Enter your fixed costs, variable cost per unit, and selling price to find exactly how many units you need to sell to cover your costs — plus revenue at break-even and your margin of safety at any target sales level.
The contribution margin per unit is your selling price minus the variable cost of producing one unit — it's how much each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs. Dividing total fixed costs by that contribution margin gives the break-even point in units, and multiplying by the selling price gives break-even revenue.
Margin of safety measures how far your target sales are above the break-even point — a larger margin means more room for sales to drop before the business starts losing money. The chart plots total cost and total revenue as straight lines against units sold; where they cross is your break-even point.
Break-even units = fixed costs divided by (price per unit minus variable cost per unit), showing how many units you need to sell to cover all costs.
Fixed costs (like rent) stay the same regardless of sales volume; variable costs (like materials) scale directly with each unit produced or sold.
It tells you the minimum sales volume needed to avoid a loss, helping you judge whether a price point and cost structure are realistic before committing.