On This Page
- How to use this calculator
- What is profit percentage?
- Profit percentage formulas
- Profit percentage vs gross profit % vs net profit %
- Profit percentage in stocks, crypto, and business
- Profit percentage in Excel and Google Sheets
- Worked examples
- Frequently asked questions
How to Use This Calculator
Enter cost price and selling price and the results update immediately. The calculator shows whether you made a profit or a loss, the profit or loss amount, and the percentage expressed two ways: on cost price (the traditional "profit percentage" used in trading and retail) and on selling price (the basis used by gross and net margin).
Enter cost price and selling price
Cost price (CP) is what you paid to acquire or produce the item. Selling price (SP) is what you sold it for. If selling price is higher than cost price, you made a profit; if it is lower, you made a loss. The calculator handles both automatically and labels the result accordingly.
Read the results
The main result shows the profit or loss percentage on a cost basis, since this is what most people mean by "profit percentage" in everyday trading and retail language. Below it, the result grid breaks out the same figure on a selling-price basis too, since that is what "gross margin" and "profit margin" actually measure. The stacked bar visualizes the selling price split between cost and profit (or shows the shortfall in red if it is a loss), and the two comparison bars make the gap between the two percentages easy to see at a glance.
Use the target field to find a selling price
Enter a target profit percentage and choose whether that target is measured on cost price or on selling price, then the calculator works backward to tell you the selling price required and the profit amount it produces. This is the most common reverse calculation in retail pricing: "I paid $80 for this, I want a 25% profit, what do I sell it for?"
What Is Profit Percentage?
Profit percentage measures how much profit you made relative to a base amount, expressed as a percentage. The two numbers involved are almost always cost price and selling price, and the profit (or loss) is simply the difference between them.
If selling price exceeds cost price, the result is a profit. If cost price exceeds selling price, the result is a loss, and the same calculation framework applies with a negative sign; most people then compute a "loss percentage" instead, using the identical formula structure.
The one detail that trips people up: profit percentage can be calculated on two different bases (cost price or selling price), and they give different numbers for the same transaction. Neither is "wrong," but they answer different questions:
- Profit % on cost price answers: "How much did my money grow?" This is the standard meaning of "profit percentage" in retail, trading, and most school-level commerce math.
- Profit % on selling price answers: "What share of the sale price is profit?" This is the same calculation as gross profit margin, and it is always a smaller number than the cost-basis version for any profitable transaction.
Profit Percentage Formulas
Profit Percentage on Cost Price
Example: Cost price $80, selling price $100. Profit = $100 − $80 = $20. Profit % = ($20 ÷ $80) × 100 = 25%. This is the figure most people mean by "profit percentage" without further qualification.
Profit Percentage on Selling Price
Same numbers: $20 ÷ $100 × 100 = 20%. Identical transaction, different denominator, different answer. This is mathematically the same thing as gross profit margin; see the Gross Profit Calculator for a dedicated breakdown using revenue/COGS terminology instead of CP/SP.
Loss Percentage
If cost price is $80 and selling price is $65, loss = $80 − $65 = $15. Loss % = ($15 ÷ $80) × 100 = 18.75%. Loss percentage almost always uses cost price as the base, since the seller's original investment is the natural reference point for measuring how much was lost.
Reverse: Find Selling Price from a Target Profit %
On a cost basis (most common):
Cost price $80, target 25% profit on cost: $80 × 1.25 = $100.
On a selling-price basis:
Cost price $80, target 20% profit on selling price: $80 ÷ (1 − 0.20) = $80 ÷ 0.80 = $100. Both formulas reach the same $100 selling price in this example because 25% on cost and 20% on selling price describe the identical $20 profit; they are two labels for one outcome, not two different prices.
Profit Percentage vs Gross Profit % vs Net Profit %
"Profit percentage," "gross profit percentage," and "net profit percentage" are three of the most searched profitability terms, and they are often confused because they sound interchangeable. They are not always the same calculation.
