Free calculator

Markup vs margin calculator for contractors

A 50% markup is a 33% margin. If you have been using those words as if they mean the same thing, you have been leaving money on every job. Put your numbers in and see the gap.

Materials, labor, everything you pay out.

The percentage you use

Switch the toggle to see it the other way.

Price
$9,750
Profit
$3,250
Markup
50.0%
Margin
33.3%

If you meant margin, you are $3,250 light on this one job.

You would have needed to charge $13,000 to hit 50% margin. Across fifty jobs a year that is $162,500.

The difference, in one line each

Markup is profit over cost

You start from what you paid and add a percentage on top. $100 of cost plus 50% markup is $150.

Margin is profit over price

You start from what the customer pays and ask how much of it you kept. $50 of the $150 is 33%, not 50%.

Same job, same fifty dollars, two different percentages. The trouble starts when somebody decides they need a 40% margin and then adds 40% to their cost, which quietly delivers 28.6%.

Markup to margin, at a glance

If your markup isyour margin isto get that margin, mark up
10%9.1%11.1%
15%13.0%17.6%
20%16.7%25.0%
25%20.0%33.3%
30%23.1%42.9%
40%28.6%66.7%
50%33.3%100.0%
60%37.5%150.0%
75%42.9%300.0%
100%50.0%not possible

Read the last column as: to actually keep 30%, you have to mark up 42.9%.

Or stop doing this by hand.

HomeServicesIT prices every estimate off your cost and the margin you set, and labels margin and markup separately on screen so the two can never get mixed up again. Enter thirty squares and it builds the whole material list already priced.