Break-Even Calculator
Fixed costs divided by the contribution each sale makes: the units — and the revenue — at which a product or business stops losing money. Exact and rounded-up figures both shown.
The most useful line in business arithmetic
Fixed costs sit there whether you sell anything or not. Each sale contributes its price minus its variable cost toward paying them. Divide one by the other and you get the line between losing and living — the break-even point, in units and in revenue.
Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost per unit)
Example: fixed costs $3,000 a month, a product at $25 with $11 of variable cost: contribution $14 per sale, break-even 215 units (214.3 exactly, rounded up — the 214th sale still leaves you short), about $5,357 of revenue. Every unit past 215 is $14 of gross profit.
Contribution is the concept to keep
The denominator — price minus truly variable cost — is called contribution, and it disciplines pricing conversations: a discount that cuts contribution by a third requires 50% more volume just to stand still. Discount proposals rarely survive being fed through this page.
How this is calculated
Break-even units = fixed ÷ (price − variable), reported both exactly and rounded up to whole units, since fractional sales do not exist. Break-even revenue = exact units × price. Costs must be cleanly separable into fixed (per period) and variable (per unit) for the model to hold — mixed costs (a delivery van that is both) should be split by judgment and the split remembered.
Frequently asked questions
What if price is below variable cost?
Then every sale deepens the loss and no break-even exists — the page refuses rather than printing a negative unit count. That product must be repriced, re-costed, or understood as a deliberate loss leader with the subsidy measured elsewhere.
Does break-even include my salary?
It must, if the business is to be a living rather than a hobby: owner pay for the work done belongs in fixed costs. Omitting it is how profitable-on-paper businesses pay their owners nothing.
How do multi-product businesses use this?
With a weighted-average contribution across the sales mix — the method extends, but the mix assumption becomes the fragile part. Single-product clarity is this page's deliberate scope.
Break-even in units or in time?
Both: divide break-even units by your realistic sales rate to get the month you cross the line — the figure a launch plan actually needs.
Embed this calculator
Writing about money — a blog, a school page, a community site? Put this calculator on your page, free: copy the code below and paste it where you want the calculator to appear. It stays up to date automatically — the small credit line underneath is all we ask in return.
CalcPrincipal