Markup & margin calculator for tradespeople
Add a markup to your cost and see the price to charge — plus the margin that markup actually gives you. Or work backwards from a price you already charge.
What you pay the merchant, before you add anything.
The percentage you add on top of your cost.
Fill both boxes to see your price.
Markup and margin are not the same number
This is the single most expensive mix-up in trade pricing, and it's entirely understandable — both are percentages, both describe the gap between what you paid and what you charged. The difference is what they're measured against.
- Markup is your profit as a percentage of what the item cost you.
- Margin is your profit as a percentage of what you charged.
As markup that's £50 ÷ £100 = 50%.
As margin that's £50 ÷ £150 = 33.3%.
Same fifty quid. Two very different-looking percentages.
Margin is always the smaller number, and the gap widens as the percentage climbs. That matters because business advice, accountants and your own targets are usually stated in margin, while merchants and trade habit talk in markup. Aim for “30%” using the wrong one and you'll come up short on every job you price.
The quick conversions
- 20% markup = 16.7% margin
- 25% markup = 20% margin
- 50% markup = 33.3% margin
- 100% markup = 50% margin
Working the other way, to hit a margin you have in mind: divide the margin by (100 − margin) and that's the markup. A 25% margin needs 25 ÷ 75 = 33% markup.
What tradespeople typically mark up — and what they absorb
There's no correct figure here and anyone quoting you one hasn't seen your overheads. What's reasonably consistent is the shape of how experienced trades think about it:
- Materials and the suite — the bath, boiler, tiles, consumer unit — usually carry a markup. You sourced it, you're carrying the cost until you're paid, you're standing behind it if it's faulty, and you spent unpaid time choosing and collecting it. That's the markup earning its keep, not a hidden charge.
- Small consumables — screws, sealant, fixings, a bag of sand — are often absorbed into the labour rate instead of itemised. Not because they're free, but because pricing them individually costs more admin than it recovers, and an itemised 80p invites an argument.
- Hired plant and skips vary most. Some pass them straight through at cost as a visible line, some mark them up for the arranging and the risk of an overrun.
The trap isn't the percentage you pick, it's absorbing costs you never counted. Collection time, fuel, waste runs and the hour spent on the phone to a merchant are real costs — if they're not in your markup they have to be in your labour rate, or they come out of your own pocket. Our guide on working out your real day rate goes through the ones people forget.
A note on VAT
Work in ex-VAT figures throughout this calculator. VAT isn't yours and it isn't profit — it passes through you to HMRC, so putting VAT-inclusive numbers in will flatter your margin and mislead you. If you're weighing up whether you need to register at all, the VAT registration guide covers the thresholds and what changes.