How to use the Break-Even Calculator
- Enter your fixed costs for the period.
- Enter your selling price per unit.
- Enter your variable cost per unit.
- Read the break-even units and revenue.
What does this tool do?
Every sale contributes (price − variable cost) towards paying your fixed costs — rent, salaries, software. Once those contributions add up to your fixed costs, you've broken even and every further sale is profit.
Why use it?
- Test whether a price works before launching.
- Set realistic sales targets.
- See how cutting costs lowers the bar.
Example
With $8,000 of fixed costs a month, a $45 price and $20 of variable cost per unit, each sale contributes $25. You need 8,000 ÷ 25 = 320 sales a month to break even, which is $14,400 of revenue.
The formula
Privacy
The calculation happens instantly in your browser. The numbers you enter are not sent to our servers or saved. There's no account to create and nothing to install.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between fixed and variable costs?
Fixed costs stay the same however much you sell — rent, salaries, software subscriptions. Variable costs rise with each sale — materials, packaging, shipping and payment fees.
What if my price is lower than my variable cost?
Then you can never break even: every sale loses money and selling more makes it worse. You need to raise the price or reduce the cost per unit.
Last reviewed by the M2Toolkit team.