Pricing Math: Markup, Margin and Discounts
Reference pages for the three moves behind every price: markup on cost, margin on price and discount off the ticket.
Every price on a shelf is one of three arithmetic moves: a markup added to cost, a margin taken out of the price, or a discount taken off the ticket. The three are related by two short formulas, and most pricing arguments in small businesses come from applying the wrong one. This hub collects the reference pages for each move: markup-to-margin conversions from 5% to 200%, margin-to-markup conversions from 5% to 95%, and percent-off pages from 10% to 90%, each with a live calculator, a price table and the reverse calculation. The master tables below give the whole conversion at a glance; the individual pages go into the arithmetic, the common mistakes and the worked examples for that one number.
Start here
Markup to margin
Read the markup table left to right: pick the markup you add to cost and the next column tells you the margin that appears on your accounts. Read the margin table the same way for the opposite question. If you are holding a price and a cost and want to know which percentage you are actually earning, the Profit Margin Calculator linked below does both directions from raw numbers. The discount grid shows the amount paid at each percentage for common price points; every percentage links to its own page with the reverse calculation and the stacked-discount table.
- 5% markup → 4.8% margin
- 10% markup → 9.1% margin
- 15% markup → 13% margin
- 20% markup → 16.7% margin
- 25% markup → 20% margin
- 30% markup → 23.1% margin
- 35% markup → 25.9% margin
- 40% markup → 28.6% margin
- 45% markup → 31% margin
- 50% markup → 33.3% margin
- 55% markup → 35.5% margin
- 60% markup → 37.5% margin
- 65% markup → 39.4% margin
- 70% markup → 41.2% margin
- 75% markup → 42.9% margin
- 80% markup → 44.4% margin
- 85% markup → 45.9% margin
- 90% markup → 47.4% margin
- 95% markup → 48.7% margin
- 100% markup → 50% margin
- 110% markup → 52.4% margin
- 120% markup → 54.5% margin
- 130% markup → 56.5% margin
- 140% markup → 58.3% margin
- 150% markup → 60% margin
- 160% markup → 61.5% margin
- 170% markup → 63% margin
- 180% markup → 64.3% margin
- 190% markup → 65.5% margin
- 200% markup → 66.7% margin
Margin to markup
Which number should you use? Use markup when you are building a price from a supplier's cost sheet, because it is a multiplication you can apply to a whole list. Use margin when anyone else has to read the result, because margin is a share of revenue and every financial ratio is built on revenue. Use the discount pages when you are planning a promotion, and read the discount against the margin, not the markup: a promotion deeper than the margin sells below cost.
- 5% margin → 5.3% markup
- 10% margin → 11.1% markup
- 15% margin → 17.6% markup
- 20% margin → 25% markup
- 25% margin → 33.3% markup
- 30% margin → 42.9% markup
- 35% margin → 53.8% markup
- 40% margin → 66.7% markup
- 45% margin → 81.8% markup
- 50% margin → 100% markup
- 55% margin → 122.2% markup
- 60% margin → 150% markup
- 65% margin → 185.7% markup
- 70% margin → 233.3% markup
- 75% margin → 300% markup
- 80% margin → 400% markup
- 85% margin → 566.7% markup
- 90% margin → 900% markup
- 95% margin → 1900% markup
Percent off
Each page shows the sale price for common tickets, the reverse calculation from a sale price to the original, the stacked-discount table for a coupon applied on top, and a mental-math shortcut for that percentage. Sellers should read the discount against the margin: the percent-off pages say where a promotion starts selling below cost.