Every sale chips away at your fixed costs.
Each sale brings in a price and costs you something to deliver. The gap between them is the contribution margin — the cash each sale contributes toward your fixed costs (rent, payroll, software). Break-even is simply the point where enough sales have stacked up to cover those fixed costs completely. Below it you lose money; above it, every extra sale is profit.
The trap is pricing on gut feel and never checking the line. If your margin per sale is thin, you need a punishing amount of volume just to survive — and a small price or cost change moves the break-even point far more than you'd expect. Enter your numbers below.
- Fixed costs / month
- What you pay regardless of sales — rent, salaries, software, insurance. These don't move with volume.
- Price per sale
- What a customer pays you for one unit, order, or subscription month.
- Variable cost per sale
- What that one sale costs you to deliver — materials, shipping, payment fees, hosting.
- Contribution margin
- Price minus variable cost. The cash each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs.
Your fixed costs
The economics of one sale
A profit you'd be happy with
Break-even tells you the line. Pricing is how you move it.
If the volume looks scary, the answer is rarely "sell more" — it's usually price, cost, or mix. I help founders find the version of their pricing and cost structure where the numbers actually work, without scaring off customers. The first conversation is free.
Pressure-test my pricing →How the math works (for the curious)
Everything starts with contribution margin: CM = Price − Variable cost. That's the cash one sale contributes toward fixed costs once its own delivery cost is paid. The CM ratio = CM ÷ Price is the same idea as a percentage — what share of each dollar of revenue is left to cover fixed costs and profit.
Break-even in units is Fixed costs ÷ CM — how many sales it takes for accumulated contribution to equal fixed costs. Break-even in revenue is Fixed costs ÷ CM ratio, which equals break-even units × price. To hit a target profit, you treat that profit like extra fixed cost to cover: Units for target = (Fixed costs + Target profit) ÷ CM.
If contribution margin is zero or negative, there is no break-even at any volume — each sale loses money or just breaks even on its own delivery, so more volume never digs you out. In that case the fix is price or variable cost, not sales effort.
An estimate for planning — not accounting, tax, or financial advice. Uses the numbers you enter; pull them from your bookkeeping and pricing for the best read. Nothing leaves your browser. Logic current as of June 2026.