Free markup calculator
Cost in, price out — and the margin you would actually make, shown right beside the markup so the two never get confused again. Free, no signup, runs in your browser.
Price = cost × (1 + markup). Margin = profit ÷ price. Runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent or saved.
Markup is the percentage you add to a job's cost to get its price: price = cost × (1 + markup). A $10,000 cost with a 25% markup prices at $12,500. The profit is $2,500 — which is a 20% margin on the price, not 25%.
That last sentence is the whole trap. Markup is measured against cost; margin is measured against price. Same dollars, two different percentages — and bids die in the gap between them. The 60-second version lives in markup vs. margin, explained, and if you want to flip between the two numbers directly, use the markup ↔ margin converter.
Honest answer: there is no industry-standard number, and this page will not invent one. Your markup has one job — cover your company's overhead and still leave real profit. So the number comes from your books, not from a blog: know your annual overhead (insurance, trucks, tools, office, your own salary) as a percent of revenue, then mark up far enough above it that a normal month is profitable and a rough month is survivable. The overhead and profit calculator walks that exact math with your numbers.
What I can say from running a remodeling company: contractors who fail on markup almost never picked a number that was slightly low. They picked a reasonable number and then measured it against costs that were missing receipts — which makes any markup a fiction. Price from real costs first; tune the percent second.
I priced a $42,000 bathroom remodel to land around a 30% margin. The bid math was fine. The job came in at 12%— because $7,500 of receipts (fill-in runs, the second trip for the right valve, fasteners, tile spacers) never made it into the job's costs. Run those numbers through the calculator above: on the costs I thought I had, the price was right. On the costs I actually had, the same price was a thin job. The calculator was never the problem. The inputs were.
That is why this calculator sits on a job-costing site: job costing software exists to make the cost number true — receipts snapped at the counter land on the job, and the margin you calculated here stays real while the job runs.
| Markup on cost | Price on a $10,000 cost | Margin on price |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $11,000 | 9.1% |
| 20% | $12,000 | 16.7% |
| 25% | $12,500 | 20% |
| 30% | $13,000 | 23.1% |
| 40% | $14,000 | 28.6% |
| 50% | $15,000 | 33.3% |
Reading down the right column is the fastest cure for markup-margin confusion ever printed. If a number you need is not in the table, the converter does any pair instantly, and the full job cost calculator builds the cost side line by line — labor, materials, subs — before the markup ever lands on it.
A markup is only as honest as the cost it multiplies. Job Cost Pro keeps the cost side true from the field — snap receipts at the counter, they land on the job, and your real margin updates live. Free forever for 3 projects and 50 receipts a month. No credit card.
Markup % = (price − cost) ÷ cost × 100. Going the other way: price = cost × (1 + markup ÷ 100). A $10,000 job cost with a 25% markup prices at $12,500.
$125. Markup is added on top of cost: $100 × 1.25 = $125. Note the margin on that price is 20%, not 25% — the $25 of profit is 20% of the $125 price.
Price = cost × 1.30. A $1,000 cost becomes a $1,300 price. The resulting margin is 23.1% ($300 profit ÷ $1,300 price) — always lower than the markup number.
There is no universal number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. Your markup has to cover company overhead — insurance, truck, tools, office, your own salary — and still leave real profit. Work it from your own books: know your annual overhead as a percent of revenue, then price above it.
No. Markup is what you add to cost to get the price. Gross profit is price minus cost — same dollars, but the percent is measured differently (markup against cost, margin against price). And net profit is what is left after overhead, which markup has to cover first.
No. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent or saved. If you want the estimate-versus-actual picture across a whole job, that is what the app does: receipts land on the job as they happen and margin updates live.