Break-Even Calculator: Find Your Break-Even Point in Seconds

This free break-even calculator gives you one critical number before you launch a product, set a price, or commit to a lease, you need to know one number: how many units do you need to sell each month just to cover your costs? This free break-even calculator gives you that number instantly — along with your break-even revenue, contribution margin per unit, margin of safety, and a full sensitivity table showing your profit or loss at different sales volumes. Enter your monthly fixed costs (rent, staff, software, and anything else that stays constant), your variable cost per unit, and your selling price. The calculator does the rest. No sign-up. No data stored. Works in any currency.

How to Use the Break-Even Calculator

Step 1 — Select your currency. Choose the currency your business operates in. The calculator supports major global currencies including USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, CAD, and a full range of others. All outputs will display in your selected currency.

Step 2 — Enter your fixed costs. Fixed costs are expenses that stay the same every month regardless of how much you sell — rent, salaries, software subscriptions, insurance, loan repayments, and utilities. The calculator comes pre-loaded with the most common categories. Edit the labels to match your actual costs, enter the monthly amount for each, and add or remove rows as needed. The running total updates automatically.

Step 3 — Enter your unit economics. Enter the price you charge per unit sold (your selling price) and the cost you incur to produce or deliver each unit (your variable cost). Variable costs rise and fall with sales volume — raw materials, packaging, payment processing fees, and delivery costs are common examples. Your selling price must be higher than your variable cost; the difference is your contribution margin.

Step 4 — Enter your expected monthly sales volume (optional). If you have a sales target or projection, enter the number of units you expect to sell per month. The calculator will use this to show your projected monthly profit or loss, your margin of safety, and where your projected sales sit relative to break-even on the progress bar.

Step 5 — Click Calculate Break-Even. Your results appear instantly: break-even units per month, break-even monthly revenue, contribution margin per unit and as a percentage of selling price, projected profit or loss at your expected volume, margin of safety, and a sensitivity table showing profit and loss at 50%, 75%, 100%, 125%, 150%, and 200% of break-even.

Use the Copy Summary button to paste your results into a document, email, or message. Use Print Report for a physical copy to take to a meeting.

Example: A freelance designer pays $1,200/month in fixed costs (desk space, software, accounting). They charge $400 per project and their variable cost (stock assets, file delivery tools) is $40 per project. Contribution margin is $360. Break-even is 1,200 ÷ 360 = 3.33 projects per month — meaning they need to complete 4 projects per month to be profitable. If they typically close 6 projects per month, their monthly profit is (6 × $360) − $1,200 = $960, with a margin of safety of 33%.

Once you know your break-even, use the Margin & Markup Calculator (metricsuite.tools/margin-calculator/) to check that your pricing is set correctly, or the Stripe & PayPal Fees Calculator (metricsuite.tools/stripe-paypal-fee-calculator/) to make sure payment processing costs are properly factored into your variable cost per unit.

4. FAQ SECTION

What is the break-even point?

The break-even point is the level of sales at which your total revenue exactly equals your total costs — fixed plus variable. At this point you make neither a profit nor a loss. Every unit sold above the break-even point generates a contribution to profit equal to your contribution margin per unit. Knowing your break-even point lets you set realistic sales targets, evaluate whether a product or business model is viable before committing to it, and understand how much buffer you have between your current sales and the point where you start losing money.

What is contribution margin and why does it matter?

Contribution margin is the amount left over from each sale after you subtract the variable cost of producing or delivering that unit. If you sell a product for $50 and it costs you $20 to produce, your contribution margin is $30. Every $30 contributes toward covering your fixed costs, and once fixed costs are fully covered, every additional $30 is pure profit. The contribution margin ratio (contribution margin ÷ selling price) tells you what percentage of each sale goes toward covering costs and generating profit. A higher contribution margin ratio means you reach break-even faster and profits grow more steeply with additional sales.

What is the difference between fixed costs and variable costs?

Fixed costs stay the same every month regardless of how much you sell — rent, salaries, software subscriptions, and insurance are typical examples. Variable costs change in proportion to your output — raw materials, packaging, payment processing fees, and shipping costs rise when you sell more and fall when you sell less. Break-even analysis separates these two types of costs because only the contribution margin (selling price minus variable cost) is available to cover fixed costs. If you have no fixed costs, you cannot lose money on a sale as long as your price exceeds your variable cost.

What is the margin of safety?

The margin of safety is the gap between your projected or current sales and your break-even point, expressed as a number of units and a percentage. A margin of safety of 30% means your sales would need to drop by 30% before you started losing money. A low or negative margin of safety is an early warning sign — it means your current sales are uncomfortably close to (or below) break-even and a small drop in revenue could push you into loss. Use this number when evaluating pricing changes, cost increases, or new fixed cost commitments.