Margin & Markup Calculator
Put in your cost and selling price — or your cost and the markup you apply — and see profit per unit, margin % and markup % side by side.
Your landed cost — purchase price plus freight, before GST you can claim back.
Same rupees of profit, two different bases — margin divides by the selling price, markup divides by the cost. Markup is always the bigger-looking number.
Margin vs markup, settled
This is the single most expensive mix-up in retail. Both numbers describe the same profit — what changes is what you divide it by, and the gap between them grows as you price higher.
Margin is on the price
Margin answers “out of every rupee the customer hands me, how much do I keep?” It can never exceed 100%, which makes it the honest number for comparing lines, categories and whole months.
Markup is on the cost
Markup answers “how much do I add on top of what I paid?” It is the number you actually use while pricing at the counter, and it has no ceiling — a 200% markup is perfectly normal on accessories.
Where it goes wrong
A supplier says “there is 30% in it” and you assume margin; he meant markup. You price for a 30% margin, get 23%, and wonder where the money went. Always ask which base the percentage is on.
The maths
- Profit: selling price − cost price.
- Margin %: profit ÷ selling price × 100.
- Markup %: profit ÷ cost price × 100.
- Markup → margin: markup ÷ (100 + markup) × 100.
- Margin → markup: margin ÷ (100 − margin) × 100.
Price it, discount it, cover your costs
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Margin calculator FAQ
They measure the same rupee of profit against two different bases. Margin divides profit by the selling price; markup divides profit by the cost price. Buy at ₹700 and sell at ₹1,000 and you make ₹300 — that is a 30% margin (300 ÷ 1000) but a 42.86% markup (300 ÷ 700). Markup always looks like the bigger number, which is why quoting one when you meant the other quietly eats your profit.