Margin BenchProduct index / business

Ecommerce & profit

Break-Even Price Calculator

Find the unit price needed to recover fixed costs and variable unit cost at a chosen sales volume.

Use this for a simple volume-based floor price. Add desired profit separately, and use break-even units when price is already known.

Your inputs

Use consistent units and a matching period throughout. Enter decimals with a dot or comma, without thousands separators.

Costs treated as fixed for this planning period, such as rent or salaries.

Units expected to carry the fixed costs; must be greater than zero.

Per-unit cost that changes with volume, excluding fixed costs.

Your result

Result for the default inputs

Break-even price (input currency per unit)

38.00

Calculations run in this browser. Inputs are not sent to a server or added to a share link.

What the result means

At the supplied volume, this price covers the listed fixed costs and variable costs but leaves no profit. It excludes taxes and costs omitted from the inputs.

The formula

Variable cost per unit + (fixed costs / expected units sold)

Results are displayed to at most two decimal places. Calculations use the unrounded inputs.

A worked example

Put the formula to work

Fixed costs (currency for period)
12,000
Expected units sold (units)
600
Variable cost per unit (currency per unit)
18

Break-even price (input currency per unit): 38.00

Fixed costs of 12,000 spread over 600 units add 20 per unit to the 18 variable cost, producing a 38 break-even price.

How to use this calculator

  1. Choose a period and classify fixed versus variable costs.
  2. Estimate the units that will share the fixed costs.
  3. Spread fixed costs over those units.
  4. Add the per-unit variable cost to find the price floor.

Why this number matters

The price floor makes the volume assumption explicit instead of hiding fixed-cost recovery inside a vague margin target.

Input definitions

Fixed costs (currency for period)
Costs treated as fixed for this planning period, such as rent or salaries.
Expected units sold (units)
Units expected to carry the fixed costs; must be greater than zero.
Variable cost per unit (currency per unit)
Per-unit cost that changes with volume, excluding fixed costs.

Assumptions and limitations

  • Fixed costs can become variable when capacity or staffing changes.
  • The result depends strongly on the sales-volume assumption.
  • No desired profit, discounts, returns, or taxes are included.

Methodology

The default result and worked example use the same calculation functions as the interactive tool. The formula cannot verify the quality or scope of your source data.

Read our calculation methodology

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