Break-Even Units and Sales Revenue Calculator
How to Calculate a Break-Even Point
Use costs and price from the same product and time horizon.
Choose a display currency; no currency conversion is performed.
Define one unit
A unit can be an item, subscription month, billable hour, or other repeatable sale, but price and variable cost must use that same definition.
What the Break-Even Result Means
Each sale contributes price minus variable cost toward fixed costs. Exact break-even is where cumulative contribution equals fixed costs. The primary result rounds upward to a whole unit; exact revenue is based on the unrounded mathematical point. A model with variable cost at or above price has no positive contribution margin and is rejected.
Break-Even Point Examples
Whole-number break-even
Fixed cost and unit economics
Required sales volume
Each unit contributes 20. Fixed costs divided by 20 equals 500 units.
Fractional mathematical point
Fixed cost and unit economics
Required sales volume
The mathematical result is rounded up for a saleable whole-unit target.
Stress-test assumptions
Recalculate with lower prices or higher variable costs to see how a smaller contribution margin raises required volume.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions about this calculation?
Try the CalculatorBreak-Even and Contribution Margin Formulas
The U.S. Small Business Administration presents break-even as fixed costs divided by price minus variable cost.
Formula
Contribution margin per unit
contribution margin = selling price per unit − variable cost per unit
Break-even units
exact units = fixed costs ÷ contribution margin per unit
Break-even revenue
revenue = fixed costs ÷ ((price − variable cost) ÷ price)
Scientific Background
The result assumes linear cost and revenue behavior over the modeled range. It does not answer when break-even occurs because no sales-rate or time input is collected; the legacy break-even-time URL therefore redirects here rather than creating a duplicate page.