What counts as a fixed cost?

Anything you pay regardless of sales volume: rent, insurance, salaried wages, accounting fees, subscriptions, and loan payments for the same period as your figure.

Should I include my own salary?

If you pay yourself a set draw, include it as a fixed cost. That gives a break-even point where you are genuinely paid, not just covering the bills.

How do I break even faster?

Raise price, cut variable cost per unit, or reduce fixed overhead. Raising price usually has the largest effect because it lifts contribution on every sale.

Does this include sales tax?

No. Use pre-tax figures. Sales tax collected is not revenue — it is remitted to the CRA or your state.

Break-Even Calculator

Find the sales volume where you stop losing money.

Your break-even point is the number of units you must sell before the business stops losing money and starts making it. This calculator takes your fixed costs for the period, your selling price per unit, and the variable cost of producing one unit, then reports break-even in both units and revenue.

Fixed costs are the ones that arrive whether or not you sell anything: rent, insurance, software subscriptions, salaried staff, loan payments. Variable costs move with volume: materials, packaging, shipping, payment processing fees, hourly labour tied to production.

This is the number to run before signing a lease, hiring, launching a product, or dropping your price to chase volume. A price cut lowers the contribution each sale makes, which pushes break-even higher — sometimes far higher than owners expect. Enter your figures below and the calculator shows the units, the revenue, and how much margin each sale contributes toward covering your fixed costs.

Your numbers

Fixed costs per period

Selling price per unit

Variable cost per unit

Break-even volume

178 units

🇺🇸 US · USD

Contribution margin per unit: $45.00
Contribution margin ratio: 60.00%
Break-even revenue: $13,333.33
Units per month at 30-day period: 178

Estimates only. Results from this calculator are for general informational purposes and are not tax, legal, accounting or financial advice. Rates change and individual circumstances vary — confirm figures with the CRA, the IRS, your state or provincial authority, or a licensed professional before acting on them.

How it's calculated

Contribution margin = Price per unit − Variable cost per unit
Break-even units = Fixed costs ÷ Contribution margin
Break-even revenue = Break-even units × Price per unit

Understand the numbers

Frequently asked questions

What counts as a fixed cost?: Anything you pay regardless of sales volume: rent, insurance, salaried wages, accounting fees, subscriptions, and loan payments for the same period as your figure.
Should I include my own salary?: If you pay yourself a set draw, include it as a fixed cost. That gives a break-even point where you are genuinely paid, not just covering the bills.
How do I break even faster?: Raise price, cut variable cost per unit, or reduce fixed overhead. Raising price usually has the largest effect because it lifts contribution on every sale.
Does this include sales tax?: No. Use pre-tax figures. Sales tax collected is not revenue — it is remitted to the CRA or your state.

Related calculators

Profit Margin CalculatorTurn revenue and cost into gross margin percentage.Net Profit CalculatorRevenue minus every cost — the real bottom line.Markup CalculatorSet a selling price from cost and target markup.Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) CalculatorFind what one new customer really costs to win.