Break-even calculator
Enter what you pay every month no matter what, what you charge, and what each sale costs you. You get the number of units or jobs that covers the bills — and the number that hits the profit you actually want.
Your costs
Break-even
134 units / mo
That's $10,050 of revenue a month before you make a cent of profit.
- Contribution margin per unit
- $45.00
- Contribution margin
- 60.0%
- Break-even units / month
- 134
- Break-even revenue / month
- $10,050
- Units to earn $2,000 profit
- 178
- Break-even units / week
- 30.9
Break-even ignores taxes and owner draws. If you pay yourself from profit, add your target pay to fixed costs before reading the number.
Reading your break-even number honestly
Break-even is the point where contribution margin — the money left from each sale after its own direct costs — finally covers the fixed costs that arrive whether you sell anything or not. Everything sold past that point is profit at the full margin, which is why the last quarter of a good month feels so different from the first.
Two levers move the number. Raising price widens margin on every unit, so break-even volume drops immediately. Cutting fixed costs lowers the bar directly. Cutting variable cost helps too, but usually in smaller increments than owners expect, because materials and fees are rarely where the money leaks.
The most common mistake is leaving owner pay out of fixed costs. A business that breaks even but pays you nothing is not at break-even in any sense that matters to your household. Put your target draw in with the rent and read the number again.
Frequently asked questions
What is the break-even formula?
Break-even units equal fixed costs divided by contribution margin, where contribution margin is price per unit minus variable cost per unit. Multiply the result by price to get break-even revenue.
What counts as a fixed cost?
Anything you pay whether or not you sell: rent, insurance, software subscriptions, salaried staff, loan payments, phone. Variable costs move with each sale — materials, subcontractors, payment processing fees, shipping.
Should my own pay be a fixed cost?
If you need a set amount every month to live on, yes — put it in fixed costs. Otherwise break-even tells you when the business stops losing money, not when it can pay you, and those are very different milestones.
How does break-even help me price?
It converts a price into a required sales volume. If break-even needs 90 jobs a month and you can realistically do 60, the price is wrong, not the effort. Raising price lifts contribution margin and lowers the volume you need faster than cutting costs usually can.
A planning estimate, not financial advice.