Free Break-Even Calculator
Enter your fixed costs, your price per unit and your variable cost per unit. You get the break-even volume, the revenue that represents, and the contribution each unit makes towards the fixed costs. If a unit sells for less than it costs to make, it says there is no break-even point rather than printing a number.
Costs that do not change with volume — rent, salaries, insurance.
What each additional unit costs to make or buy.
Fill in the fields and the result appears here as you type.
How the break-even point is calculated
Every unit sold contributes its price minus its variable cost towards the fixed costs. That difference is the contribution per unit, and the break-even point is fixed costs ÷ contribution — the number of units at which the fixed costs are exactly covered and profit is zero.
If the price is at or below the variable cost there is no break-even point at any volume, because each additional sale loses money. The calculator says so rather than returning a number.
A worked example
Fixed costs of 12,000 a month, a unit price of 45, and a variable cost of 27 per unit.
- Contribution per unit
- 45 − 27 = 18
- Break-even units
- 12,000 ÷ 18 = 666.67
- Whole units to sell
- 667
- Break-even revenue
- 666.67 × 45 = 30,000
- Contribution margin
- 18 ÷ 45 × 100 = 40%
You need 667 units a month before the business makes anything. Unit 668 is the first profitable one, and it contributes the full 18 rather than 18 minus a share of the fixed costs.
Questions about break-even
What counts as a fixed cost and what is variable?
Fixed costs stay the same whether you sell one unit or a thousand — rent, salaries, insurance, software. Variable costs are incurred per unit: materials, packaging, delivery, payment fees, commission. Anything that scales with volume belongs on the variable side, and misplacing a cost moves the break-even point substantially.
Why does it show a fraction of a unit?
Because the arithmetic produces one, and rounding it away would hide how close you are to the next unit. You cannot sell two thirds of an item, so the whole-unit figure is shown alongside — that is the number to plan against.
What if the price is below the variable cost?
There is no break-even point. Each sale loses money before it has contributed anything to the fixed costs, so selling more makes the loss larger. The calculator reports that rather than returning a very large number that would look like an answer.