Free tool · Price Rise Calculator · one minute Do the maths before the fear.
Enter four numbers. See how many customers you could lose before a price rise costs you anything, or how many extra sales a discount needs just to stand still.
Nothing you enter leaves this page.
Your result
The two formulas
Break-even customer loss = price increase ÷ (gross margin + price increase). The share of customers you can lose after a rise and still earn today's gross profit.
Extra sales a discount needs = discount ÷ (gross margin − discount). How much more you must sell just to stand still.
The lower your margin, the more room a price rise gives you, and the more a discount costs. Price is the strongest profit lever most companies have; in Marn and Rosiello's well-known analysis (Harvard Business Review, 1992), a 1% price improvement lifted operating profit by 11.1% for a company with average economics, against 3.3% for a 1% rise in volume.
The maths sets the ceiling. Whether customers stay depends on whether they can see why you're worth more: that's positioning. Read How to raise prices without losing customers.
Questions
How do I calculate how many customers I can lose after a price increase?
Divide the price increase by your gross margin plus the price increase. At a 40% margin, a 10% rise gives 10 ÷ (40 + 10) = 20%: you could lose one customer in five and still earn the same gross profit.
How much extra do I need to sell to cover a discount?
Divide the discount by your gross margin minus the discount. At a 40% margin, a 10% discount needs 10 ÷ (40 − 10) = 33% more sales just to earn the same gross profit.
What margin should I enter?
Gross (contribution) margin: price minus the direct cost of delivering one sale, as a percentage of price. Leave out fixed overheads.
Is break-even the target?
No, it is the ceiling. A well-communicated price rise usually loses far fewer customers than the break-even figure, and the difference is profit.
Is my data stored?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Your last inputs are remembered on this device only, so you can come back to them.
Next step
Price objections are a positioning signal.
If buyers keep saying you're too expensive, the problem is usually that they can't see the difference. Find the weakest phase of your brand system in six minutes, or talk it through with us.