Break-Even Point Calculator
Enter your fixed costs, the cost of each unit and its selling price to see how many you need to sell each month to stop losing money and, optionally, when you earn back what you invested.
Enter your fixed costs, variable cost and selling price.
Monthly figures, before taxes.
Results are estimates. Solvemis accepts no responsibility for the results obtained or for how they are used. Always double-check the result and talk to a qualified professional before making decisions.
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How it works
How to use it
- Add up one month of fixed costs: rent, salaries, insurance, subscriptions.
- Enter the variable cost of each unit and its selling price, before sales tax.
- To see your actual result, add your expected monthly sales and, if there is one, the initial investment.
- You will see break-even units and revenue and, with your sales, the monthly result and payback time. The chart marks where revenue and costs cross.
How it is calculated
The margin per unit is the price minus the variable cost. Break-even units are fixed costs divided by that margin, rounded up because you cannot sell half a unit. With expected sales, the monthly result is sales × margin − fixed costs, and the payback time is the investment divided by that result, rounded up to the next month.
Break-even point (units) = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost)
Sources
- Calculate your startup costs: break-even point — U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
About this calculator
What the break-even point is
It is the sales volume at which revenue exactly covers all costs, fixed and variable. At that point you neither make nor lose money: every unit above it is profit and every unit below it is a loss.
Using the calculator’s own numbers: with $1,000 of fixed costs a month, a $10 variable cost per unit and a $30 price, each sale leaves $20 to pay the fixed costs. You need 50 units a month, or $1,500 in revenue, to cover them.
Contribution margin
That $20 is the contribution margin: what each sale brings in after paying for itself. As a share of the price it is 66.7%, and it is the lever that moves break-even the most:
- Raising the price from $30 to $35 lowers break-even from 50 to 40 units.
- Cutting the variable cost from $10 to $8 lowers it to 46.
- Trimming $200 of fixed costs lowers it to 40.
If the price does not exceed the variable cost, there is no break-even point: every sale loses money and selling more only makes the loss bigger.
With your expected sales
Break-even tells you how much you need to sell; expected sales tell you what you actually sell. At 80 units a month you make 30 × $20 = $600 a month above break-even. At 25, you are 25 units short and lose $500 every month.
That is why there is no “months until profitable” here: with monthly figures you are either profitable from the first month or you never get there until something changes. What does take time is earning back an initial investment: at $600 a month, a $6,000 investment is paid back in 10 months.
What the calculation assumes
- Constant price and costs. In practice there are volume discounts, and some fixed costs step up past a certain size (a bigger space, another hire).
- A single product. With several, use the average margin weighted by what each one sells.
- Before taxes. Enter prices without sales tax; the result is before income tax.
Frequently asked questions
What is the break-even point?
It is the sales volume at which revenue exactly covers all your costs: no profit, no loss. Below it you lose money; above it you make a profit. With $1,000 of monthly fixed costs, a $10 cost per unit and a $30 price, break-even is 50 units a month.
How long until I'm profitable?
With monthly figures there is no timeline: if you sell above break-even you make money from the first month, and if you sell below it you lose money every month. What does take time is earning back an initial investment: at 80 sales a month you make $600, so $6,000 invested is paid back in 10 months.
What counts as a fixed cost and what as a variable one?
Fixed costs are what you pay even if you sell nothing: rent, salaries, insurance, software subscriptions. Variable costs are what each unit you sell costs: materials, shipping, payment processor or marketplace fees.
Updated September 30, 2026
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