Profit and Loss Calculator

Please provide ANY TWO of the following. Entere a negative value for loss $\hspace{0.2em} (\%) \hspace{0.2em}$ .

Cost Price $\hspace{0.2em} \,=\, \hspace{0.2em}$

Selling Price $\hspace{0.2em} \,=\, \hspace{0.2em}$

Profit/Loss $\hspace{0.2em} \,=\, \hspace{0.2em}$

Profit/Loss $\hspace{0.2em} \%\,=\, \hspace{0.2em}$

Please provide your input and click the calculate button

About the Profit and Loss Calculator

The profit and loss calculator can calculate for you the cost price, selling price, profit/loss, and/or profit/loss percent.

It will tell you not just the answers but how to calculate them.

Usage Guide

Hide

i. Valid Inputs

For each of the inputs you may provide values in any format — integers, decimals, fractions, or even mixed numbers. Here are a few examples.

Whole numbers or decimals → $\hspace{0.2em} 24 \hspace{0.2em}$ , $\hspace{0.2em} -10 \hspace{0.2em}$ , $\hspace{0.2em} 15.33 \hspace{0.2em}$
Fractions → $\hspace{0.2em} 2/3 \hspace{0.2em}$ , $\hspace{0.2em} -1/5 \hspace{0.2em}$
Mixed numbers → $\hspace{0.2em} 15 \hspace{0.5em} 1/4 \hspace{0.2em}$

There are a few restrictions though, as listed below.

Cost price (CP) and selling price (SP) must not be negative.
Loss cannot be greater than the cost price.
Loss percent cannot be greater than 100.

Note — To indicate a loss (or loss %), use a negative value.

ii. Example

If you would like to see an example of the calculator's working, just click the "example" button.

iii. Solutions

As mentioned earlier, the calculator won't just tell you the answer but also the steps you can follow to do the calculation yourself. The "show/hide solution" button would be available to you after the calculator has processed your input.

iv. Share

We would love to see you share our calculators with your family, friends, or anyone else who might find it useful.

By checking the "include calculation" checkbox, you can share your calculation as well.

Here's a quick overview of the concept of profit and loss.

Profit and Loss

Before we talk about profit and loss, let's discuss two terms that are fundamental to this discussion — cost price and selling price.

Cost price — Cost price (often abbreviated as CP) refers to the cost incurred by a business or individual to acquire a product (whether it is purchased or manufactured).

Selling price — Selling price (often abbreviated as SP) refers to the price at which a product is sold to a customer.

Profit — When a product is sold at a price higher than its cost price (i.e. the selling price is greater than the cost price), the difference between the two prices is the profit.

\text{P} \hspace{0.2em} = \hspace{0.2em} \text{SP} - \text{CP}

Profit percent— Profit percent refers to the profit expressed as a percentage of the cost price.

P \hspace{0.2em} \% \hspace{0.2em} = \hspace{0.2em} \frac{\text{ P }}{\text{ CP }} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \%

Loss — When a product is sold at a price lower than its cost price (i.e. the selling price is lower than the cost price), the difference between the two prices is the loss incurred by the seller in the transaction.

\text{L} \hspace{0.2em} = \hspace{0.2em} \text{CP} - \text{SP}

Loss percent— Loss percent refers to the loss expressed as a percentage of the cost price.

L \hspace{0.2em} \% \hspace{0.2em} = \hspace{0.2em} \frac{\text{ L }}{\text{ CP }} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \%

Profit and Loss Calculation — Examples

Example

A shopkeeper bought a shirt for $\hspace{0.2em} \$30 \hspace{0.2em}$ and sold it for $\hspace{0.2em} \$45 \hspace{0.2em}$ . Calculate the profit or loss as well as the profit or loss percentage on the shirt.

Solution

The shopkeeper sold the shirt for a price higher than the cost price (the price at which he acquired it). That means he sold it for a profit.

Also, we know the profit is given by —

P \hspace{0.25em} = \hspace{0.25em} \text{SP} - \text{CP}

Substituting the values of $\hspace{0.2em} \text{SP} \hspace{0.2em}$ and $\hspace{0.2em} \text{CP} \hspace{0.2em}$ , we have

\begin{align*} P \hspace{0.25em} &= \hspace{0.25em} 45 - 30 \\[1em] &= \hspace{0.25em} 15 \end{align*}

So, the seller made a profit of $\hspace{0.2em} \$ 15 \hspace{0.2em}$ . Next, we calculate the profit percent.

\begin{align*} P \hspace{0.2em} \% \hspace{0.2em} &= \hspace{0.2em} \frac{\text{ P }}{\text{ CP }} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \% \\[1.5em] &= \hspace{0.2em} \frac{\text{ 15 }}{\text{ 30 }} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \% \\[1.5em] &= \hspace{0.2em} 50 \hspace{0.25em} \% \end{align*}

Example

Soon after buying a used car, Scott sold it for $\hspace{0.2em} \$ 7800 \hspace{0.2em}$ at a loss of $\hspace{0.2em} \$ 700 \hspace{0.2em}$ . Find the loss percentage.

Solution

Here's the formula for loss percentage.

L \hspace{0.2em} \% \hspace{0.2em} = \hspace{0.2em} \frac{\text{ L }}{\text{ CP }} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \%

As you can see, we need the cost price $\hspace{0.2em} (\text{CP}) \hspace{0.2em}$ to be able to calculate the loss percentage. And fot that, we will use the formula below.

\begin{align*} L \hspace{0.25em} &= \hspace{0.25em} \text{CP} - \text{SP} \\[1em] 700 \hspace{0.25em} &= \hspace{0.25em} \text{CP} - 7800 \\[1em] \text{CP} \hspace{0.25em} &= \hspace{0.25em} 8500 \end{align*}

Now, let's plug this value of $\hspace{0.2em} \text{CP} \hspace{0.2em}$ in the loss percentage formula.

\begin{align*} L \hspace{0.2em} \% \hspace{0.2em} &= \hspace{0.2em} \frac{700}{8500} \times 100 \hspace{0.25em} \% \\[1.5em] &= \hspace{0.2em} 8.23 \hspace{0.25em} \% \end{align*}

So Scott made a loss of $\hspace{0.2em} 8.23 \hspace{0.15em} \% \hspace{0.2em}$ .