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Break-Even Calculator
The break-even point is where sales exactly cover costs — no profit, no loss. Enter your fixed costs, selling price and variable cost per unit to see how many units and how much revenue that takes, and add a target profit to see the sales needed to reach it.
Rounded up to a whole unit.
- Break-even revenue
- $25,000.00
- Contribution margin per unit
- $20.00
- Contribution margin ratio
- 40%
- Units for target profit
- 500 units
Saved setups
Save a set of inputs you reuse — your usual rate, your loan, your room sizes — and load it back in one tap.
Your recent calculations
Results you calculate here are kept on this device so you can come back to them.
Formula
How to use it
- Enter the fixed costs for the period you are planning — a month or a year.
- Enter the selling price of one unit.
- Enter the variable cost of making and delivering one unit.
- Optionally enter the profit you want, then read the units and revenue required.
Worked examples
$10,000 of fixed costs, a $50 price and $30 of variable cost per unit
- Contribution margin per unit
- $20.00
- Contribution margin ratio
- 40%
- Break-even units
- 500 units
- Break-even revenue
- $25,000.00
$3,500 fixed, $12 price, $4.50 variable cost, aiming for $2,000 profit
- Contribution margin per unit
- $7.50
- Break-even units
- 467 units
- Break-even revenue
- $5,600.00
- Units for target profit
- 734 units
Fixed and variable costs
Fixed costs stay the same whether you sell one unit or a thousand: rent, salaries, insurance, software subscriptions, loan payments. Variable costs rise with every sale: materials, packaging, shipping, card processing fees, sales commission.
Some costs are mixed. A phone plan with a base fee plus usage, or staff who earn overtime when busy, have a fixed part and a variable part. Split them as best you can.
What moves the break-even point
Each unit sold contributes its price minus its variable cost toward the fixed costs. Raising the price from $50 to $55 with a $30 variable cost lifts the contribution from $20 to $25 and cuts the break-even point from 500 units to 400 on $10,000 of fixed costs — a 10% price rise, a 20% lower target.
If the price is at or below the variable cost, every sale loses money and there is no break-even point at any volume.
Questions people ask
How do you calculate the break-even point?
Divide fixed costs by the contribution margin per unit (price minus variable cost). With $10,000 fixed costs, a $50 price and $30 variable cost: $10,000 ÷ $20 = 500 units.
What is break-even revenue?
The sales value at the break-even point: break-even units times price. In the example above it is 500 × $50 = $25,000.
What is a contribution margin ratio?
The share of each sales dollar left after variable costs. A $50 price with $30 of variable cost has a 40% ratio, so every $1 of sales contributes 40 cents toward fixed costs and profit.