What Margin Is a 35 Percent Markup?
Margin, against price
25.9%
Thirty five percent added to a $10,000 cost is a $13,500 price, and $3,500 out of $13,500 is 25.9 percent.
How that number is worked out
These are the figures this page was built with and every line the calculator produces from them. Change anything above and all of it moves.
- Your cost for the job10000 $
- I want to setMarkup percent
- That number35 % or $
Price to charge$13,500.00
| Your cost | $10,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Price | $13,500.00 |
| Gross profit | $3,500.00 |
| Markup, against cost | 35% |
| Margin, against price | 25.9%this is the one your accountant means |
| If you want this margin | Mark up cost by | On $10,000 cost, charge |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% | $11,111.11 |
| 15% | 17.6% | $11,764.71 |
| 20% | 25% | $12,500.00 |
| 25% | 33.3% | $13,333.33 |
| 30% | 42.9% | $14,285.71 |
| 35% | 53.8% | $15,384.62 |
| 40% | 66.7% | $16,666.67 |
| 50% | 100% | $20,000.00 |
Markup compared
The gap between markup and margin widens as the number grows. Same cost, five markups.
| Markup | Price to charge | Margin, against price |
|---|---|---|
| 10% markup | $11,000.00 | 9.1% |
| 20% markup | $12,000.00 | 16.7% |
| 30% markup | $13,000.00 | 23.1% |
| 40% markup | $14,000.00 | 28.6% |
| 50% markup | $15,000.00 | 33.3% |
What else matters here
Thirty five percent markup is a 25.9 percent margin, and this is a useful page to sit on, because it shows exactly what a discount does.
Take ten percent off the price to win the job. The price goes from $13,500 to $12,150, the cost does not move, and the gross profit goes from $3,500 to $2,150. A ten percent discount just removed nearly forty percent of the profit on the job. That is the arithmetic every time: a discount comes entirely out of the margin, because the cost has no opinion about what you charged.
Which means the volume argument has to be checked rather than assumed. At this markup, ten percent off needs roughly sixty percent more work to produce the same gross profit, and sixty percent more work means more payroll, more trucks and more of your own time. Holding the price and losing some jobs is very often the better trade, and offering something other than money, a faster start or a longer warranty, is better still.
What this calculator assumes
- Markup is measured against your cost. Margin is measured against the price. They are never the same number and confusing them is the most expensive arithmetic mistake in the trades.
- A 50 percent markup is a 33.3 percent margin. To actually keep 50 percent of the price you have to mark up by 100 percent.
Questions people ask
What margin is a 35 percent markup?
25.9 percent. On a $10,000 cost that is a $13,500 price and $3,500 of gross profit.
What does a 10 percent discount cost me?
Nearly 40 percent of the profit. At 35 percent markup the price falls from $13,500 to $12,150 while the cost stays at $10,000, so gross profit drops from $3,500 to $2,150.
Does more volume make up for discounting?
Rarely. At this markup, a 10 percent discount needs about 60 percent more work to produce the same gross profit, and that volume brings more payroll, more trucks and more of your own time with it.
The markup vs margin calculator takes any dimensions you like and hands back the same list.