Markup vs. Margin Calculator

Markup and Margin Aren’t the Same Number

Markup and margin both describe profit, but they measure it against different numbers. Markup is profit as a percentage of your cost. Margin is profit as a percentage of your sell price. Those are different denominators, so the same job produces two different percentages. Cost $100, sell price $130: the $30 of profit is a 30% markup on the $100 cost, but it’s only a 23% margin on the $130 sell price. The two numbers match only at 0%. Above that, markup is always the bigger number for the same dollar of profit, because cost is always smaller than the sell price it gets measured against. Pricing a job at a "30% markup" when you actually meant a 30% margin leaves real money on the table, and most contractors have never had the difference explained plainly.