Business & Pricing
Markup is cost-based (price / cost). Margin is price-based (profit / price). A 50% markup is a 33% margin — not the same.
Markup and margin are both pricing metrics but they use different denominators, so the numbers look different even when the math is identical.
Markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost. Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price. A $10 cost item sold at $15 has 50% markup but 33% margin. A $10 cost item sold at $20 has 100% markup ("keystone") but 50% margin.
$10 cost → $15 price
50% markup = 33% margin
$10 cost → $20 price
100% markup = 50% margin (keystone)
$10 cost → $40 price
300% markup = 75% margin
Profit Margin
Gross margin, net margin, and markup — convert between them cleanly so you do not mix up 40% margin and 40% markup.
Cost-Plus Pricing
Set a retail price from your cost and target margin — with a sanity check against competitor pricing.
Wholesale Markup
Price wholesale and retail in lockstep — keystone, MAP-friendly, and key-two markups with gross profit checks.