📈 Profit Calculator
By ToolNimba Finance Team · Reviewed by ToolNimba Editorial Review, business finance content · Updated 2026-06-19
This calculator gives a quick estimate of profit and margin from a single cost and revenue figure. It does not account for tax, shipping, payment fees, returns, overhead, or other operating costs that affect what you actually keep. The result is not financial or accounting advice, confirm your real numbers with a qualified accountant before making business decisions.
A profit calculator turns two numbers, your cost and your revenue, into the figures that actually matter for a sale: how much profit you make, what your profit margin is as a percentage, your markup over cost, and your return on investment (ROI). Enter the cost you paid, the price you sell at, and an optional quantity, and you instantly see the profit per unit, the total profit across all units, the margin, and the markup or ROI percentage, so you can price with confidence.
What is the Profit Calculator?
Profit is the simplest idea in business: it is what is left after you subtract cost from revenue. Profit = revenue - cost. If you buy an item for 80 dollars and sell it for 100 dollars, your profit is 20 dollars. That raw number tells you the dollars earned, but on its own it does not tell you whether the deal was good. A 20 dollar profit on an 80 dollar cost is excellent; a 20 dollar profit on a 5,000 dollar cost is barely worth the effort. To judge that, you need percentages.
The two percentages people most often confuse are margin and markup, and they are measured against different bases. Profit margin is profit as a share of revenue: margin percent = profit / revenue x 100. Markup is profit as a share of cost: markup percent = profit / cost x 100. For the 80 dollar cost and 100 dollar price example, the margin is 20 / 100 = 20 percent, while the markup is 20 / 80 = 25 percent. The same sale always shows a higher markup than margin, because cost is the smaller base. Return on investment (ROI) here uses the same calculation as markup, profit / cost x 100, because the cost is the money you put in and the profit is the return on it.
Quantity scales everything. The per-unit profit, margin, markup, and ROI stay the same no matter how many units you sell, since they are ratios. What changes is the total profit, which is simply the per-unit profit multiplied by the number of units. Selling 50 units at a 20 dollar profit each gives 1,000 dollars of total profit, while the margin stays at 20 percent. This is why a thin per-unit margin can still build a strong business at high volume, and why a fat margin on a handful of sales may not be enough to live on.
When to use it
- Pricing a product: testing what selling price gives you the profit margin you need over your cost.
- Checking a resale or flip: seeing the profit, markup, and ROI before you commit to buying inventory.
- Comparing two suppliers or deals by margin rather than just the headline price.
- Forecasting total profit for a batch by entering the quantity you expect to sell.
How to use the Profit Calculator
- Enter the cost: what you pay to make or buy one unit.
- Enter the revenue: the price you sell one unit for.
- Optionally enter the quantity to see total profit across all units.
- Read off the profit per unit, total profit, profit margin, and markup or ROI percentage.
Formula & method
Worked examples
You buy an item for $80 and sell it for $100 (one unit).
- profit = 100 - 80 = $20
- profit margin = 20 / 100 x 100 = 20%
- markup = 20 / 80 x 100 = 25%
- ROI = 20 / 80 x 100 = 25%
Result: Profit $20, margin 20%, markup 25%, ROI 25%
You make a product for $30, sell it for $45, and expect to sell 200 units.
- profit per unit = 45 - 30 = $15
- profit margin = 15 / 45 x 100 = 33.33%
- markup = 15 / 30 x 100 = 50%
- total profit = 15 x 200 = $3,000
Result: Profit $15 per unit, margin 33.33%, markup 50%, total profit $3,000
Margin vs markup for a $100 cost at different selling prices
| Selling price | Profit | Profit margin | Markup / ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| $110 | $10 | 9.09% | 10% |
| $125 | $25 | 20% | 25% |
| $150 | $50 | 33.33% | 50% |
| $200 | $100 | 50% | 100% |
| $300 | $200 | 66.67% | 200% |
Common mistakes to avoid
- Confusing margin with markup. Margin is profit divided by revenue, markup is profit divided by cost. The same sale always shows a higher markup than margin. Quoting a 50 percent markup as if it were a 50 percent margin overstates how much you keep on each dollar of sales.
- Forgetting costs beyond the purchase price. Shipping, payment processing fees, packaging, returns, and overhead all eat into real profit. A figure that looks healthy here can shrink once those are included, so treat this as gross profit, not take-home.
- Ignoring tax in the revenue figure. If the price you enter as revenue includes sales tax or VAT, the profit and margin will be overstated, because the tax is not yours to keep. Use the net price you actually receive.
- Assuming a high margin means high total profit. A large percentage on a single low-priced sale can earn less than a thin margin on high volume. Always look at total profit alongside the percentages before judging a deal.
Glossary
- Profit
- What is left after subtracting cost from revenue: revenue minus cost.
- Revenue
- The total amount you receive from a sale, the selling price before costs are deducted.
- Cost
- What you pay to make or buy the item, used as the base for markup and ROI.
- Profit margin
- Profit expressed as a percentage of revenue: profit / revenue x 100.
- Markup
- Profit expressed as a percentage of cost: profit / cost x 100.
- ROI
- Return on investment, profit as a percentage of the cost invested, the same calculation as markup here.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate profit?
Profit is revenue minus cost. Subtract what you paid (cost) from what you sold it for (revenue). If you buy for $80 and sell for $100, your profit is $20. Enter both figures and the calculator does this instantly, plus the percentages.
What is the difference between profit margin and markup?
Profit margin is profit as a percentage of revenue (profit / revenue x 100), while markup is profit as a percentage of cost (profit / cost x 100). For the same sale, markup is always the larger number because cost is the smaller base. A $20 profit on an $80 cost is a 20 percent margin but a 25 percent markup.
How is ROI calculated in this tool?
ROI (return on investment) here is profit divided by cost, times 100, the same as markup. It tells you the percentage return on the money you put in. A $20 profit on an $80 cost is a 25 percent ROI.
What does the quantity field do?
Quantity multiplies the per-unit profit to give total profit across all units. The margin, markup, and ROI percentages do not change with quantity, because they are ratios, but the total profit scales up directly with the number of units.
Is this gross profit or net profit?
This is gross profit: revenue minus the cost you enter. It does not subtract overhead, taxes, shipping, fees, or returns. Your net profit, what you actually keep, will be lower once those operating costs are accounted for.
Why is my margin shown as a dash?
Profit margin divides by revenue and markup or ROI divides by cost, so when revenue or cost is zero that figure is undefined and shows as a dash. Enter a non-zero value to see the percentage.
Sources
- Profit Margin , Investopedia
- Return on Investment (ROI) , Investopedia