Break-Even Calculator
Find the minimum whole units to cover costs, calculate target-profit sales and compare three pricing scenarios.
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Find whole-unit break-even and target-profit volumes, profit at planned sales and price sensitivity.
How to use it
- 1Enter one period’s fixed costs and planned unit sales.
- 2Enter the selling price and variable cost per sale.
- 3Optionally enter a target profit, then calculate.
- 4Review minimum units and price scenarios or download the results.
Example
- Input
- 1,000 fixed, 12.50 price, 7.20 unit cost, 225 sales
- Output
- 189 units to break even, with 192.50 modeled profit at 225 sales.
What happens to your data
Prices, costs and sales counts are calculated in this tab. Anonymous workflow records omit those figures. Exported files retain the calculation.
Last updated November 2026
Find the minimum whole units a single product must sell to cover its costs. Enter fixed costs, the selling price and variable cost per sale, plus your planned sales for the same period. Check the expected profit or loss at that volume, set an optional profit target and compare what would happen if the selling price changed by 10% in either direction.
How it works
Contribution margin per unit equals selling price minus variable cost per unit. With positive contribution, the break-even point in units is fixed costs divided by contribution. The calculator rounds that result up so you can plan for whole units. Break-even sales revenue multiplies that whole-unit quantity by the entered price, so it can exceed the exact fractional break-even amount. The target profit calculator adds the target to fixed costs before dividing. For your planned volume, profit or loss equals the contribution per sale multiplied by the units sold, minus fixed costs.
When contribution is zero or negative and there are fixed costs, no number of sales breaks even. With no fixed costs, zero sales covers zero costs. At zero contribution, any sales volume then yields zero profit; at negative contribution, every sale creates a loss. A positive target still requires positive contribution. Monetary inputs have up to nine digits before and two digits after the decimal point. Planned sales accept zero to 999,999,999 whole units. Prices and whole-unit thresholds use exact integer cents.
The three scenarios keep costs and planned volume fixed and round the changed price to the nearest cent. Model one product and one period at a time. Put costs such as per-sale fees in the variable-cost field if they fit your scenario. The model does not estimate taxes, changing demand, a multi-product sales mix or costs that change in steps.
Worked example: Plan a whole-unit sales target
- Input
- Fixed costs 1,000.00, price 12.50, variable cost 7.20, planned sales 225 and target profit 500.00
- Result
- 189 units to break even, 192.50 profit at 225 sales and 284 units for the target profit.
At 189 whole units, revenue is 2,362.50 and modeled profit is 1.70.
Common use cases
- Estimate the number of tickets a fundraiser must sell to cover fixed costs.
- Plan a sales target for a product with a known cost and selling price.
- Compare a lower price, entered price and higher price at the same sales volume.
- Export the three scenarios to a spreadsheet or save the exact-cent model as JSON.
Frequently asked questions
Which costs should I enter?＋
Enter the fixed costs for the period and the variable cost of selling one unit. Use the same period for planned sales and the optional profit target. All monetary values use the same currency.
Why does the calculator round break-even units up?＋
If the mathematical threshold is 188.68 units and you can sell only whole units, 188 falls short. The minimum whole-unit result is 189.
What if the price is at or below the variable cost?＋
Sales then contribute nothing or make the result worse. With positive fixed costs, no sales quantity reaches break-even. The calculator shows the loss at the planned volume.
Do pricing scenarios predict how many customers will buy?＋
No. They compare the entered prices while holding planned sales and costs fixed so you can isolate the price change.
Standards and limitations
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