Markup Calculator – Cost-Plus Pricing, Margins and Price Lists
This markup calculator is for anyone who prices by adding to cost: retailers, wholesalers, resellers, makers who sell through shops, contractors marking up parts, and restaurants. It turns a cost and a markup into a selling price, converts markup to margin, follows a price from maker to distributor to shop, and prices a whole pasted list with a tiered markup matrix. All the maths runs in your browser.
Markup vs margin: the 30 → 45 example
Buy something for 30, add a 50% markup and you sell it for 30 × 1.5 = 45. The profit is 15. As a markup, that profit is measured against the cost: 15 ÷ 30 = 50%. As a margin, it is measured against the price: 15 ÷ 45 = 33.33%. Same sale, different base. That is why a 50% markup never gives a 50% margin; for that you would need to charge 60. The conversion is margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup), and back again markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin). Some retailers say "markup on retail" when they mean margin, so check which base a quoted figure uses.
Keystone pricing
Keystone means selling at double the cost: a 100% markup, or a 50% margin. It is an easy rule of thumb, but not a target in itself. Markup can go far above 100%, while margin flattens out and never reaches 100%. Doubling the markup from 100% to 200% only lifts the margin from 50% to 66.67%.
Why a sale hurts more than you expect
A markup is a percentage of cost, but a discount is a percentage of price, and the price is the bigger number. Mark something up by 50% and then take 50% off, and you don't land back at cost: 1.5 × 0.5 = 0.75, so you are selling at 75% of what you paid. The largest discount you can give before selling at a loss is exactly your margin. To keep the same markup after a planned sale, the list price needs a higher markup first; the "What if I put it on sale?" panel works this out.
How markups compound through a distribution chain
When a product passes through several hands, each seller marks up the price they paid, and that price already includes everyone else's markup. A maker with an 8.00 cost who adds 50% sells at 12.00. A distributor on a 25% margin sells at 16.00, and a retailer on a 50% margin sells at 32.00. The separate markups of 50%, 33.33% and 100% add up to 183.33%, but they compound to 300%, so the shelf price is four times the maker's cost.
The Price chain tab also runs backwards. Start from the shelf price the market will bear and it strips out VAT, then each reseller's cut, to show the wholesale price you can charge. It flags when that price falls below your own cost.
Tiered markup matrices
Many trades use a markup matrix: a high markup on cheap parts and a lower one on expensive items. With the common step method, the whole cost gets its tier's rate, which creates price drops at the boundaries. At 100% below 10 and 60% from 10, a 9.99 item sells for 19.98 but a 10.00 item sells for 16.00. The progressive method prices each slice of the cost at its own rate, like tax brackets, so the price never falls as cost rises. The Price list tab flags every item that costs more than another but sells for less, and it exports the result as CSV.
Charm pricing and your real markup
Rounding to a .99, .95 or "ends in 9" price changes your real markup. Rounding 45.00 up to 45.99 turns a 50% markup into 53.30%, while rounding to the nearest .99 gives 44.99 and 49.97%, just under target. The calculator always shows the markup you actually get after rounding.