Free job cost calculator
Put in the job's labor, materials, subs, and your markup. Get total cost, price, gross profit, and the margin you'd actually make. No signup — it runs right here in your browser.
Price = cost × (1 + markup). Margin = profit ÷ price. Runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent or saved.
Markup is figured on cost; margin is figured on price. They are not the same number, and treating them as the same means every job is less profitable than you think. The math:
| Markup on cost | Resulting margin on price |
|---|---|
| 10% | 9.1% |
| 20% | 16.7% |
| 25% | 20% |
| 50% | 33.3% |
So a "50% markup" job is a 33% margin job — before anything goes wrong. What should your markup be? That comes from your own overhead and your market, not from a blog's "industry standard." Work it from your books: markup has to cover company overhead and still leave real profit. There's more on real-world margins in what a good profit margin looks like for a construction company.
This calculator tells you what the job should cost. The margin you take home is decided by what it actuallycosts — the second materials run, the sub's extra half day, the receipts that never make it out of the truck. That gap is exactly what job costing software closes: snap each receipt as it happens, costs land on the job, and budget-vs-actual stays live until the last invoice.
Markup is measured against cost; margin is measured against price. A 25% markup on a $10,000 cost gives a $12,500 price — but the $2,500 profit is only 20% of that price, so a 25% markup is a 20% margin. Quoting your markup number as your "margin" overstates how profitable the job is.
That depends on your overhead, your market, and your trade — there is no universal number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. Work it from your own books: your markup has to cover company overhead (insurance, truck, tools, office, your salary) and still leave real profit. The calculator does the math on whatever markup you give it.
Use your loaded rate, not the bare wage: wage plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp, and any benefits or per-hour costs of having that person on the job. If you pay $30/hr, the loaded cost is typically meaningfully higher — check your own numbers.
No. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent or saved. If you want the estimate-vs-actual picture over a whole job, that’s what the app does: costs land on the job as they happen and the margin updates live.