Product Pricing Calculator
The price a product needs from its cost and your target margin — with the wholesale and retail prices a channel implies.
Margin and markup are not the same, and confusing them is the most common pricing error.
How the product pricing calculator works
Margin and markup are not the same, and confusing them is the most common pricing error. Markup is the addition to cost; margin is the share of the selling price. A 50% markup gives a 33% margin.
The channel matters as much. If a retailer takes 50%, a product that needs a 20 wholesale price must retail at 40, and you have to be sure it sells there.
Formula: price = cost / (1 − margin); markup = price/cost − 1
Worked examples
| Inputs | Your selling price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 12 cost, 40% margin | $23.33 | 23.33 selling price |
| Through a reseller | $23.33 | retails at 46.67 |
| A thinner margin | $17.50 | 17.50 |
FAQFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between margin and markup?
Markup is the addition to cost; margin is the share of the selling price. A 50% markup is a 33% margin — they are never the same number.
What margin should I target?
It varies enormously by industry. Grocery runs on 2 to 5%, software on 70 to 90%. Compare against your own sector, not a general rule.
How do I price for retail?
Work backwards. Decide the shelf price the market supports, take off the retailer's margin, and check what is left covers your cost and margin.
Should overhead be in the unit cost?
For pricing decisions, yes. A price that covers only direct cost plus margin does not cover the business.
Why can I not have a 100% margin?
Because margin is a share of the price. At 100% the cost would have to be zero, which is why the formula diverges.
Where these figures come from
- Corporate Finance Institute — EBITDA — why EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure with no single definition
- US SEC — Non-GAAP Financial Measures, Compliance & Disclosure Interpretations — the disclosure rules that exist precisely because EBITDA is not standardised
- Australian Securities and Investments Commission — the Australian corporate regulator
Last checked: September 2026. These are standard management-accounting definitions; where a term has no single agreed definition, the page says so.