Break-Even Calculator

Find the whole units and sales revenue needed to cover your costs.

Your plan

Units + sales to cover your costs

Enter your costs and selling price to find the sales volume that covers your costs.

Calculated on your device. Your numbers aren’t sent or saved.How it’s calculated

The method

First cover your costs. Then plan your profit.

Contribution is what each sale leaves after its variable cost. That amount pays down fixed costs before becoming profit. Divide fixed costs by positive contribution to find the theoretical crossover. Round units upward to find the first whole-unit volume that covers costs. A profit goal raises the amount those sales need to cover.

Contribution per unitSelling price − Variable cost per unit

Contribution margin(Contribution per unit ÷ Selling price) × 100

Theoretical break-even unitsFixed costs ÷ Contribution per unit

Theoretical break-even revenueBreak-even units × Selling price

Theoretical target units(Fixed costs + Target profit) ÷ Contribution per unit

Expected profit / loss(Expected units × Contribution per unit) − Fixed costs

Margin of safetyExpected units − Theoretical break-even units

Margin of safety %(Margin of safety units ÷ Expected units) × 100

Minimum price at expected volumeVariable cost + (Fixed costs + Profit goal) ÷ Expected units; round up to cents

Example 1

Plan for 300 sales, then check your price

With $5,000 fixed costs, a $50 price and $30 variable cost, each sale contributes $20. Break-even is 250 units and $12,500 revenue. A $2,000 profit goal takes 350 units. At 300 sales, profit is $1,000 and your sales cushion is 50 units, or 16.67% of expected sales. At that same volume, charging at least $46.67 covers costs; at least $53.34 meets the $2,000 goal.

Break-even units: 250
Target units: 350
Expected profit: $1,000.00

Example 2

263 units are not quite enough

Keep $5,000 fixed costs and a $50 price, but raise variable cost to $31. Contribution is $19. The exact threshold is 5000 ÷ 19 units: about 263.1579. Selling 263 whole units loses $3; selling 264 earns $16. The theoretical revenue is about $13,157.89, while 264 actual sales bring in $13,200.

Theoretical units: ≈ 263.16
Whole units: 264
Whole revenue: $13,200.00

Before you calculate

Assumptions & limits

Use one product or a stable average unit, such as an item, order, subscription or service unit. Fixed costs, expected sales and target profit must refer to the same period. All amounts use the same currency; USD is the display convention, with no conversion.
Fixed costs stay fixed over that period. Price and variable cost per unit stay constant, and the sales mix does not change. Reverse pricing assumes your expected sales and variable cost remain the same at the new price; it does not predict demand.
Money inputs accept 0–999999999.99 with up to two decimals. Expected sales accept 0–1000000 whole units. No signs, commas, symbols, exponents or fractional units. Blank optional fields are omitted; an entered zero is a real scenario.
Theoretical thresholds require positive contribution. Zero contribution cannot cover positive fixed costs. With zero fixed costs and zero contribution, all volumes balance. With negative contribution and zero fixed costs, only zero sales balance; each additional sale loses money. Contribution margin is undefined at a zero price.
Theoretical units, money and percentages display two decimals, with midpoint ties away from zero. Whole-unit thresholds and minimum required prices round upward. Expected totals and whole-unit revenue retain exact cents and may exceed the per-input money limit.
Margin of safety uses theoretical break-even units, not the rounded whole-unit threshold. A negative margin is a sales shortfall. The percentage divides by expected units and is undefined at zero units; both safety measures are undefined without positive contribution.
Real businesses can have multiple products, step costs, capacity constraints, changing prices and costs, taxes or financing effects. This model does not add those effects. Very large calculated thresholds may be mathematically valid but commercially unattainable.
The chart is explanatory and its axes use approximate labels. The view stops at 1,000,000 units. Thresholds outside the view remain in the results and data table. Use the numeric results for planning.

Keep in mind

Common mix-ups

Rounding a minimum down

A rounded display is not proof that a minimum is met. Use the whole-unit threshold and minimum cent price; the planner checks that those amounts cover the modeled goal.

Confusing revenue with profit

Expected revenue is price times units. Subtract all variable costs and the period’s fixed costs to get profit. Contribution is the amount left before fixed costs are deducted.

Mixing periods or counting costs twice

Use monthly fixed costs with monthly sales and a monthly profit goal, for example. Include each cost once: either in fixed costs or the per-unit variable amount.

Treating break-even as a demand forecast

A required sales volume is a threshold, not evidence that customers will buy. Compare it with expected sales, capacity and the effect a price change could have on demand.

Sources & calculation notes

U.S. Small Business Administration — Break-even point

Reference for the fixed-cost / per-unit contribution model. The profit, expected-volume and reverse-price calculations extend that model with the explicit formulas and rounding rules above.

Calculation and input rules checked: 2026-09-19. Engineering validation; no professional accounting review is claimed.

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