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What is a Profit & Loss Calculator?
Whether you're a small shop owner pricing inventory, a reseller flipping items online, or a student revising for a competitive exam, working out profit or loss percentage by hand is a common but error-prone task. This calculator takes your cost price and selling price and instantly tells you whether you made a profit or a loss, and by how much — useful for pricing decisions, GST invoicing checks, or simply verifying a deal before you commit to it.
Profit & Loss Percentage Formula
Profit/Loss % = (Difference ÷ CP) × 100
A positive difference means profit; a negative one means loss.
Worked Example
Profit case: You bought an item for ₹800 (CP) and sold it for ₹950 (SP). Difference = ₹950 − ₹800 = ₹150. Profit % = (150 ÷ 800) × 100 = 18.75% profit.
Loss case: Now say you bought stock for ₹1,000 but had to sell it at ₹850 during a clearance sale. Difference = ₹850 − ₹1,000 = −₹150. Loss % = (−150 ÷ 1,000) × 100 = −15%, meaning a 15% loss on that item.
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the Cost Price (CP) — what you originally paid for the item.
- Enter the Selling Price (SP) — what you sold or plan to sell it for.
- Click Calculate to instantly see the profit or loss amount and percentage.
Where This Comes in Handy
- Retailers and kirana store owners use profit percentage to decide markup on goods before restocking.
- Resellers on platforms like OLX, Meesho, or Amazon can quickly check margins after accounting for platform fees.
- It's also a staple topic in bank PO, SSC, and other Indian competitive exams, so students often use it to verify manual calculations.
Who Should Use This Calculator
This calculator is built for retailers and kirana store owners setting markups before restocking inventory, online resellers on platforms like Meesho, OLX, or Amazon checking their margin after cost price, small manufacturers pricing finished goods, and students preparing for bank PO, SSC, or other competitive exams where profit-loss percentage problems are a recurring topic. It's also handy for anyone verifying a second-hand item deal — checking whether reselling a used gadget, vehicle, or piece of furniture at a quoted price actually results in a gain or loss relative to what was originally paid. For business use, remember this tool calculates gross profit/loss on a single item's cost and selling price; it doesn't account for GST, platform commission, shipping, or other overheads that affect your true net margin.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does this calculator account for GST or platform fees on the selling price?
A: No, this calculator computes gross profit/loss purely from the Cost Price and Selling Price you enter. If you're selling on a platform that charges commission, or if GST applies to the transaction, subtract those costs from your selling price first to see your true net profit or loss.
Q: What's the difference between profit percentage on cost price versus selling price?
A: This calculator computes profit/loss percentage on the Cost Price (the standard method used in most Indian business and exam contexts), meaning Profit% = (Profit ÷ Cost Price) × 100. Some contexts instead calculate margin as a percentage of the Selling Price, which gives a different (always smaller) number for the same rupee profit — always check which base is expected.
Q: How do I work backwards from a target profit percentage to set my selling price?
A: If you know your Cost Price and want a specific profit percentage, multiply the Cost Price by (1 + Profit% ÷ 100). For example, to earn 25% profit on a ₹400 cost price item, set your selling price at ₹400 × 1.25 = ₹500. Our Discount Calculator can help you further adjust for planned discounts on top of this.
Q: Can this calculator show a loss as a negative percentage?
A: Yes, if your Selling Price is lower than your Cost Price, the calculator returns a negative percentage figure, indicating a loss rather than a profit. For example, buying at ₹1,000 and selling at ₹850 shows a −15% result, meaning a 15% loss on the original cost.
Q: Is profit calculated this way relevant for GST invoicing or income tax?
A: Not directly — GST is charged on the transaction value regardless of your profit margin, and income tax is calculated on your overall business profit (revenue minus all expenses) across a financial year, not per-item profit percentage. This calculator is useful for pricing decisions and quick margin checks, not for tax computation.
More Worked Examples Across Different Scenarios
Wholesale bulk scenario: A trader buys 100 units of a product at ₹120 each (CP = ₹12,000 total) and sells the entire lot to a retailer for ₹150 each (SP = ₹15,000 total). Difference = ₹15,000 − ₹12,000 = ₹3,000. Profit % = (3,000 ÷ 12,000) × 100 = 25% profit on the bulk transaction.
Real estate resale scenario: A property bought for ₹45,00,000 is sold five years later for ₹58,00,000. Difference = ₹58,00,000 − ₹45,00,000 = ₹13,00,000. Profit % = (13,00,000 ÷ 45,00,000) × 100 ≈ 28.9% profit over the full holding period — note this is a total return, not an annualised one, and doesn't account for stamp duty, registration, or capital gains tax on the sale.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
A frequent error is forgetting to include all costs in the Cost Price — packaging, shipping, platform commission, and payment gateway charges should all be added to the base purchase cost before calculating true profit, otherwise the percentage shown will overstate actual margin. Another common mistake is confusing markup with profit percentage — markup is calculated on cost price while margin is sometimes calculated on selling price, and mixing the two conventions when comparing numbers from different sources leads to wrong conclusions. Sellers also sometimes forget that profit percentage on a single unit doesn't reflect overall business profitability once fixed costs like rent and salaries are spread across total sales volume — for that bigger picture, the Break-Even Calculator is a better fit than a per-item profit/loss check.
📅 Last reviewed: July 2026 · Formulas verified against RBI/SEBI/IT Dept guidelines.