — should I take GST out before working out margin? +
If you are a regular GST-registered business that claims input tax credit, yes. The GST on your purchase comes back as credit and the GST you collect goes to the government, so neither is your money. Work out margin on prices before GST — tick "my prices include GST" and the calculator strips it from both. If you are a composition dealer or unregistered, the GST you paid on purchase is a real cost, so leave it in.
Can my margin ever be more than 100%? +
No. Margin is profit as a share of the selling price, and profit can never exceed the selling price, so margin tops out just below 100%. Markup has no ceiling: buying at ₹50 and selling at ₹200 is a 300% markup but a 75% margin. If someone quotes a margin above 100%, they mean markup.
Is anything I type into this margin calculator sent to a server or saved? +
No. The calculator runs entirely in your browser. It sends nothing you type anywhere and stores nothing — no account, no log. Close the tab and the numbers are gone.
I price hundreds of items in my shop — is there a quicker way than working each one out? +
A calculator is right for a quote or a new product. Once you hold hundreds of items, the margins drift every time a supplier changes a rate, and nobody re-checks them. Inventory and billing software that records the purchase price on every bill lets you see each item's cost next to its selling price without re-typing either.
When you price more than a handful of items

Inventory and billing software that keeps cost next to price

399Apps records the purchase price from every bill and the selling price on every invoice, with GST worked out per item — flat ₹399 per month per app, unlimited users, cloud or self-hosted.

See pricing Free GST calculator