Cost from Margin Calculator

About this calculator

This calculator reverses a margin calculation to find the underlying cost: cost = price × (1 − margin%). It's important not to confuse this with markup — margin is always a percentage of the selling price, while markup is a percentage of cost, so a 25% margin and a 25% markup on the same item imply different costs (a $100 item at 25% margin costs $75, but at 25% markup it costs $80).

Retail buyers use this to reverse-engineer what a supplier likely paid or is charging when only the shelf price and a typical category margin are known, and small business owners use it to check whether a price they're considering actually delivers the profit margin they're targeting before committing to it.