Business calculator

Break-Even Calculator

Calculate break-even units and revenue, contribution margin, target-profit sales, expected profit, and margin of safety — with a viability verdict, scenario comparison, sensitivity tables, a break-even chart, and a formula-backed XLSX workbook. Built for small businesses, startups, ecommerce sellers, service providers, manufacturers, restaurants, and agencies.

Transparent assumptions Transparent CVP formulas 6 modes incl. service, ecommerce & multi-product 12 currencies + custom symbol 12-sheet XLSX workbook Practical interpretation

Calculate break-even Break-even formulas

Verify against your own records — full formula shown.

Break-even is the sales level where total revenue equals total cost. Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ contribution margin per unit, where the contribution margin is the selling price minus the variable cost of one sale. With $18,000 of monthly fixed costs, an $80 price, and a $35 variable cost, each sale contributes $45 — so break-even is 400 units ($32,000 of revenue), and a $5,000 profit target needs 512 units.

Simple

Fixed costs (monthly)

Rent, salaries, insurance, software — costs that don't change with each sale.

Selling price per unit

Variable cost per unit

Materials, packaging, fees, commissions — costs that rise with each sale.

Target profit (optional)

Expected units sold (optional)

Enables expected profit, margin of safety, and the viability check.

Startup cost (optional, one-time)

Shown as a payback volume — kept separate from period fixed costs.

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Results · monthly

Watch

Break-even units

400

Sell this many units per period to cover fixed costs.

Break-even revenue

$32,000

The sales value where revenue equals total cost.

Contribution margin / unit

$45.00

Price − variable cost: what each sale contributes.

Contribution margin ratio

56.3%

Contribution margin as a share of the price.

Units for target profit

512

For $5,000 of profit.

Target-profit revenue

$40,889

Sales value the target needs.

Expected profit / loss

$4,500

At 500 expected units.

Margin of safety

20%

100 units above break-even.

Required price for target

$81.00

Variable cost + (fixed + target) ÷ expected units.

Max variable cost allowed

$34.00

To hit the target at the current price and volume.

Max fixed costs allowed

$17,500

The heaviest overhead this plan can carry.

Profit per unit after break-even

$45.00

Each sale beyond break-even adds the contribution margin.

12 sheets generated from your inputs with live formulas: break-even engine, target profit, scenarios, sensitivity tables, multi-product analysis, fixed/variable cost breakdowns, and assumptions.

What your break-even result means

Plain-English reading of the current numbers — planning signals, not verdicts.

Moderate safety buffer

Sales can fall 20.0% before the plan dips below break-even — workable, but watch demand closely.

Break-even chart

Revenue and total cost as volume grows — they cross at the break-even point. Profit is the gap between them.

RevenueTotal cost (fixed + variable)Profit⊙ Break-even at ~400 units

Show chart data as a table

Break-even chart data
Units	Revenue	Total cost	Profit
0	$0	$18,000	−$18,000
125	$10,000	$22,375	−$12,375
250	$20,000	$26,750	−$6,750
375	$30,000	$31,125	−$1,125
500	$40,000	$35,500	$4,500
625	$50,000	$39,875	$10,125
750	$60,000	$44,250	$15,750
875	$70,000	$48,625	$21,375
1,000	$80,000	$53,000	$27,000

Contribution margin waterfall

Selling price minus each variable-cost component — what is left is the contribution margin that pays for fixed costs.

Selling price

$80.00

− Variable cost

−$35.00

= Contribution margin

$45.00

Margin of safety

How far sales can fall before the plan dips below break-even. Bands: under 10% very thin · 10–25% moderate · above 25% healthier.

0%10%25%50%+

Margin of safety: 20% — sales can fall this far before the plan turns loss-making.

Scenario comparison

Conservative, base, and optimistic cases — and which single lever improves profit most.

