Markup Calculator
Enter a media cost and the markup you are adding and this returns the revenue, the profit and — the number most people actually want — the margin that markup leaves you with. Any two of the four figures work: give it a cost and a revenue and it tells you what markup you have been charging.
What the inventory costs you.
What you add on top of the media cost.
What the client pays you.
What you keep on the deal.
Profit as a share of revenue — always the smaller number.
Fill in any two boxes and the other two are worked out. Cost and markup prices a buy; cost and revenue checks one you have already agreed.
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Formula
Markup % = ((Revenue − Cost) ÷ Cost) × 100 · Margin % = (Markup ÷ (100 + Markup)) × 100A markup is always measured against what you paid. Converting it to margin means re-basing it onto what the client pays, which is a larger denominator — so the margin is always the smaller of the two figures, and the gap grows as the markup rises.
Grossing up is not the same as marking down
The mistake that costs money is symmetrical and it happens in both directions. Applying a target margin as a markup underprices the buy: quote cost plus 30% when you needed a 30% margin and you land on 23.1%, losing nearly a quarter of the intended profit. Reading a markup back as margin does the opposite and overstates what the desk keeps, which is worse, because nothing fails visibly — the money simply never appears in the reconciliation. If a rate card is built on markups, convert every line to margin before it goes anywhere near a revenue forecast.
What the markup is charged on
In programmatic the base is rarely the raw media. A markup applied to a cost that already carries an SSP take, a DSP fee and a data charge is a markup on other people's fees as well as on inventory, and it compounds with every party that does the same. This is why a chain of three modest markups can leave the advertiser paying a third more than the working media while every individual party can honestly say they took a normal cut. Before agreeing a percentage, settle what number it multiplies — the ambiguity in a deal memo is almost never accidental, and it is never in the buyer's favour.
Frequently asked questions
- What margin does a 50% markup give me?
- 33.3%. Divide the markup by 1 plus the markup: 0.50 ÷ 1.50 = 0.333. The gap widens as the numbers grow — a 100% markup is a 50% margin, and a 300% markup is a 75% margin. Markup and margin only agree at zero.
- What markup do I need to hit a 30% margin?
- 42.9%. The grossing-up formula is margin ÷ (1 − margin), so 0.30 ÷ 0.70 = 0.429. Applying the margin figure as a markup instead — charging cost plus 30% — lands you on a 23.1% margin and quietly gives away nearly a quarter of the profit you planned for.
- Does 'cost plus 20%' mean a 20% margin?
- No. Cost-plus wording is a markup: it is calculated on what you paid, not on what the client pays. Cost plus 20% is a 16.7% margin. The phrasing is common in tech-fee and managed-service contracts precisely because it sounds like the larger number while paying out the smaller one.
- Why can a markup be more than 100% when a margin cannot?
- Because they divide the same profit by different things. Margin divides by revenue, which profit is always a part of, so it is capped at 100%. Markup divides by cost, which has no such relationship — buying at $1 and selling at $10 is a 900% markup and a 90% margin.
- Do stacked markups add up?
- No, they compound. Two parties each adding 20% to what they paid do not produce a 40% markup on the original cost — they produce 44%, because the second 20% is charged on a base that already includes the first. Model a resale chain one layer at a time rather than summing the percentages.