A price that looks profitable on paper can lose money once a marketplace commission, card processing fee and shipping come out. This calculator works backward from the margin you want to keep to the price you need to charge, with all of those costs built in, and then rounds to a charm price such as $40.99.
How to use the selling price calculator
- Enter the product cost per unit.
- Add other costs per unit: packaging, shipping you pay, labor or an overhead allocation.
- Enter your target profit margin as a percentage of the selling price.
- Enter fees taken as a percent of price — marketplace commission, payment processing, sales commission — and any fixed fee per order.
- Choose a price ending: exact, .99, .95 or whole dollars.
Selling price formula
The denominator is the share of each sales dollar left to cover your costs after the fee and the profit you want are set aside.
Worked example
A seller buys a product for $18.00 and spends $4.00 on packaging and shipping. The marketplace takes 15% of the sale price, the payment processor charges $0.30 per order, and the seller wants a 30% profit margin.
Costs that don't scale with price = 18.00 + 4.00 + 0.30 = $22.30
Share of price left for those costs = 1 − 0.30 − 0.15 = 0.55
Exact price = 22.30 ÷ 0.55 = $40.55 → rounded up to $40.99
Check at $40.99: fees = 40.99 × 15% + 0.30 = $6.45; profit = 40.99 − 22.00 − 6.45 = $12.54, a 30.6% margin
A simple 30% margin on the $22.00 cost would have given $31.43 — about $9 too low once the 15% fee is taken.
Prices for $22.30 of cost at 15% fees
| Target margin | Exact price | Profit per unit |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | $29.73 | $2.97 |
| 20% | $34.31 | $6.86 |
| 25% | $37.17 | $9.29 |
| 30% | $40.55 | $12.16 |
| 40% | $49.56 | $19.82 |
| 50% | $63.71 | $31.86 |
As the margin target rises, the price climbs faster than linearly because the denominator shrinks.
Pricing tips
Know your fee stack
Typical online selling costs include a marketplace or referral fee, a payment-processing fee of roughly 2.5% to 3.5% plus a fixed amount, listing or subscription fees, and advertising. Add the percentage-based ones together in the fees field.
Margin, not markup
The margin entered here is profit as a share of the price. The tape also shows the markup on all costs and on product cost alone, which are larger numbers. See the margin calculator for a full conversion table.
Check volume, too
A healthy margin per unit still needs enough sales to cover fixed costs such as software and storage. Pair this page with the break-even calculator to see how many units that takes.
To solve simpler pricing questions with any two known values, use the price calculator.
Results are estimates. Fee schedules change and vary by category and plan; check your marketplace and payment provider's current rates.
Frequently asked questions
How do I price a product to cover fees and still make a margin?
Add up the costs that don't depend on price — product cost, packaging, shipping and any fixed per-order fee — and divide by 1 minus your target margin minus the percentage fees. With $22.30 of costs, a 30% margin and 15% of fees: 22.30 ÷ 0.55 = $40.55.
Why not just add fees on top of a normal markup?
Percentage fees are charged on the selling price, including the fee portion itself. Adding 15% to the cost-based price leaves you short, because the fee is then taken from a larger number. Dividing by (1 − margin − fees) solves this exactly.
What happens if margin plus fees reaches 100%?
No price can work: every dollar of revenue would already be claimed by fees and profit, leaving nothing for costs. The calculator asks you to lower the target margin or fees.
Do .99 price endings really help?
Research on charm pricing suggests prices ending in 9 often sell better, especially for discretionary goods, because shoppers anchor on the left digit. Rounding up to .99 also adds a few cents of margin per sale.