Break-even units calculator: find how many units you must sell to cover fixed costs, plus required revenue and margin of safety. Free, runs locally, no signup.
A unit-economics scenario. It excludes taxes, capacity limits, changing prices, and step-fixed costs unless you include them in your inputs.
Updates automatically as you type.
Calculated in your browser; your inputs are not sent to us. Privacy
Results will appear here.
Calculation details
Every figure above is calculated locally in your browser from the assumptions shown. No inputs are sent anywhere. See the methodology section below for the formulas used.
Use this resultShare the current inputs, or ask ChatGPT to explain the calculation in context.
Ask an AI to explain this result
Share this result
Planning estimate only. Platform fees, taxes, payment costs, and policies can change; verify current terms before pricing.
This tool runs in your browser. Your calculator inputs and results are never transmitted to us or to ad/affiliate partners. Ads and sponsored links may set third-party cookies to serve and measure them, but they never receive your calculation values. If you explicitly save a scenario, its permitted fields stay in local browser storage until you clear them. See our Privacy Policy.
Use this result
Share the current inputs or ask ChatGPT to explain the calculation in context.
Use this break even calculator to find the whole units needed to cover fixed costs and a target profit. Enter fixed costs, selling price, and variable cost per unit. It calculates contribution margin, rounds required units up, then shows required revenue and projected profit at that unit count.
750 units cover fixed costs; the 4,000 target lifts it to 1,000.
Transparent methodology
How this calculator works
Reviewed July 2026 · BoringToolsKit Editorial Team
Formula
Contribution per unit = price − variable cost. Required whole units = ceiling((fixed costs + target profit) ÷ contribution per unit).
Worked example
$10,000 fixed costs, $50 price, and $30 variable cost produce $20 contribution per unit and a 500-unit break-even threshold.
BoringToolsKit. “Break-Even Units Calculator.” boringtoolskit.com/break-even-units-calculator/ (reviewed July 2026). Free to reference in articles, syllabi, and answer posts with a link.
Privacy: Inputs and results stay in this browser. Any future sponsored recommendation or advertisement will be clearly labeled and kept separate from the calculation.
Worked example: 12,000 of fixed costs at a 40 dollar price point
Suppose a workshop has 12,000 in fixed monthly costs, sells a product for 40 dollars, and spends 24 per unit on materials and direct labor. The contribution margin per unit is 40 minus 24, or 16 dollars. Covering 12,000 of fixed costs at 16 dollars per unit takes 12,000 divided by 16, which is 750 units. Revenue at that point is 750 times 40, or 30,000 dollars, and profit is exactly zero: 750 units times 16 equals 12,000, fully absorbed by fixed costs.
Now add a 4,000 dollar profit target. The numerator becomes 12,000 plus 4,000, or 16,000, and 16,000 divided by 16 is exactly 1,000 units, so no rounding is needed. Required revenue is 1,000 times 40, or 40,000 dollars, and projected profit is 1,000 times 16 minus 12,000, which is 4,000 dollars. Note how the target behaves like a fourth fixed cost: raising the goal by 4,000 always adds exactly 250 units here (4,000 divided by 16), regardless of where the break-even point sits.
Change one variable and the units move non-linearly. If materials rise to 28, contribution margin drops to 12, and the same 16,000 numerator now needs 1,334 units (16,000 divided by 12 is 1,333.33, rounded up to a whole unit). A 4 dollar input change added 334 units, more than a 4 dollar price rise would have removed.
Where the linear model breaks down
The calculator treats price and variable cost as constants, which rarely survives contact with volume discounts or bulk pricing. Selling at 40 with a 24 unit cost gives a 40 percent contribution margin ratio, but if the 750th unit only sells at a 10 percent wholesale discount, that unit contributes 12 instead of 16, and the true break-even shifts higher. Model tiered pricing by running each price tier as a separate scenario rather than averaging the tiers.
Fixed costs are only fixed within a capacity band. Adding a second shift, a new machine lease, or a 2,500 dollar per month warehouse expansion changes the numerator mid-climb: a shop that needs 1,200 units to break even may hit a 3,000 dollar rent step at 1,000 units, so the honest figure is 15,000 divided by the margin, not 12,000. Similarly, the result counts units, not cash: a 40,000 dollar revenue threshold with net-60 customer payment terms means the fixed costs still come out of pocket for two months before the cash arrives.
The target-profit output also ignores taxes and interest. A 4,000 dollar pre-tax target is closer to 3,000 after a 25 percent tax rate, so work back from the after-tax number you actually need: divide the desired after-tax profit by 0.75 before entering it as the target.
