About this site
A free, clear margin and markup calculator. Built because every other tool we found was either too basic or too cluttered.
Why this exists
The difference between margin and markup is responsible for an extraordinary amount of mispricing in small businesses. The arithmetic isn't hard. The confusion is. We built marginvsmarkup.com to be the clearest possible answer to "how do these two relate, and what should I actually charge?"
What's different
Most calculators ask you to pick what you want to calculate from a dropdown, then show you one answer. Ours shows all four values — cost, price, margin, markup — at once. Fill in any two, see the other two compute in real time. That's a better mental model and faster to use.
Most calculators also stop at the basic four-input math. Real businesses pay Stripe, ship products, owe taxes, and run ads. Our fees section lets you add all of that and see how gross margin collapses into net margin in real time.
What's free
Everything. No signup, no email gate, no premium tier. The calculator, the conversion chart (with PDF and SVG downloads), the embed widget, the industry pages, the blog — all free, all forever.
Privacy
To keep the site free, we run advertising and use standard analytics tools. Specifically:
- Google Analytics — for aggregate traffic and behaviour reporting (which pages are popular, how people arrive, etc.). No personally identifiable information is collected by us.
- Google Ads — for ad placement, including remarketing. You may see marginvsmarkup.com ads after visiting the site.
- Adsterra Ads — additional ad network used to serve display advertising on the site.
These services use cookies and similar technologies. Your calculator values stay on your device — we don't collect or transmit them. Your currency and decimal preferences are stored locally in your browser's localStorage. For the complete policy, see our privacy page.
Get in touch
Suggestions, corrections, bug reports? Email contactus@marginvsmarkup.com or use our contact page.
Updates
Platform fees change. Stripe, PayPal, Amazon, and Etsy occasionally update their pricing. We re-check rates quarterly and update them in the calculator. If you spot an outdated fee, email us.