Free Break-Even Point Calculator for Businesses
Enter your fixed monthly costs, what you charge per unit, and what each unit costs you to make or deliver. This shows how many you need to sell before you start making a profit.
Example result
- You enter
- Fixed costs (per month)
- $4,000
- Price per unit
- $40.00
- Variable cost per unit
- $15.00
- You get
- Contribution margin per unit
- $25.00
- Break-even units
- 160
- Break-even revenue
- $6,400
Fictional numbers, to show how the result is laid out.
How it works
Your break-even point is the number of units where total revenue exactly equals total costs — sell fewer than that and you're operating at a loss for the period, sell more and every additional unit is contributing to profit. It's calculated as Fixed Costs ÷ (Price − Variable Cost per Unit), where that denominator is called the contribution margin.
This number matters most before you commit to something with real fixed costs attached — signing a lease, hiring your first employee, buying equipment. It turns a vague sense of "we need to sell more" into a concrete target: exactly how many units, in a given month, before the new fixed cost pays for itself.
A break-even point that keeps creeping up over time usually means fixed costs are growing faster than pricing or volume — worth checking against your actual monthly sales, not just calculating once and forgetting about it.
A worked example: fixed costs of $4,000 a month, a selling price of $40 and a variable cost of $15 per unit give a contribution margin of $25. Break-even is $4,000 / $25 = 160 units, which is $6,400 in sales. Every unit after the 160th adds $25 of profit.
Re-run the calculation when a cost or price changes, and split mixed costs, such as a utility bill with a base charge, into their fixed and variable parts so the result stays honest.
Who uses this
| Business type | How it's used |
|---|---|
| Restaurants & cafes | Find how many covers or drinks per month cover rent, staff, and ingredient costs before a location turns a profit. |
| Gyms & fitness studios | Work out how many memberships or class packages are needed to cover rent, equipment, and instructor pay. |
| Salons & barbershops | Find the number of appointments per month needed to cover rent, product costs, and staff wages. |
| Retail stores | Work out the sales volume needed to cover lease, staffing, and inventory costs before opening. |
| Bakeries & coffee shops | Check how many pastries or drinks need to sell per day to cover rent, ingredients, and staff. |
| Flower shops | Work out how many arrangements need to sell per month to cover rent, stock, and delivery costs. |
| Pet groomers & dog cafes | Find how many grooming appointments or visits are needed to cover rent, supplies, and staff. |
Frequently asked questions
Q.What counts as a 'fixed cost'?
Costs that don't change with how much you sell — rent, salaries, software subscriptions, insurance. Variable costs (materials, per-unit shipping) scale with each sale and go in the 'variable cost per unit' field instead.
Q.Why is my break-even point negative or infinite?
That happens when your price is lower than your variable cost per unit — you lose money on every sale regardless of volume, so there's no number of units that gets you to break-even. Fix the pricing or cost side first.
Q.Is this the same as a business break-even calculator or profit point tool?
Yes — break-even calculator, break-even point calculator, business break-even calculator, and profit point tool all describe the same calculation: fixed costs divided by the contribution margin per unit.