Find how many units you must sell to cover fixed costs, and the revenue needed to break even. Includes contribution margin, profit at expected sales and margin of safety.
Used for profit and margin of safety.
Break-even units
432
Break-even revenue
₹4,31,568
Contribution / unit
₹579
Contribution margin
58.0%
Profit at expected sales
₹97,400
Margin of safety
28.0%
168 units
Use net values excluding GST for internal profitability analysis. Taxes, discounts, returns and channel commissions can change the true contribution margin.
कुछ सामग्री अब भी अंग्रेज़ी में दिखती है।
Break-even analysis is the most fundamental tool in business planning - it tells you the minimum sales volume your business must achieve to cover all costs and start making profit. Whether you're starting a kirana store, opening a cafe, launching an e-commerce brand, running a freelance design practice, or pricing a new product line, knowing the break-even point gives you the floor below which every additional sale is just postponing losses. Many promising Indian small businesses fail not from lack of customers but from misjudging their break-even - pricing too low, ignoring fixed costs like rent and salaries, or underestimating how many units they need to sell.
This calculator separates costs into two categories: fixed costs (rent, salaries, software subscriptions, internet, accountancy fees, insurance - costs that don't change with units sold) and variable costs (raw materials, packaging, payment gateway fees, courier charges, sales commissions - costs that scale with each sale). The contribution margin per unit (selling price minus variable cost) is what each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs. Once total contribution equals fixed costs, the business is at break-even; every sale after that is operating profit.
Enter monthly or yearly fixed costs such as rent, salaries and software.
Enter selling price per unit and variable cost per unit.
Add expected sales units to estimate profit and margin of safety.
Read break-even units, break-even revenue and contribution margin.
Each sale contributes selling price minus variable cost towards fixed costs. Break-even occurs when total contribution equals fixed costs. Sales beyond break-even generate operating profit.
Break-even units = Fixed Costs / (Selling Price - Variable Cost)
Break-even units = Fixed Costs ÷ Contribution Margin per unit. Contribution Margin = Selling Price − Variable Cost. So if you sell a product for ₹500 with ₹300 variable cost, contribution is ₹200 per unit. With ₹40,000 monthly fixed costs, break-even = 40,000 / 200 = 200 units per month. Below 200 units, the business loses money; at 200, it covers costs; above, it earns profit at ₹200 per additional unit.
Break-even revenue = break-even units × selling price. For the above: 200 × 500 = ₹1,00,000 monthly revenue. The contribution margin ratio (CM / Selling Price = 200/500 = 40%) tells you what proportion of revenue contributes to fixed costs and profit. A 40% CM ratio means every ₹100 of revenue contributes ₹40 to fixed costs and profit; the other ₹60 is variable cost.
Margin of safety = (Actual Sales − Break-even Sales) / Actual Sales × 100. Tells you how much sales can drop before you start losing money. A margin of safety of 30% means sales can drop 30% before reaching break-even - relatively safe. A 5% margin of safety is dangerous; a small dip in sales or rise in costs could turn the business unprofitable quickly. For Indian startups in volatile markets, aim for at least 20-25% margin of safety in monthly plans.
Contribution per order: ₹150. Break-even orders: 3,00,000 / 150 = 2,000 orders/month ≈ 67 orders/day. With 50-seat capacity and 2.5 turnover: feasible to do 125 orders/day, leaving healthy margin of safety of 46%. Profitable if footfall holds.
Contribution: ₹400. Break-even: 2,00,000 / 400 = 500 units/month. At ₹800 average order, monthly revenue at break-even = ₹4,00,000. Need 500 orders/month = 16-17 orders/day. Achievable with decent Meta ads spend.
Contribution: ₹20,000 per project. Break-even: 60,000 / 20,000 = 3 projects/month. Anything beyond 3 projects is profit @ ₹20,000 each. At 6 projects/month: profit = ₹60,000. Margin of safety: 50%.
Contribution margin is selling price minus variable cost. It is the amount each unit contributes towards fixed costs and profit.
Use values excluding GST for internal profitability analysis, because GST collected is payable to the government.
Yes. Treat one project, subscription or billable hour as a unit and enter direct delivery cost as variable cost.
It shows how far expected sales are above break-even. A higher margin means lower operating risk.
Every business - kirana store, SaaS startup, manufacturing unit - runs on four cycles: cash, inventory, depreciation and financing. Get any one wrong and the business runs out of money before it runs out of opportunity. This calculator addresses one piece of that puzzle the way a CA, CFO or operations manager would actually compute it.
Use it alongside the break-even, business loan, depreciation and inventory calculators to model your unit economics. For Indian businesses the depreciation calculator follows the Companies Act 2013 schedule (SLM and WDV); for financing it follows the same monthly reducing balance that PSU and private banks use.
The Break-even Calculator is part of the Business suite on Online Calculator Tools, alongside 6 related calculators. All tools share the same UI patterns, the same privacy-first rendering (nothing is sent to a server), and the same commitment to showing the formula and assumptions behind every result.
