Business & SaaS

Break-Even Calculator

What this does

Find how many units you must sell; and how much revenue that takes; before your business covers its fixed costs.

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Runs in your browser

Calculator inputs

Rent, salaries, insurance; costs that do not change with volume.

Materials, shipping, transaction fees; costs incurred only when you sell.

How to use it

Using the break-even calculator

  1. 01

    Add up fixed costs

    Total the expenses you pay regardless of sales volume for one period; usually a month.

  2. 02

    Enter price and variable cost

    Use realistic figures including discounts; variable cost includes everything triggered by a single sale.

  3. 03

    Read the break-even point

    The result shows the unit count and revenue needed before profit begins.

Good to know

Why contribution margin drives everything

Two businesses with identical fixed costs can have wildly different break-even points purely because of their cost structure. A high-margin software product might break even at dozens of customers while a low-margin reseller needs thousands of transactions. Lowering variable cost; renegotiating suppliers, cutting payment fees; moves the point more than most people expect.

Using break-even for pricing decisions

The calculator makes trade-offs explicit: raising price shrinks the required unit count but may cost you volume, while discounting feels like growth but silently raises the bar you must clear. Before any promotion, re-run the numbers with the discounted price to see how many extra units the deal must bring just to keep pace.

  • Contribution margin = price − variable cost per unit.
  • Lower fixed costs lower the break-even point linearly.
  • If price ≤ variable cost, no volume can ever reach break-even.

How it's calculated

The math behind this calculator

Break-even units = Fixed costs / (Price − Variable cost) Break-even revenue = Break-even units × Price

Every unit sold first pays for its own variable cost; what remains; the contribution margin; chips away at fixed costs. The break-even point is the number of units whose combined contribution margins exactly equal your fixed costs. Beyond it, each sale adds the full contribution margin to profit.

Assumptions & limitations

  • Fixed costs stay constant over the period analyzed.
  • Selling price and variable cost per unit do not change with volume.
  • Everything produced is sold; no inventory build-up.
  • Single-product or constant-mix analysis.

Worked example

With $30,000 of monthly fixed costs, a $50 price and a $30 variable cost, every sale contributes $20; so you break even at exactly 1,500 units, or $75,000 of revenue.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything you pay regardless of output: rent, salaried staff, insurance, software subscriptions, loan payments. Owner salary is usually included for a true picture of viability.
Can I use this for services?
Yes; treat each engagement as a “unit”. Variable cost is whatever delivering one engagement costs you (contractors, usage fees), and price is your fee.
What if my price equals my variable cost?
Then contribution margin is zero and break-even is mathematically impossible; the calculator explains this instead of returning an infinite number.
Does the result include profit?
No; it shows exactly where profit starts. Add your target profit to fixed costs and re-run to find the units needed to earn it.

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