Scenario assumptions (editable)· cons. -10% price / opt. +10%

Conservative: price change

Conservative: variable cost change

Conservative: fixed cost change

Conservative: volume change

Optimistic: price change

Optimistic: variable cost change

Optimistic: fixed cost change

Optimistic: volume change

Scenario comparison table
Scenario	Price	Var. cost	Fixed costs	Expected units	BE units	Expected profit	MoS %	Status
Conservative	$72	$39	$19,800	400	591	−$6,400	-47.8%	Risky
Base case	$80	$35	$18,000	500	400	$4,500	20%	Watch
Optimistic	$88	$33	$18,000	600	328.8	$14,850	45.2%	Strong

Conservative

−$6,400

Base case

$4,500

Optimistic

$14,850

Which lever helps most: raise price 10% adds about $4,000 of profit at your expected volume — more than sell 10% more units, cut fixed costs 10%, cut variable cost 10%. (Each lever tested alone at 10%.)

Sensitivity analysis

How break-even and profit move when one assumption changes and the rest stay put. The centre row of each table is your current position.

Price sensitivity

Price sensitivity
Change	Price	CM / unit	BE units	Expected profit
-20%	$64.00	$29.00	620.7	−$3,500
-10%	$72.00	$37.00	486.5	$500
0%	$80.00	$45.00	400	$4,500
+10%	$88.00	$53.00	339.6	$8,500
+20%	$96.00	$61.00	295.1	$12,500

Variable cost sensitivity

Variable cost sensitivity
Change	Var. cost	CM / unit	BE units	Expected profit
-20%	$28.00	$52.00	346.2	$8,000
-10%	$31.50	$48.50	371.1	$6,250
0%	$35.00	$45.00	400	$4,500
+10%	$38.50	$41.50	433.7	$2,750
+20%	$42.00	$38.00	473.7	$1,000

Fixed cost sensitivity

Fixed cost sensitivity
Change	Fixed costs	CM / unit	BE units	Expected profit
-20%	$14,400.00	$45.00	320	$8,100
-10%	$16,200.00	$45.00	360	$6,300
0%	$18,000.00	$45.00	400	$4,500
+10%	$19,800.00	$45.00	440	$2,700
+20%	$21,600.00	$45.00	480	$900

Profit at different volumes

Profit at different volumes
% of expected	Units	Revenue	Profit / loss
25%	125	$10,000	−$12,375
50%	250	$20,000	−$6,750
75%	375	$30,000	−$1,125
100%	500	$40,000	$4,500
125%	625	$50,000	$10,125
150%	750	$60,000	$15,750
200%	1,000	$80,000	$27,000

Break-even units grid — price vs variable cost

Break-even units when price and variable cost change
Price ↓ / Cost →	-20%	-10%	0%	+10%	+20%
-20%	500	554	621	706	818
-10%	409	444	486	537	600
0%	346	371	400	434	474
+10%	300	319	340	364	391
+20%	265	279	295	313	333

— means break-even is impossible at that combination (variable cost reaches the price).

At a glance

Formula shown: Break-even units = Fixed costs ÷ Contribution margin per unit (price − variable cost).
Scenario support: Six modes with target-profit, scenario comparison, sensitivity tables, and multi-product mix.
Workbook export: 12-sheet Excel (XLSX) export
Educational estimate: Planning support from the values you enter — not professional advice.

How to read your result

Break-even units and revenue are two views of the same threshold — the volume to clear before profit starts, and that same point in sales dollars. The real test of a plan isn't the break-even number itself but how it compares against realistic demand: if break-even sits far above what you can plausibly sell, the price is too low, variable costs are too high, or the fixed-cost base needs trimming before the plan works. Watch the margin of safety — the cushion between your expected sales and break-even — since it answers "how much can demand disappoint before this turns loss-making?" If a target profit is set, the required volume and required price outputs turn that goal into a concrete number rather than a hope. Switch modes for service capacity, ecommerce fee structures, or a multi-product sales mix before treating any single-product estimate as final.

Break-even formulas

Contribution margin

CM = Price − Variable cost per unit

What each sale contributes toward fixed costs. CM ratio = CM ÷ Price.

Break-even units

BE units = Fixed costs ÷ CM

Round up when fractional sales aren't possible.

