Markup Calculator
Turn cost into selling price with any markup percentage, or find the markup you are already earning between a cost and a price.
What do you know?
What you pay per unit
Selling Price
$100.00
Cost plus your markup percentage.
Gross Profit
$50.00
Margin
50%
Markup
100%
Price
$100.00
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Markup Formula
Markup expresses your profit as a percentage of what the item cost you. The two forms you need:
- Selling price = cost x (1 + markup / 100)
- Markup % = (selling price - cost) / cost x 100
Example: a $50 item with a 100% markup sells for $50 x 2 = $100. Working backwards, a $50 item selling at $125 carries a (125 - 50) / 50 = 150% markup.
Common Markups by Industry
Typical markups vary widely by industry, and none of these are rules. They are starting points that businesses adjust by category, competition, and how fast inventory turns:
| Industry | Typical Markup Range |
|---|---|
| Gift & boutique retail | Keystone (100%) to 2.2x cost |
| Grocery | 10-35% markup, category dependent |
| Apparel | 100-150% markup |
| Restaurants & bars | 200-400% on food and drink cost |
Low-markup industries like grocery survive on volume and turns. High-markup industries like restaurants need the spread to cover labor, waste, and rent, so the food cost markup is not the profit.
Markup vs Margin
Markup is profit over cost; margin is profit over selling price. A 100% markup is only a 50% margin, and confusing the two will quietly underprice your products. For the full conversion table and formulas, see our margin calculator.
FAQ
Subtract cost from selling price, divide by cost, and multiply by 100. An item that costs $40 and sells for $70 has a markup of (70 - 40) / 40 x 100 = 75%. To go the other way, multiply cost by (1 + markup / 100) to get the price.
66.7%. Margin uses price as the denominator and markup uses cost, so the markup number is always bigger. The conversion is markup = margin / (1 - margin): 0.40 / 0.60 = 0.667. If you apply a 40% markup instead, you only get a 28.6% margin.
It is still the common starting point, but many gift and boutique retailers now price above keystone, often 2.2x to 2.5x cost, to absorb freight, shrink, and card fees. Others go below keystone on price-sensitive staples. Treat keystone as the floor of the conversation, not the answer.
Landed cost. Invoice cost ignores freight, duties, and handling, so marking up the invoice number overstates your real margin, sometimes by several points on heavy or imported goods. Work out your true per-unit cost first with our landed cost calculator at /tools/landed-cost-calculator, then apply your markup to that.
It is the same idea expressed as a factor instead of a percentage: a 2.0 multiplier means price = cost x 2, which is a 100% markup. Many wholesale buyers think in multipliers (2x, 2.2x, 2.5x) because it makes mental math at a trade show faster.