Discount Profit Calculator
Calculate how a discount affects your profit. Works for any marketplace — select a platform preset or enter your own fee rates.
By Marginory teamContent reviewed
Pricing
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Sale price: $24.00
Costs & Fees
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Before vs. After Discount
Full price profit$18.00
Full price margin60.0%
Sale price (20% off) profit$12.00
Sale price margin50.0%
Profit lost per unit$6.00
Discount safety limits
Break-even price$12.00
Maximum discount (break-even)60.0%
Extra units needed (vs. 100 at full price)+50
Worked example: extra sales a discount needs
A $50 item, $22 cost, 10% combined platform and payment fees. Full-price profit $23.
| 10% off | 20% off | 25% off | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profit per sale | $18.50 | $14 | $11.75 |
| Volume increase needed | 24.3% | 64.3% | 95.7% |
The thinner the margin, the more extra volume a discount needs to break even.
How this is calculated
Sale price: Original price × (1 − Discount%)
Profit at sale price: Sale price − Fees − Product cost − Shipping
Max discount: 1 − (Break-even price / Original price)
Extra units needed: (Full-price profit × Baseline units − Sale profit × Baseline units) / Sale profit per unit
Assumptions
- Fees calculated on the discounted sale price
- Break-even: price where profit = 0
- Extra units based on 100-unit baseline for comparison
Review the market, fee bases and exclusions shown with this tool. Published rates and illustrative cost inputs have different certainty. Compare your breakdown with an actual order statement. Sources and methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate profit after a discount?
Sale price = Original price × (1 − Discount%). Profit at sale price = Sale price − Fees − Product cost − Shipping. A $30 item at 20% off sells for $24; if fees run $2.50 and product cost + shipping is $10, profit drops from roughly $13.50 at full price to about $11.50 at the discounted price — a smaller cut than the 20% price cut, because fixed costs don't discount.
What's the maximum discount I can offer without losing money?
Max discount = 1 − (Break-even price / Original price). If your break-even price (the price at which profit = 0) is $18 and your original price is $30, max discount = 1 − (18/30) = 40%. Anything beyond that turns the sale into a loss on that unit, regardless of volume gained.
How many extra sales do I need to make up for a discount?
Extra units needed compares total profit at full price against total profit at the discounted price, divided by profit-per-unit at the discount. A 20% discount that cuts profit-per-unit from $10 to $6 means you'd need roughly 67% more units sold just to match your original total profit — discounts often require far more volume lift than sellers assume to break even on total profit.
What's a common mistake sellers make when running discounts?
Discounting off the sale price without recalculating platform fees, which are usually charged as a percentage of whatever price the item actually sells at. A 20% off sale doesn't just cut $6 off a $30 item — it also lowers the platform fee slightly, but not enough to offset the lost revenue. The dollar-for-dollar hit to profit is almost always larger than sellers expect.
When does a discount actually make sense?
Discounts work when they're financed by genuinely higher volume (clearing inventory, winning a search-ranking boost from 'on sale' badges) or when marginal cost per unit is near zero (digital products). They work poorly on already-thin-margin physical goods, where even a 10% discount can erase most of the profit per unit.
Does this work across Etsy, Shopify, eBay, and TikTok Shop?
Yes — select a platform preset to auto-fill typical fee rates, or enter your own. The discount math (sale price, fees on sale price, break-even, extra units) applies the same way regardless of platform; only the fee percentages differ.