Find how many units you need to sell before a business covers its fixed costs.
How It Works
How Break-Even Calculator Works
Each unit sold contributes its "margin" — the selling price minus what it costs to actually produce that one unit — toward covering your fixed costs (rent, salaries, insurance, and anything else that doesn't change with sales volume). Dividing total fixed costs by that per-unit margin tells you exactly how many units you need to sell before the business stops losing money and starts turning a profit.
Worked Example
See It In Action
With $10,000 in fixed costs, a $50 selling price, and a $30 variable cost per unit, each sale contributes $20 toward fixed costs — so you'd need to sell 500 units to break even.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a fixed cost versus a variable cost?
Fixed costs stay the same no matter how much you sell (rent, salaried staff, insurance), while variable costs scale directly with each unit produced (materials, packaging, per-unit shipping) — get this split right, since misclassifying a cost throws off the whole calculation.
What happens after the break-even point?
Every unit sold beyond break-even contributes its full margin straight to profit, since the fixed costs are already covered — this is why break-even analysis is often paired with profit projections at different sales volumes.
