Profit Percentage Calculator

How to use the profit percentage calculator

Enter the cost price — what you paid to acquire or produce the item — in the Cost Price field. Enter the selling price — what the buyer paid — in the Selling Price field. The calculator instantly shows your profit percentage, your total profit amount in dollars, and a plain-English summary. Both fields accept decimals and large numbers. If the selling price is below the cost price, the calculator shows a negative profit percentage, indicating a loss on the transaction.

How the profit percentage calculator works

Profit percentage (also called profit on cost or markup) is calculated as: ((Selling Price − Cost Price) ÷ Cost Price) × 100. For a product bought at $80 and sold for $120: (($120 − $80) ÷ $80) × 100 = (40 ÷ 80) × 100 = 50%. This is profit percentage on cost. It is different from gross margin, which divides profit by revenue instead: $40 ÷ $120 × 100 = 33.3% gross margin. A 50% profit percentage on cost equals a 33.3% gross margin. Understanding the distinction prevents common pricing errors.

When to use this calculator

Use the profit percentage calculator any time you need to evaluate whether a buy-sell transaction is profitable and by how much. eCommerce sellers use it to check the profit percentage on every product SKU after accounting for cost of goods, shipping, and platform fees. Stock and crypto traders use it to track return on investment — entering their purchase price as the cost and the current or sale price as the selling price. Real estate investors calculate profit percentage on property sales relative to total acquisition and renovation costs. Freelancers and agencies compare their effective profit rate across different clients or projects. Flippers and resellers evaluate whether a product is worth buying based on a target profit percentage before committing.

Frequently asked questions