Break-Even Point Calculator
Work out how much you have to sell before the business starts making money. Enter your monthly fixed costs, what you charge and what each sale costs you.
Break-Even Point Calculator
Find the volume where revenue finally covers costs — and see how far above or below it you are selling today.
Break-even units per month
Sell this many each month before the business starts making money
217 units
Updates as you type — nothing is sent anywhere.
How break-even is worked out
Every sale contributes the difference between its price and its variable cost. That difference is the contribution margin, and it is what pays down your fixed costs. Divide the fixed costs by the contribution margin and you get the number of units needed to cover them exactly — the break-even point. Below it you are funding the shortfall out of savings; above it every additional unit is profit. The calculator rounds up, because two thirds of a unit does not clear anything.
Fixed and variable are about behaviour, not size
The split is not between big costs and small ones. A fixed cost is one you pay whether or not you sell anything this month: rent, salaries, your Shopify subscription, agency retainers, loan repayments. A variable cost is one that only exists because a sale happened: the goods themselves, payment processing fees, shipping, packaging, pick and pack. Get this wrong in either direction and the answer moves a long way. The most common mistake is leaving payment fees and shipping out of the variable cost, which quietly flatters every figure below.
What contribution margin ratio tells you
The ratio is the contribution margin as a percentage of price, and it is the fastest way to compare products that sell at different prices. A product at a 60 percent ratio pays down fixed costs three times faster per pound of revenue than one at 20 percent. It is also what determines how much a discount really costs you: at a 40 percent ratio, a 10 percent discount takes a quarter of your margin, not a tenth.
When there is no break-even at all
If the variable cost matches or exceeds the price, the contribution margin is zero or negative and no volume reaches break-even — selling more simply loses more. The calculator shows zero units in that case and says so, rather than pretending the point exists. The fix is structural: raise the price, cut the unit cost, or stop selling the product. Volume cannot rescue a negative margin, and marketing spend on top of one only accelerates the loss.
Reading it against what you sell today
Enter your current monthly volume and the last two figures become the useful ones: how many units clear of break-even you are, and what that translates to in profit. A store sitting just above break-even is more fragile than the profit figure suggests, because a small drop in volume or a rise in ad costs crosses the line. A comfortable margin above it is what lets you absorb a bad month or fund a test.
What a single break-even point leaves out
It assumes one price and one unit cost, so a store with a wide catalogue should run it per product line or use a weighted average — a blended figure across very different margins can be misleading. It also treats fixed costs as flat, when in practice they step: another warehouse, another hire, and the line moves. And it is a monthly snapshot, which says nothing about whether the cash arrives before the bills do.
Frequently asked questions
Is this break-even calculator free?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser, needs no signup, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
What is the break-even point formula?
Fixed costs divided by the contribution margin per unit, where contribution margin is the selling price minus the variable cost per unit. With $8,000 of fixed costs, a $65 price and a $28 unit cost, the margin is $37 and break-even is 217 units.
Should payment processing fees be a fixed or variable cost?
Variable. They only occur when a sale does, and they scale with it. The same goes for shipping, packaging and any per-order pick and pack charge.
Why does break-even revenue not equal fixed costs divided by the margin ratio?
Because the unit count is rounded up to a whole unit, and the revenue figure is that whole number of units at your price. The two shown figures therefore agree with each other. The textbook ratio form gives a marginally lower revenue that would not match the units above it.
What if my variable cost is higher than my price?
Then there is no break-even point — each unit sold loses money and selling more makes it worse. The calculator shows zero units and flags it. Raising the price or cutting the unit cost is the only fix; volume is not.
Can I use this for a store selling many different products?
Run it per product line for a decision about a specific product. For a whole-store view, use your average order value as the price and your average variable cost per order — but treat the answer as indicative, since a blend across very different margins hides the products that are dragging.