Break-Even Calculator
Find how many units you need to sell to cover costs, test pricing what-if scenarios, and see how long until your startup investment pays off.
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How to Use This Calculator
Break-Even Point tab
The default tab. Enter your fixed costs per month, price per unit, and variable cost per unit. The calculator instantly shows how many units you need to sell to cover all costs. Expand "More options" to add a target profit or track units already sold this month.
What-If Pricing tab
Use this when considering a price change. See how raising or lowering your price by X% affects break-even volume, maximum unit loss you can absorb, and extra units needed. Great for pricing decisions before launch or seasonal adjustments.
Time to Break-Even tab
Planning a new business or product? Enter your startup investment and monthly projections. The calculator shows how many months until your cumulative profit covers the initial investment, with optional growth rate and discount rate adjustments.
Share your result
Every input is encoded in the URL. Click Share to send your exact scenario to a co-founder, investor, or advisor.
The Formula
Break-even analysis finds the point where total revenue equals total costs:
Break-Even Revenue = Fixed Costs ÷ Contribution Margin %
Contribution Margin = Price − Variable Cost
Contribution Margin % = (Price − Variable Cost) ÷ Price × 100
The contribution margin is what each unit contributes toward covering fixed costs and eventually generating profit. A higher margin means fewer units to break even. The break-even point is where total contribution equals total fixed costs — every unit sold after that is profit.
Example
Sarah — Coffee shop owner, Austin TX
Sarah's coffee shop has $12,000/month in fixed costs (rent, staff, insurance). She sells specialty drinks at $5.50 average, with $2.20 in variable costs (beans, cups, milk) per drink.
Break-Even Point tab
Sarah needs to sell about 3,637 drinks per month (roughly 121/day) to cover all costs. Every drink after that generates $3.30 in pure profit.
What-If Pricing tab
A 10% price increase means Sarah can lose up to 883 customers per month and still break even — a 22% volume cushion.