Profit & Loss Calculator
Calculate profit or loss amount and percentage from cost price and selling price. Three calculation modes.
How to Use
- 1
Enter cost price
Type the original cost of the item.
- 2
Enter selling price
Type the price at which the item was sold.
- 3
View result
See profit or loss amount and percentage instantly.
How It Works
This calculator handles the three directions of a profit/loss problem — finding profit or loss from cost and selling price, finding the selling price needed for a target margin, or finding the original cost price from a sale — so you don't need to rearrange the formula by hand each time.
Mode 1 — Profit/loss from cost price and selling price
Profit or Loss = Selling Price − Cost Price. Profit % = (Selling Price − Cost Price) ÷ Cost Price × 100. A negative result means a loss, expressed as a positive loss percentage.
Mode 2 — Finding selling price from a target profit %
Selling Price = Cost Price × (1 + Profit % ÷ 100). Useful when you know what you paid and want to know what to charge to hit a specific margin.
Mode 3 — Finding cost price from selling price and margin
Cost Price = Selling Price ÷ (1 + Profit % ÷ 100). Useful when you know what something sold for and the margin, and need to reconstruct the original cost.
Examples
Basic profit calculation
Bought for ₹800, sold for ₹1,000: Profit = ₹200, Profit % = (200 ÷ 800) × 100 = 25%.
Setting a selling price for 40% margin
Cost price ₹1,200, target 40% profit: Selling Price = 1,200 × 1.40 = ₹1,680.
Reverse-engineering cost price
An item sold for ₹1,500 at a known 25% profit: Cost Price = 1,500 ÷ 1.25 = ₹1,200.
Common Use Cases
- Small business owners and resellers pricing products for a target margin
- Checking actual profit percentage on a completed sale
- Comparing margins across multiple products to see which is most profitable
- Reconstructing cost price when only the selling price and margin are known (e.g. for accounting reconciliation)
Tips
- Profit percentage is always calculated on cost price, not selling price — a common confusion point, since a 25% margin on cost price is not the same as a 25% margin on selling price (which would imply a higher cost markup).
- For a loss, the same formula applies with a negative result — a loss % is just the absolute value of a negative profit %, so a loss of 10% and a profit of −10% mean the same thing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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