Markup Percentage (on Cost)
Also known as markup · how much to add to cost
Worked example: $80 cost, $100 price → 25% markup on cost — press Try an example to run it live, then adjust anything.
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Markup Percentage (on Cost) explained
Markup measures profit against what the item cost you. Buy at $80, add 25%, and you sell at $100. This is the natural way to think when you are standing at the supplier counter with an invoice in your hand, and it is how most trade pricing is quoted: materials plus 20%, subcontractors plus 10%.
The arithmetic is easy in both directions. Multiply cost by to get the price; divide price by to recover the cost. What is not easy is remembering that this number is not your margin. The same $80-to-$100 deal that is a 25% markup is a 20% margin, because margin measures the identical $20 profit against the $100 price instead. Both figures are correct and they are never equal for a profitable sale. Confusing them is the classic small-business error, and it always errs in the same direction: you charge too little.
Markup Percentage (on Cost) formula
- = Markup on cost
- = Selling price ($)
- = Cost ($)
Missing one of these? Work it out first, then come back
- Markup on cost — Markup and Margin Conversion
- Selling price — Gross Margin Percentage (on Price), Break-Even Quantity
- Cost — Gross Margin Percentage (on Price), Simple Payback Period