About the Break-Even Calculator
The break-even point is how many units you need to sell before you stop making a loss and start making a profit — where total revenue exactly covers total costs. This calculates it from your fixed costs, selling price and per-unit variable cost. It's a core planning tool for anyone starting or running a small business, launching a product, or checking whether a price is viable.
How it works — the formula
First it finds the contribution margin per unit — the price minus the variable cost, i.e. how much each sale contributes toward fixed costs:
Contribution = price − variable cost per unit.
Then:
Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ contribution per unit, and break-even revenue = break-even units × price.
For example, with $10,000 fixed costs, a $25 price and $15 variable cost, each unit contributes $10, so you break even at 10,000 ÷ 10 = 1,000 units ($25,000 in sales). The unit figure is rounded up, since you can't sell a fraction of a unit to break even.
Assumptions and behaviour
- Fixed costs are total costs that don't change with volume (rent, salaries, equipment); variable costs are per-unit costs that scale with production (materials, packaging).
- Contribution per unit must be positive — the price has to exceed the variable cost, or you never break even.
- Break-even units are rounded up to a whole unit.
- Currency-agnostic; results assume one product at one price.
Limitations
- If the price doesn't exceed the variable cost, there's no break-even — every sale loses money, and the tool flags this.
- It models a single product at a single price; it doesn't handle a product mix, volume discounts, or stepped fixed costs that jump at higher output.
- It assumes fixed costs stay constant and variable cost per unit is the same at every volume — real costs can change with scale.
- It's a planning estimate; it doesn't account for tax, seasonality or demand.
Privacy
The calculation runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
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