How they relate
Profit percentage (this calculator): A simple two-number calculation between cost price and selling price for a single item or transaction. Common in retail, trading, reselling, and school-level commerce math.
Gross profit percentage: The business-accounting version of the same idea, scaled up to a whole revenue period: (Revenue − COGS) ÷ Revenue × 100 (or ÷ COGS for the cost-basis version). See the Gross Profit Calculator for the full version with industry benchmarks.
Net profit percentage: Goes further than gross, deducting operating expenses, interest, and tax as well: Net Profit ÷ Revenue × 100. See the Net Profit Calculator for the before-tax/after-tax breakdown.
For a single retail item with no overhead to speak of, profit percentage on cost and gross profit percentage on cost are the same number. The terms diverge once a business has operating expenses, interest, and tax to subtract; at that point "profit percentage" colloquially used for a single sale should not be assumed to equal a company's overall net profit percentage. For a full margin comparison across all three levels in one tool, see the Profit Margin Calculator.
Profit Percentage in Stocks, Crypto, and Business
The same CP/SP formula applies across very different contexts; only the meaning of "cost price" changes.
Stock and crypto profit percentage
For an investment, cost price is the purchase price (including any fees) and selling price is the sale price (after fees). Profit % = (Sale Price − Purchase Price) ÷ Purchase Price × 100. Buying a stock or crypto asset at $40 and selling at $55 gives a profit of $15 and a profit percentage of ($15 ÷ $40) × 100 = 37.5%. Unlike retail profit percentage, investment returns are almost always expressed on the cost (purchase price) basis, since that represents the capital actually at risk.
Job and contract profit percentage
For a job, project, or contract, cost price becomes total job cost (materials, labor, subcontractors) and selling price becomes the contract or invoice amount. Profit % = (Invoice Amount − Job Cost) ÷ Job Cost × 100. Contractors and freelancers use this to check whether a quoted price leaves an acceptable margin once all direct costs are counted.
Business-wide profit percentage
When applied to an entire business rather than a single sale, "profit percentage" usually means net profit margin: total net profit divided by total revenue. This is a different scale of calculation from a single CP/SP transaction; use the Net Profit Calculator for that version, which accounts for operating expenses, interest, and tax across a full reporting period.
Profit Percentage in Excel and Google Sheets
Both Excel and Google Sheets use identical formula syntax for this calculation. With cost price in B2 and selling price in C2:
- Profit or loss amount:
=C2-B2 - Profit % on cost price:
=(C2-B2)/B2*100or format the cell as a percentage and use=(C2-B2)/B2 - Profit % on selling price:
=(C2-B2)/C2*100 - Required selling price for a target % on cost:
=B2*(1+target_percent/100) - Required selling price for a target % on selling price:
=B2/(1-target_percent/100)
To label a loss automatically, wrap the percentage formula in an IF statement, for example =IF(C2>=B2,"Profit: "&TEXT((C2-B2)/B2,"0.0%"),"Loss: "&TEXT((B2-C2)/B2,"0.0%")). Use absolute references ($B$2) when the formula is copied down a column of mixed cost references.
Worked Examples
Example 1: Simple Retail Resale
A reseller buys an item for $45 and sells it for $63. Profit = $63 − $45 = $18. Profit % on cost = ($18 ÷ $45) × 100 = 40%. Profit % on selling price = ($18 ÷ $63) × 100 = 28.6%.
Example 2: A Loss
A trader buys an item for $200 and is forced to sell it for $170 due to falling demand. Loss = $200 − $170 = $30. Loss % = ($30 ÷ $200) × 100 = 15%. Losses are conventionally expressed on the original cost price, since that was the capital placed at risk.
Example 3: Stock Investment
An investor buys shares for $2,500 and sells them later for $3,100. Profit = $3,100 − $2,500 = $600. Profit % = ($600 ÷ $2,500) × 100 = 24% return on the original investment.
