How to Calculate a 20 Percent Markup (2024)

Updated November 30, 2020

By Lisa Maloney

If you've ever bought clothes on sale, you're familiar with the concept of a markdown, or reducing the price by a given percentage. A markup works the opposite way: The price is ​increased​ by a given percentage. Retailers do this every day, because they pay one price for their goods (the wholesale price), and then add a markup to create the retail price they sell to you at. Often, the markup from wholesale price to retail price can be as much as 50 percent, but some retailers will sell at lower markups such as 20 percent.

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read)

Multiply the original price by 0.2 to find the amount of a 20 percent markup, or multiply it by 1.2 to find the total price (including markup). If you have the final price (including markup) and want to know what the original price was, divide by 1.2.

Finding 20 Percent Markup From Wholesale

If you know the wholesale price of an item and want to calculate how much you must add for a 20 percent markup, multiply the wholesale price by 0.2, which is 20 percent expressed in decimal form. The result is the amount of markup you should add.

So, if you're marking up a pair of pants that cost $50, the markup amount is:

\$50 × 0.2 = \$10

If you want to calculate the total price after markup, add the original price plus the markup:

\$50 + \$10 = \$60

So the final price of the pants would be $60.

Finding the Total Price From Wholesale

If you want to go straight to the total price of the item ​after​ a 20 percent markup, multiply the wholesale price by 1.2. This represents 100 percent of the original wholesale price plus the 20 percent markup, or 120 percent total, expressed in decimal form.

Using the same pair of pants as the previous example, you'd have:

\$50 × 1.2 = \$60

Note that you get the exact same result as working out the markup on its own and then adding it to the original price, but you've saved yourself a step.

Finding the Original Price After a Markup

Here's one more angle to consider: What if you know how much an item costs after the 20 percent markup, and you want to know what the original price was before the markup? Think back to the previous example: You know that after a 20 percent markup, the final price is 120 percent of the original. So you can calculate backward to the original price by dividing by 120 percent expressed in decimal form, which is 1.2.

For example, knowing that the pair of pants you've been considering costs $60 after the markup, it comes as no surprise that when you calculate thusly:

\$60 ÷ 1.2 = \$50

...you end up back at the original price of the pants.

How to Calculate a 20 Percent Markup (2024)

FAQs

How to Calculate a 20 Percent Markup? ›

20% = (Selling Price – $17,500) / $17,500 therefore Selling price must be: $21,000 (selling price). Therefore, for John to achieve the desired markup percentage of 20%, John would need to charge the company $21,000.

How to calculate 20 percent markup? ›

For example, if a product's unit cost is $50 and the desired markup percentage is 20%, the selling price calculated using the markup formula would be $50 \times (1 + 0.20) = $60. The additional $10 above the unit cost represents the gross profit per unit.

What is the formula for calculating percentage markup? ›

Simply take the sales price minus the unit cost, and divide that number by the unit cost. Then, multiply by 100 to determine the markup percentage. For example, if your product costs $50 to make and the selling price is $75, then the markup percentage would be 50%: ( $75 – $50) / $50 = . 50 x 100 = 50%.

How do I calculate a 20% increase? ›

Calculate the percentage increase and add to the original amount. c. Using a calculator, for example to work out 20% divide 20 by 100 and multiply by the amount. Add to the original amount.

How do you calculate 20 percent of a mark? ›

A. To calculate the percentage of marks, divide the total marks obtained by the maximum marks and multiply the result by 100. It can be expressed as (Total Marks / Maximum Marks) * 100.

How to calculate markup without selling price? ›

Note that the markup formula is just a simple percent increase formula! If you don't know the profit but only know how much you paid for an item (cost) and sold it for (revenue), substitute profit with the formula profit = revenue − cost . The markup formula becomes: markup = 100 × (revenue − cost) / cost .

What is the formula for margin to markup? ›

The answer is yes, and we've written out the formulas below: Markup = Margin / (1 – Margin) Margin = Markup / (1 + Markup)

How to calculate percentage? ›

The percentage can be found by dividing the value by the total value and then multiplying the result by 100. The formula used to calculate the percentage is: (value/total value)×100%.

How do you calculate 20% added? ›

TL;DR (Too Long; Didn't Read) Multiply the original price by 0.2 to find the amount of a 20 percent markup, or multiply it by 1.2 to find the total price (including markup). If you have the final price (including markup) and want to know what the original price was, divide by 1.2.

How do I add markup to a price? ›

This markup technique is sometimes also referred to as “Cost plus pricing”. For example, if your product costs $20 to produce and you want to add a 20% markup, you would charge $24 for the product ($20 x 120% = $24). With an absolute markup, you take the production cost of the product and add a flat fee on top of that.

What is the formula for 20 percentage? ›

20 % = 20/100 = 1/5 = 0.2.

How do you calculate 20 percent of 100? ›

Multiply 20 by 100 and divide both sides by 100. Hence, 20% of 100 is 20.

What is a 20 markup on $100? ›

For example, if a product sells for $125 and costs $100, the gross margin is ($125 – $100) / $125 = 0.2(20%) = 20%. Intuitively, the markup is always larger, as compared to the gross margin, as shown in the table below. (As long as you charge more than what the product costs.)

How do you calculate 20 percent sales? ›

Detailed Solution
  1. Given: Profit percentage = 20% (On selling price)
  2. Concept : Profit = Selling Price (SP) – Cost Price (CP) ...
  3. Calculation: Let selling price = Rs.100. ...
  4. ∴ The actual percentage profit is 25%.
  5. Let the CP be x. Let the SP be y. ...
  6. ∴ Actual Profit = [1.25 – 1] × 100 = 25%
  7. Mistake Points.

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