Break-even calculator
Find how many units you need to sell to cover your costs — from your fixed costs, selling price and variable cost per unit.
Your figures
Total costs that don’t change with sales (per month or per year).
What each unit costs you — materials, packaging, fees.
Add this to see the sales needed to reach a profit, not just break even.
Your result
Break-even point
0 units
- Contribution per unit
- £0
- Contribution margin
- 0%
- Break-even units
- 0
- Break-even revenue
- £0
An estimate based on a single price and variable cost. Real businesses have multiple products and stepped costs — our management accounts model break-even across your whole range.
Your break-even point is the moment a product or business starts making money — the sales level where revenue finally covers every cost. Enter your fixed costs, your price and what each unit costs to make or buy, and this shows how many you need to sell to get there, in both units and revenue.
How break-even works
Every sale chips away at your fixed costs by its contribution — the price minus what that unit costs you. Once enough sales have covered the fixed costs entirely, every further sale is profit:
Break-even units = Fixed costs ÷ (Price − Variable cost)
The bigger the contribution per unit, the fewer sales you need — which is why even a small price rise can dramatically lower your break-even point.
Where it gets real
This model assumes one product, one price and a steady variable cost. In practice you’ll have a range of products, discounts, and costs that step up as you grow (a bigger unit, another hire).
That’s where a blended break-even across your whole business comes in — one of the things our management accounts work out, so you know the sales target that actually keeps you in profit.
The terms, explained
New to this? Here’s what the words on this page actually mean.
- Fixed costs
- Costs that don’t change with sales — rent, salaries, software, insurance. You pay them whether you sell one unit or a thousand.
- Variable cost
- The cost tied to each unit — materials, packaging, the wholesale price, payment fees.
- Contribution
- Selling price minus variable cost — the slice of each sale that’s left to cover your fixed costs and then become profit.
- Break-even point
- The number of units (or the revenue) at which total contribution exactly covers your fixed costs, so profit is zero.
Break-even calculator — your questions answered
How do I calculate the break-even point?
What is contribution margin?
How many sales do I need to hit a profit target?
What if my price is below my variable cost?
Why does break-even matter?
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