Example 4: Setting a Price for a Target Profit
A craftsperson's materials and labor cost $35 per item, and they want a 50% profit on cost. Required selling price = $35 × (1 + 0.50) = $52.50. If instead they wanted profit to equal 50% of the selling price itself (a much higher target), the required price = $35 ÷ (1 − 0.50) = $70.00; the basis chosen changes the price substantially.
Example 5: Comparing Two Sales
Sale A: cost $50, sold for $75 (profit $25, 50% on cost). Sale B: cost $200, sold for $260 (profit $60, 30% on cost). Sale A has the higher profit percentage even though Sale B generated more total profit dollars; profit percentage measures efficiency of capital, not absolute size, which is why both figures matter for business decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate profit percentage?
Subtract cost price from selling price to get the profit, then divide by cost price and multiply by 100: Profit % = (Selling Price − Cost Price) ÷ Cost Price × 100. If cost price is $80 and selling price is $100, profit is $20 and profit percentage is 25%.
How do you calculate gross profit percentage?
Gross profit percentage applies the same idea to revenue and cost of goods sold (COGS) instead of a single item's cost and selling price: (Revenue − COGS) ÷ Revenue × 100 for the selling-price-style basis, or ÷ COGS for the cost-style basis. See the Gross Profit Calculator for a dedicated tool with industry benchmarks.
How do you calculate profit margin percentage?
Profit margin percentage divides profit by selling price (or revenue), not cost price: (Selling Price − Cost Price) ÷ Selling Price × 100. It is always a smaller number than the cost-basis profit percentage for the same profitable transaction, because the denominator (selling price) is larger than cost price.
How do you calculate net profit percentage?
Net profit percentage is net profit (after all expenses, interest, and tax) divided by total revenue, multiplied by 100. It applies to a whole business over a period, not a single item. Use the Net Profit Calculator for the full before-tax/after-tax breakdown.
How do you calculate profit percentage in Excel or Google Sheets?
With cost price in B2 and selling price in C2, use =(C2-B2)/B2*100 for profit percentage on cost, or =(C2-B2)/C2*100 for profit percentage on selling price. Format the result cell as a percentage if you omit the *100 and divide directly.
How do you calculate profit percentage from buying and selling price?
Buying price and cost price mean the same thing here, as do selling price and selling price. Profit % = (Selling Price − Buying Price) ÷ Buying Price × 100. The calculation is identical regardless of which terminology is used.
How do you calculate profit and loss percentage?
Use the same base formula for both: if selling price is higher than cost price, the result is a profit percentage; if lower, treat the difference as positive and label it a loss percentage. Profit/Loss % = |Selling Price − Cost Price| ÷ Cost Price × 100, with the profit/loss label determined by which price was higher.
How do you calculate profit percentage on selling price?
Divide the profit amount by the selling price instead of the cost price: Profit % (on SP) = (Selling Price − Cost Price) ÷ Selling Price × 100. This is mathematically identical to gross profit margin and will always read lower than the cost-basis percentage for a profitable sale.
How do you calculate stock or crypto profit percentage?
Treat the purchase price as cost price and the sale price as selling price: Profit % = (Sale Price − Purchase Price) ÷ Purchase Price × 100. Include trading fees in both prices for an accurate net return figure.
What is a good profit percentage?
It depends entirely on the industry and what is being measured. Retail resale often targets 20-50% on cost. Wholesale and distribution often run much thinner, 5-15%. Investment returns vary widely by asset class and time horizon. There is no universal "good" number; compare against typical margins for your specific product category or asset class.
How do you calculate profit percentage of a product?
Identical formula: Profit % = (Selling Price − Product Cost) ÷ Product Cost × 100. If a product costs $12 to make and sells for $20, profit is $8 and profit percentage on cost is ($8 ÷ $12) × 100 = 66.7%.
References
- Investopedia: Profit Margin: Definition and formula context for profit measured as a percentage of price or cost.
- AccountingTools: Gross Profit Percentage: Accounting treatment of profit percentage at the business/revenue scale.
- Corporate Finance Institute: Profit Margin: Comparison of profit percentage bases and how they are used in financial analysis.