Calculate your markup, selling price and margin from cost or billable hours – or let the free AI Time Tracker track your project hours and feed your true cost into every quote.
AI Time Tracker records every billable hour automatically from your computer activity — so your cost, markup and margin are always based on real time, not estimates. Free for Mac and Windows.
Markup is the percentage you add to your cost to arrive at a selling price. The formula is simple: markup = (price − cost) / cost × 100. For example, if a product costs $80 and you sell it for $100, your profit is $20 and your markup is 25%.
Enter your cost and the markup percentage you want to apply. The calculator shows the selling price, your profit and the profit margin automatically.
Already know what you paid and what you charged? Enter both figures and the calculator works out the markup percentage, profit and margin.
If you bill by the hour, your cost is your time. Enter your hourly rate, the number of hours and the markup percentage. The calculator computes your cost, selling price, profit, margin and your effective hourly rate — what you actually earn per hour after the markup.
The catch? Your numbers are only as good as your hour count. If you guess 8 hours but actually worked 10, your real cost is 25% higher and your margin silently shrinks. The free AI Time Tracker runs in the background on your Mac or Windows computer and records every billable hour automatically — from the apps and documents you work in — so your cost is always real, not estimated.
Markup and margin are often confused because both express profit as a percentage, but they use a different base:
The higher your markup, the lower your margin relative to the price. A 100% markup (doubling the cost) equals a 50% margin. Use the calculator above to see how the two figures relate for any set of numbers.
Typical markups vary widely by sector. Use these benchmarks to sense-check your pricing, but remember that high markups do not always mean high profits — overhead and volume matter too.
| Industry | Typical markup |
|---|---|
| Grocery retail | ~15% |
| Restaurants (food) | ~60% |
| Restaurants (beverages) | up to 500% |
| Jewelry | ~50% |
| Clothing | 150–250% |
| Automotive | 5–10% |
| Software / SaaS | 50–70% |
| Consulting / agencies | 50–100% |
Consultants and agencies sit at 50–100% markup — but that markup is built on billable hours. If you undercount your hours by even 10%, a 75% markup can turn into a 58% markup overnight. Accurate time tracking is what protects your margin.
You just calculated your markup and margin. But here is the question: how accurate was the cost you typed in?
If you bill by the hour and you estimated 8 hours but actually worked 9.5, your real cost was nearly 19% higher than you planned. On a 50% markup, that drops your margin from 33% to 28% — silently, invoice after invoice.
The free AI Time Tracker by TimeCamp fixes this. It runs in the background on your Mac or Windows computer and records every minute you spend in each app, document and browser tab — then suggests timesheet entries you can approve with one click. No manual timers, no guesswork, no undercounted hours.
Next time you open this calculator, your hour count will be real. Your cost will be real. And your margin will be the one you actually keep.
Markup is the percentage you add to your cost to arrive at a selling price. If you buy something for $80 and sell it for $100, your profit is $20 and your markup is 25% — $20 divided by $80, expressed as a percentage.
Subtract your cost from the selling price to get the profit, then divide the profit by the cost and multiply by 100. The formula is: markup = (price − cost) / cost × 100. The calculator above does this instantly.
Markup is profit divided by cost, while margin is profit divided by revenue. A 25% markup on an $80 cost ($100 price, $20 profit) gives a 20% margin. The two figures are always different for the same transaction, except at 0% profit.
There is no universal answer. Grocery retail works on roughly 15% markup, clothing on 150–250%, and consulting on 50–100%. What matters is whether the markup covers your overhead and leaves a reasonable profit after all costs.
Multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours to get your cost. Then apply the markup percentage to that cost. For example, $50/hour for 8 hours is a $400 cost; a 40% markup gives a $560 selling price and a $70 effective hourly rate. Use the Time-based tab in the calculator above.
The key is accuracy: if you guess your hours, you guess your cost, and your markup becomes a guess too. The free AI Time Tracker records your billable hours automatically so your cost — and therefore your margin — is always based on real data.
Switch to the Price → Markup tab, enter your cost and selling price, and the calculator shows the markup percentage, profit and margin instantly.
Yes. Click Print / Save as PDF to print the results or save them as a PDF file for your records or your client.
The calculator stores your entries in this browser's local storage so they are still there when you come back. TimeCamp does not collect or store the numbers you enter. Click Reset to clear everything.
Yes. The free AI Time Tracker by TimeCamp for Mac or Windows runs in the background, records your project hours from the apps and documents you work in, and suggests timesheet entries you approve with one click. Your hour count is always accurate — so your cost, markup and margin are always based on real time, not estimates. It does not record keystrokes.
If you estimate 8 hours but actually work 10, your real cost is 25% higher than planned. On a 50% markup, that drops your margin from 33% to 28% — a loss you never see on the invoice. Accurate time tracking with the free AI Time Tracker prevents this by counting every billable hour automatically, so your margin stays where you planned it.
Your markup is only as accurate as your cost. AI Time Tracker records every billable hour automatically – so your quotes, margins and profit are always based on real data. Download the free app for your Mac or Windows computer.
