📊 Break-Even Point Calculator

Find out how many units you need to sell to cover your costs. Enter your fixed costs, selling price, and variable cost per unit.

Fixed costs ($/month)

Price per unit ($)

Variable cost per unit ($)

Contribution margin does the work

Each sale contributes what is left after its variable cost, and those contributions must clear the month's fixed costs before anything is profit:

contribution margin = price - variable cost per unit
break-even units    = fixed costs / contribution margin
break-even revenue  = break-even units × price

With $2,000 of fixed costs, a $25 price and $10 variable cost, each unit contributes $15 and you need 133.3 of them - shown as 134, since you cannot sell a third of a unit. The revenue line uses the exact 133.33 and reads $3,333.33; selling all 134 brings in $3,350, about $10 of profit.

Getting the two cost lines right

Fixed costs are what you pay whether you sell nothing or everything: rent, insurance, software, accountant. Include your own pay - leave your wage out and break-even only means the business survived while you worked free.
Variable costs follow the unit: materials, packaging, shipping you absorb, per-sale payment fees. A typical card rate of 2.9% plus 30c takes $1.03 from a $25 order, and belongs here.
For a profit target, add the profit to fixed costs before dividing.
Price at or below variable cost and there is no break-even at any volume; the panel stops updating rather than showing a figure.

Break-even tells you what your costs demand, not what customers will pay. If 134 units a month at $25 is more than your market has ever bought, the answer is not to sell harder - the price, the cost base or the product has to change.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the break-even point for my business?

Subtract a unit's variable cost from its price to get the contribution margin, then divide monthly fixed costs by that. $2,000 of fixed costs against $15 of contribution is 134 units a month.

What counts as a fixed cost and what is variable?

Ask whether it changes when you sell one more. Rent and insurance do not, so they are fixed; boxes, postage and card fees do. A hire on set hours is fixed; overtime paid to fill orders is variable.

How many units do I need to sell to make $1,000 profit?

Treat the profit as another fixed cost. At $15 contribution, $2,000 of costs plus $1,000 of profit is $3,000 to cover: 200 units.