Break-even revenue

BE revenue = BE units × Price = Fixed ÷ CM ratio

The same point in sales dollars.

Target-profit units

Units = (Fixed + Target profit) ÷ CM

Break-even plus the volume the target needs.

Worked example

A product business has $18,000 per month of fixed costs, sells at $80, and pays $35 of variable cost per unit.

Contribution margin = 80 − 35 = $45 per unit (a 56.25% contribution margin ratio).
Break-even units = 18,000 ÷ 45 = 400 units.
Break-even revenue = 400 × 80 = $32,000.
For a $5,000 monthly profit target: (18,000 + 5,000) ÷ 45 = 511.1 → 512 units in practice.
At an expected volume of 500 units: profit = 500 × 45 − 18,000 = $4,500, and the margin of safety is (500 − 400) ÷ 500 = 20%.

The reading: the plan is profitable at expected volume but lands just short of the $5,000 target (a $500 gap — about 12 more units), and sales can fall 20% before the month turns loss-making. The calculator loads these numbers by default so you can poke at them.

Assumptions

Built on the standard cost-volume-profit assumptions: constant prices and costs across the volume range.
Contribution margin subtracts everything that scales with a sale — fees, commissions, shipping, refund allowances — not just COGS; it is not the same as gross margin.
Multi-product results depend on the sales-mix assumption holding at every volume.
Break-even units round up when fractional sales aren’t possible.

Limitations

Discounts, bulk pricing, and rising input costs bend the real curve — prices and costs are not actually constant.
Does not fully model taxes, depreciation, financing, working capital, seasonality, or demand elasticity.
Break-even profit does not always mean positive cash flow — payment timing and inventory purchases move cash separately.

This is a planning estimate, not bookkeeping. For the full revenue-to-net-profit picture see the profit margin calculator; to price from cost see the markup calculator; for ad-spend break-even see the break-even ROAS calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What is the break-even point?

The sales volume (or revenue) where total revenue equals total fixed plus variable costs. Below it the business loses money; above it, each sale adds roughly the contribution margin per unit to profit.

What is contribution margin?

Selling price minus variable cost per unit — the amount each sale contributes toward fixed costs and profit. The contribution margin ratio divides it by the price. It is the engine of every number on this page.

Can break-even be impossible?

Yes — when variable cost per unit equals or exceeds the selling price, the contribution margin is zero or negative, every sale loses money before fixed costs, and no volume breaks even. The calculator shows “Not possible” instead of a misleading number.

What is margin of safety?

The cushion between expected sales and break-even: (expected − break-even) ÷ expected. Under 10% is a very thin buffer, 10–25% moderate, above 25% healthier. It answers “how much can demand disappoint before we lose money?”

Is break-even the same as cash-flow positive?

No. Break-even is about profit mechanics; cash flow is about timing. Inventory purchases, customer payment delays, loan principal, and tax instalments can leave a profitable business short of cash. Treat break-even as one lens, not a cash forecast.

Read the guide

For how margin, markup, and break-even relate to each other, with worked examples, see Profit Margin vs Markup vs Break-Even: The Difference Explained.

Business planning disclaimer

This break-even calculator and its XLSX workbook are for educational and business-planning purposes only. They provide estimates based on the inputs you enter and the standard cost-volume-profit assumptions (constant prices and costs, a clean fixed/variable split, sales mix held constant). They are not accounting, tax, legal, investment, or financial advice, do not model taxes, depreciation, financing, working capital, seasonality, inventory timing, or demand elasticity, and break-even profit does not always mean positive cash flow. Verify important decisions with your own records and a qualified professional.

How we calculate · Found an error? email us

Authorship & verification

Written and maintained by Jay Sudha

Formula and examples verified on 14 June 2026
Educational estimate only

Calculator

What your break-even result means

Break-even chart

Contribution margin waterfall

Margin of safety

Scenario comparison

Sensitivity analysis

How to read your result

Break-even formulas

Worked example

Assumptions

Limitations

Frequently asked questions

Related calculators

Read the guide