Free markup and margin calculator
Type a cost and the one number you know, your markup, your price, or the margin you want, and get all three at once, with the gross margin and the profit on the job. Want the why behind it? Markup vs margin for contractors explains why a 50 percent markup is only a 33 percent margin.
Your job
A 50 percent markup keeps you a 33 percent margin.
Profit on this job: $50. Margin is what you keep of the price, not your take-home after overhead.
Every flat-rate price in your book is cost plus markup. Set the markup thinking it is the margin and every price is quietly low, across thousands of services, on the busy days nobody is checking. A connected ServiceTitan book holds your real cost and target margin on every job automatically. That is the work we do.
Get a Pricebook Health Audit, or start with an audit when you're ready to have it handled.Want the difference explained in full? Markup vs margin for contractors walks the four markup types, the conversion both ways, and where it bites in your pricebook. Pricing off a wage instead of your real cost? The loaded labor rate calculator shows what an hour actually costs, and how to calculate your loaded labor rate walks the whole thing.
Know an owner who prices in markup and calls it margin? Send them this. One screen, runs in their browser, nothing to download.
An estimate to start the conversation, not financial or accounting advice. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
Reference
How each number is worked out
- Markup
- Profit divided by cost. Add 50 dollars to a 100 dollar job and the markup is 50 percent.
- Gross margin
- Profit divided by price. That same 50 dollars on a 150 dollar price is a 33 percent gross margin, what the job kept before overhead.
- Price
- Cost plus profit, the number the customer pays.
- Target margin to markup
- Margin divided by one minus the margin. To keep 40 percent, mark up 67 percent. The flip box above does this live.
For why the two numbers differ, the four markup types your pricing software offers, and what a real tiered markup table keeps, read markup vs margin for contractors.
Questions
Markup and margin, answered
How do I calculate gross margin from cost and price?
Subtract the cost from the price to get the profit, then divide the profit by the price. A 100 dollar cost sold for 150 is a 50 dollar profit, and 50 divided by 150 is a 33 percent gross margin. The calculator above does it as you type and shows the markup and profit next to it.
How do I find my markup if I know the cost and the price?
Divide the profit by the cost. A 100 dollar cost sold for 150 is a 50 dollar profit, and 50 divided by 100 is a 50 percent markup. Switch the calculator to Price, enter your price, and it reads back the markup and the margin together.
What margin should a contractor charge?
It depends on your costs, not a rule of thumb. Many trades shops target a gross margin around 40 to 55 percent on a job to cover overhead and still clear a net profit, but gross margin is not take-home. Find your true cost per billable hour first with the loaded labor rate calculator, then set the margin on top.
Is a markup the same as a margin?
No. A markup is measured against your cost and a margin against your price, so a 50 percent markup is only a 33 percent margin. The full explanation, with both conversion tables and the four markup types your pricing software offers, is in markup vs margin for contractors.