Break-Even Calculator
Enter your fixed costs, price per unit, and variable cost to see the break-even units, break-even revenue, and contribution margin, updating as you type.
Fixed costs are your total overhead. Price and variable cost are per single unit. Plain numbers in any currency, calculated in your browser and never uploaded.
A unit is whole, so round up: selling 1,000 clears every cost. Each sale above break-even adds 10.00 of profit.
How to calculate the break-even point
Enter your fixed costs
Type your total fixed costs, the overhead like rent and salaries that stays the same no matter how much you sell.
Enter the price and variable cost
Type the price you sell one unit for and the variable cost of making one unit, and every figure updates with each keystroke.
Read and copy the result
See the break-even units and revenue plus the contribution margin, then click Copy result to put a one-line summary on your clipboard.
Why use this tool
Break-even units and revenue together
You get both answers side by side: how many units you must sell to cover every cost, and the sales revenue that number of units brings in.
Contribution margin two ways
The margin each unit contributes toward fixed costs is shown as a money amount and as a percentage of the price, the figure known as the contribution margin ratio.
Handles a price that is too low
When the price is at or below the variable cost, each sale loses money and no volume ever breaks even, so the tool says so plainly instead of printing an impossible number.
Recalculates as you type
Change any of the three figures and the break-even point moves with it immediately. There is nothing to submit and no page reload.
Runs entirely in your browser
Your cost and price figures are processed by the page alone. Nothing you type is uploaded, stored, or logged.
About this tool
This break-even calculator finds the point where a product stops losing money and starts making it. Enter three numbers, your total fixed costs, the price you sell one unit for, and the variable cost of making one unit, and it works out how many units you must sell and how much revenue you must earn to cover every cost. The engine of the result is the contribution margin: the price of a unit minus its variable cost, which is what each sale contributes toward paying off your fixed costs. Divide fixed costs by that margin and you have the break-even point in units, and multiply those units by the price and you have the break-even revenue.
Everything recalculates as you type, so you can nudge a price or a cost up and down and watch the break-even move with it. The contribution margin is shown both as a money amount per unit and as a percentage of the price, the figure accountants call the contribution margin ratio. When the price is at or below the variable cost, each sale loses money no matter how many you make, so there is no break-even point at all, and the tool states that instead of printing an impossible figure.
Use it to sanity check a price before launch, to see how many subscriptions or covers or widgets turn a profit, or to test whether a discount still leaves room above your costs. Figures are plain numbers in any currency and tax is left out, since rates vary by place and product. For the margin and markup on a single sale try the profit margin calculator, and to price up from a cost use the markup calculator. Everything is calculated in your browser and nothing you type leaves the page.
Frequently asked questions
- How is the break-even point calculated?
- First the contribution margin per unit is worked out as the price minus the variable cost. The break-even units are your fixed costs divided by that margin, and the break-even revenue is those units multiplied by the price. The tool does all of it as you type.
- What is contribution margin?
- It is the money left from one sale after the variable cost of that unit is paid, so it is the price minus the variable cost. That leftover is what each sale contributes toward covering your fixed costs, and once the fixed costs are cleared it becomes profit.
- What if the price is at or below the variable cost?
- Then the contribution margin is zero or negative and no number of sales can ever cover the fixed costs, so there is no break-even point. The tool flags this and shows the negative margin rather than a misleading figure.
- Does the result include tax?
- No. The figures are before any sales tax or VAT, using the plain price and costs you enter. Tax rules differ by country, state, and product, so apply your local rate separately if you need an after-tax number.
- Is anything I type uploaded?
- No. Your fixed costs, price, and variable cost are processed entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, stored, or logged, and the result works in any currency.
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