Markup Versus Margin

Same profit, two denominators

Cost 80, sell 100, profit 20. Markup is 20 ÷ 80 × 100 = 25%. Margin is 20 ÷ 100 × 100 = 20%. Nothing in the arithmetic is interchangeable: the extra is identical, the base is not. The markup calculator starts from cost and a chosen markup percent and builds the selling price. The margin calculator starts from the two prices you already have and reports both percents.

A 50% markup on 40 is 20 extra and a 60 ticket. Margin on 60 is about 33.3%. Asking “can I take 50% margin?” when you meant 50% markup understates the price you need.

How to convert one percent into the other

If you know markup as a decimal m, margin is m ÷ (1 + m). A 25% markup is 0.25 ÷ 1.25 = 0.20. If you know margin as a decimal g, markup is g ÷ (1 − g). A 20% margin is 0.20 ÷ 0.80 = 0.25. A 100% margin would require selling price equal to profit and cost zero, which the margin tool refuses. A 100% markup is ordinary: it doubles cost and yields a 50% margin.

Discounts are a third sentence

20% off a 50 ticket is 40. That is a markdown of the selling price, not a markup of cost and not a margin. Mixing “20% markup” with “20% off” is how a shop quotes a recovery price that still loses money. Use the discount calculator when the story is a marked-down list price, and keep markup and margin for the cost-to-ticket gap.

What the numbers do not include

Both pages use the two figures you typed. Overhead, tax, shipping and payment fees are not subtracted unless you folded them into cost yourself. A “net margin” after those extras is a different worksheet.