Break-Even Point Calculator
Enter your fixed costs, variable cost per unit, and selling price. The tool shows how many units or projects you need to cover your costs and start making profit.
Rent, software, salaries, insurance — costs that stay fixed regardless of how much you sell.
Materials, delivery, payment fees per sale.
units to break even per year ($34,286 revenue)
Profit at different volumes
I want to know how many products I need to sell before I start making a profit.
I sell each product for $100, and it costs me $30 to make and ship it. That leaves me with $70 per sale.
But I also have fixed costs, such as rent and software, which come to $2,000 a month. That's $24,000 a year.
So, how many products do I need to sell to break even?
I divide $24,000 by $70 and get 343 sales a year, or about 29 a month. That's roughly 7 sales a week.
Until I reach that point, I'm covering my costs rather than making a profit.
What if I sold twice as many, or 686 products a year? After covering my costs, I'd make around $24,020 in annual profit.
That sounds achievable, provided there's enough demand for my products.
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The break-even point is the number of units you need to sell before your revenue covers all your costs. Every unit sold after that generates profit.
How it's worked out
- Your margin on each sale is the price minus the cost of making or delivering one.
- Your break-even point is your fixed costs divided by that margin, rounded up to a whole unit.
- The revenue you need is the break-even units times the price.
With $12,000 of fixed costs a year, a price of $50 and a cost of $20 per sale, the margin is $30. You need to sell 400 to break even, which is $20,000 of revenue.
Common mistakes
- Leaving out a fixed cost. Rent, software, insurance and your own pay all count.
- Assuming you will sell as much as you hope. Work out what happens if you sell half.
- Forgetting discounts and refunds, which bring the real price below the one you list.
- Treating break-even as a profit. It is the point where you stop losing money.
Questions
What counts as a fixed cost?
Costs that do not change with the number of units you sell: rent, salaried staff, software subscriptions, insurance, professional memberships. If you pay it whether you sell one unit or a thousand, it is fixed.
What counts as a variable cost?
Costs that scale with output: materials, packaging, delivery fees, payment processing fees, contractor costs per job. If it goes up every time you make a sale, it is variable.
Is this the same as a profit and loss forecast?
No. This tool shows the break-even point and a simplified profit projection at fixed volume multiples. A full P&L would include tax, depreciation, and variable overheads. This is a quick-check tool, not a financial model.
What if I get no result?
The tool needs your price to be higher than your cost per sale. If it is equal or lower, you never earn enough on each sale to cover your fixed costs, so there is no break-even point. Raise the price or lower the cost.
What does the table of 1x, 1.5x, 2x and 3x show?
It shows the profit if you sell that many times your break-even number. It helps you see how quickly the profit grows after you pass break-even.
Officially: financial modelling. Unofficially: this.