Discount Calculator
Calculate the sale price after a percentage discount and the amount saved. Enter an original price and a discount rate to see what the buyer pays and what comes off the price.
Discount formula
- Amount saved:
savings = original price x discount / 100 - Sale price:
sale price = original price x (1 - discount / 100)
Here original price is the pre-discount listed price and discount is the percentage reduction. The two outputs always add back up to the original price.
Stacked discounts do not simply add together. A 20% discount followed by an extra 10% off multiplies the price by 0.8 x 0.9 = 0.72, a total reduction of 28%, not 30%, because the second discount applies to an already-reduced price.
Worked example
A product listed at 85 is discounted by 30%.
- Savings:
85 x 0.30 = 25.50 - Sale price:
85 - 25.50 = 59.50
Now consider the seller's side. Suppose the item cost 51 to source and sell. At full price the profit is 85 - 51 = 34, a margin of 34 / 85 = 40%. At the discounted price the profit is 59.50 - 51 = 8.50, a margin of 8.50 / 59.50 = 14.3%. A 30% price cut removed three quarters of the profit, which is why discount decisions deserve a calculator rather than a guess.
When to use this calculator
- Planning a promotion. Check the discounted price and the remaining profit per unit before publishing a sale, so the campaign cannot push items below cost.
- Clearing stock. Find the deepest discount that still recovers your unit cost when you need to move slow inventory.
- Comparing offers as a buyer. Convert "percent off" claims into actual prices to compare deals across shops on equal terms.
- Setting coupon values. Model how a sitewide code changes the effective price of your typical order before you distribute it.
Common mistakes
- Adding stacked discounts together instead of multiplying the remaining fractions; sequential discounts always reduce the price less than their sum suggests.
- Judging a discount by revenue impact alone. Because costs stay fixed, a discount removes a much larger share of profit than of price.
- Forgetting that percentage-based fees fall with the price but fixed per-order costs do not, so heavily discounted low-price items are hit hardest.
- Applying the discount before or after tax inconsistently; decide which basis you are using and keep it the same everywhere.
- Anchoring to an inflated original price. In many jurisdictions a struck-through price must be one genuinely charged before.
Related calculators
Use the profit margin calculator to see what margin survives a promotion and the COGS calculator to pin down the unit cost a discount must stay above. The discount percentage calculator works the reverse direction from two prices, while the average order value calculator and marketplace profit calculator show how discounting plays out across orders and platform fees.