Break-even Calculator
Find how many units you must sell to cover fixed and variable costs, and what happens to that number when price or cost moves.
Browser tool
Break-even at 500 units
Exactly 500 units · 25,000.00 revenue
| Units sold | Revenue | Profit / loss |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 12,500.00 | −5,000.00 |
| 375 | 18,750.00 | −2,500.00 |
| 500 | 25,000.00 | 0.00 |
| 625 | 31,250.00 | 2,500.00 |
| 750 | 37,500.00 | 5,000.00 |
| 1,000 | 50,000.00 | 10,000.00 |
How this is calculated
About Break-even Calculator
How many units must be sold before fixed costs are covered and a business starts making money rather than losing it. The number is often larger than expected, and finding that out on a page is cheaper than finding it out in trading. Free to use, needs no subscription, and runs online. Your cost and price assumptions stay in the browser.
How to use Break-even Calculator
- Enter fixed costsWhat you pay regardless of how much you sell: rent, salaries, software, insurance.
- Enter price and variable cost per unitThe gap between them is the contribution each sale makes towards the fixed costs.
- Test the sensitivityMove the price a little and watch the break-even point move a lot. That relationship is the useful output.
Contribution margin does the work
Break-even is fixed costs divided by the contribution each unit makes — price minus variable cost. Because it is a division, a small change in contribution moves the answer sharply: raising the price by ten percent can cut the break-even volume by considerably more than ten percent, which is why pricing has more leverage than most cost-cutting.
What it does not do
- It assumes price and variable cost stay constant at every volume. Real businesses get discounts at scale and often have to discount to reach it.
- Fixed costs are only fixed within a range. Doubling volume may require another member of staff, which moves the line.
- It says nothing about whether the volume is achievable — only what would be required.
Break-even Calculator: questions people ask
- What counts as a fixed cost?
- Anything you pay whether you sell one unit or a thousand: rent, salaries, insurance, subscriptions. Materials and per-sale fees are variable, because they scale with volume.
- My break-even number looks impossible. What now?
- That is the calculation doing its job. The levers are a higher price, a lower variable cost, or lower fixed costs — and price usually moves the answer furthest, because it is a division rather than a subtraction.
- Can it work out a break-even for mortgage points or Social Security?
- No. It finds the number of units a product must sell, using fixed costs ÷ (price per unit − variable cost per unit), and the revenue at that point. Comparing mortgage points or Social Security claiming ages is a different calculation that this page does not perform.
Questions about ToolsVerse itself — privacy, cost, what happens to your files — are answered in the frequently asked questions.
Related tools
The tools people most often need alongside Break-even Calculator.
Can’t find the tool you need?
Tell us what you’re looking for and we’ll consider adding it.