Jack Tools

Break-Even Calculator

Calculate how many units you need to sell to cover costs and how much revenue you need to reach a target profit.

Enter business details

Fixed costs

Target profit (optional)

Selling price per unit

Variable cost per unit

Enter your fixed costs, selling price, and variable cost per unit to see your break-even point.

Break-even units

Break-even revenue: £0.00

Break-even revenue

£0.00

Contribution per unit

£0.00

Contribution margin

0.00%

Target profit units

Break-even breakdown

Fixed costs £0.00

Selling price per unit £0.00

Variable cost per unit £0.00

Revenue needed for target profit £0.00

How This Break-Even Calculator Works

This break-even calculator helps you estimate how many units you need to sell before your business covers its costs. It compares your fixed costs with the contribution made from each sale, which is the selling price minus the variable cost per unit.

Your break-even point is the point where total revenue exactly matches total costs. At that level of sales, your business is not making a profit, but it is not making a loss either.

The calculator also shows your contribution margin and lets you add a target profit, so you can estimate both the number of units and the revenue needed to move beyond break-even and reach a chosen profit goal.

This can be useful for product businesses, service businesses, freelancers, side projects, and pricing decisions where you want a simple view of how sales volume affects profitability.

Fixed costs These are costs that stay the same regardless of how many units you sell, such as rent, salaries, insurance, subscriptions, or software.

Selling price per unit This is the amount you charge for each unit sold, whether that is a product, service package, booking, or job.

Variable cost per unit These are the costs directly linked to each sale, such as materials, packaging, shipping, merchant fees, or delivery costs.

Contribution per unit This is the amount left from each sale after variable costs, which goes towards covering fixed costs and then generating profit.

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Example Break-Even Calculations

Simple product business

Fixed costs£5,000

Price per unit£50

Variable cost£30

Break-even = 250 units

Higher margin product

Fixed costs£8,000

Price per unit£120

Variable cost£60

Break-even = 134 units

With target profit

Fixed costs£4,000

Target profit£2,000

Contribution per unit£20

Target = 300 units

Service-based business

Fixed costs£2,500

Price per job£200

Variable cost£50

Break-even = 17 jobs

Break-Even Calculator FAQs

The break-even point is the level of sales where total revenue equals total costs. At that point, a business has covered its expenses but has not yet made a profit.

Break-even units are calculated by dividing fixed costs by contribution per unit. Contribution per unit is the selling price per unit minus the variable cost per unit.

Contribution margin shows how much of each sale is left after variable costs. It is usually expressed as a percentage of the selling price and helps show how efficiently sales contribute towards fixed costs and profit.

If your selling price is equal to or lower than your variable cost per unit, you cannot break even because each sale contributes nothing, or creates a loss, before fixed costs are even considered.

Yes. Instead of units sold, you can think in terms of jobs, sessions, bookings, projects, or billable services. The same break-even formula still applies.

Break-even units are rounded up because you normally cannot sell a fraction of a unit in practice. Rounding up shows the minimum whole number of sales needed to fully cover costs.