Orpheus

Break-Even Point Calculator

How many units before the fixed costs are paid off.

Inputs

Rent, salaries, software — the bill that arrives whether you sell anything or not.

Materials, shipping, payment fees — what each additional sale costs you.

Break-even
267 units
Revenue at break-even
6,666.67
Contribution per unit
15.00
Contribution margin
60%
Per working day (22)
12.12 units
units = fixed costs ÷ (price − variable cost)

Every unit past 267 adds 15.00 of profit, because the fixed costs are already paid.

Every tool runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to a server.

Break-even is fixed costs divided by the contribution each sale makes — price minus variable cost. At 4,000 of fixed costs and 15 contribution per unit, you break even at 267 units, and every unit after that is profit.

How to use Break-Even Calculator

  1. Enter fixed costs. The monthly bill that arrives regardless of sales: rent, salaries, software.
  2. Enter price and variable cost. What a customer pays, and what that individual sale costs you to fulfil.
  3. Read the unit count. Plus the revenue it represents and the daily rate needed to hit it.

About calculating a break-even point

The break-even point is where a business stops losing money and starts making it, and the arithmetic behind it is genuinely simple: divide what you owe regardless of sales by what each sale contributes after its own costs. The value of running the number is not the number itself but what it forces you to separate. Costs that feel similar behave completely differently at volume. Rent, salaries and software subscriptions arrive whether you sell nothing or everything, so growth spreads them thinner. Materials, shipping and payment processing scale with each sale, so growth does not help at all — and if they exceed the price, growth actively hurts. That is why a negative contribution margin has no break-even point: no volume can rescue a unit that loses money, and the instinct to sell more is precisely wrong. Two adjustments make the figure honest. Include your own pay in fixed costs, because a break-even that only works while the founder is unpaid is a deadline rather than a plan. And treat the result as a floor, not a target — a business that exactly breaks even has absorbed no bad month, no late payment and no price rise from a supplier, all of which are ordinary rather than exceptional events.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between fixed and variable costs?
Fixed costs do not move with sales volume — rent is the same whether you sell one unit or a thousand. Variable costs are incurred per sale: materials, shipping, payment processing. The distinction is what makes a break-even point exist at all.
What is contribution margin?
Price minus variable cost, expressed per unit or as a share of price. It is the amount each sale contributes toward the fixed costs, and once those are covered, toward profit. A higher contribution margin means fewer units are needed to break even.
What if my contribution is negative?
Then there is no break-even point and selling more increases the loss. Volume can only cover fixed costs; it cannot fix a unit that loses money. The price has to rise or the variable cost has to fall before the question makes sense.
Should my own salary be a fixed cost?
If you need to be paid, yes. Leaving founder time out of the calculation produces a break-even point that is achievable only while working unpaid, which is a plan with an expiry date rather than a business.
Does this account for tax?
No, this is a pre-tax break-even. To cover a tax charge as well, divide the target profit by one minus your tax rate and add it to fixed costs before dividing — that gives the volume needed for a specific after-tax result.

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