Shopify discount profit calculator
By the Discount Prime team. Last reviewed November 7, 2026.
Enter a price, your cost per item and a discount to see what one order really earns. The largest discount you can give before an order earns nothing equals your gross margin, minus any shipping you pay. Deeper discounts need more orders to earn the same profit, and the calculator shows how many.
- Order revenue
- 64.00
- Discount given
- 16.00
- Gross profit
- 20.00
- Gross margin
- 31.3%
| Price per unit after discount | 32.00 |
|---|---|
| Effective discount | 20% |
| Product and shipping cost | 44.00 |
| Gross profit at full price | 36.00 (45%) |
| Break-even discount | 45% off |
| Orders needed to match one full-price order | 1.8x |
This discount stays above cost on this order.
A worked example
A candle sells for $40 and costs $22. A customer buys 2 at 20% off with free shipping, and the label costs you $8. These are the calculator's defaults with $8 of shipping added.
| Line | Full price | 20% off |
|---|---|---|
| Order revenue | $80.00 | $64.00 |
| Product cost + shipping | $52.00 | $52.00 |
| Gross profit | $28.00 | $12.00 |
| Gross margin | 35.0% | 18.8% |
The discount takes $16.00 off the order, but it takes 57% of the profit. Break-even on this order is 35.0% off, and you need 2.33x the orders at 20% off to earn what full-price orders earn. That gap is why a discount that lifts revenue can still leave you with less money.
How many more orders a discount needs
Orders needed to match the gross profit of one full-price order, by gross margin and discount. Product cost only, no shipping. "Loss" means the discount meets or exceeds the margin.
| Gross margin | Break-even discount | At 10% off | At 20% off | At 30% off |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | 20% | 2x | Loss | Loss |
| 30% | 30% | 1.5x | 3x | Loss |
| 40% | 40% | 1.33x | 2x | 4x |
| 50% | 50% | 1.25x | 1.67x | 2.5x |
| 60% | 60% | 1.2x | 1.5x | 2x |
| 70% | 70% | 1.17x | 1.4x | 1.75x |
How the calculator works
- Price after discount
- Price x (1 - discount %), or price minus the fixed amount, never below 0
- Order revenue
- Price after discount x units + shipping the customer pays
- Cost
- (Cost per item + other cost per unit) x units + shipping you pay
- Gross profit
- Order revenue - cost
- Gross margin
- Gross profit / order revenue
- Break-even discount
- 1 - (cost - shipping charged) / (price x units)
- Orders needed
- Gross profit at full price / gross profit at the discount
What it leaves out
- Payment processing fees, returns, ad spend and overhead. Add a per-unit amount under other costs if you want them in.
- Discounts that stack. Enter the combined effective discount instead; Shopify takes order discounts off the subtotal after product discounts.
- Tax. Enter prices the way your store records revenue.
An estimate for planning, not accounting or tax advice.
Run the same math on every real order
A calculator checks one offer before you launch it. Discount Prime's Profit Analytics does it after launch, on every discounted order: it reads each variant's Cost per item from Shopify, counts shipping separately, and shows estimated profit and margin health per campaign and per order, against a no-discount baseline. It is on every plan, including the free Starter plan. Payment fees are not part of the calculation.
Questions merchants ask
How much discount can I offer without losing money?
With no shipping or other costs, the largest discount before an order earns nothing equals your gross margin. A product that sells for $40 and costs $22 has a 45% margin, so 45% off is break-even. Shipping you pay lowers that number, and shipping the customer pays raises it. Enter your own numbers above to see it per order.
How many more sales do I need to make up for a discount?
Divide your margin at full price by your margin minus the discount. At a 40% margin, a 20% discount leaves 20 points of profit out of 40, so you need 2 orders to earn what 1 full-price order earned. At a 50% margin, a 10% discount needs 1.25 orders.
Is this net profit?
No. It is gross profit after product cost and shipping. Payment fees, returns, ad spend and overhead are not included unless you add them yourself as other cost per unit, so treat the result as the most an order can contribute.
Does the calculator handle discounts that stack?
It calculates one discount at a time. To check a stack, enter the combined effective discount. On Shopify, product discounts apply first and order discounts apply to the reduced subtotal, so a 20% product discount plus a 10% order discount is 28% off, not 30%.
Where do I find my cost per item in Shopify?
Open a product in the Shopify admin and look at the Cost per item field in the pricing section of each variant. Discount Prime reads the same field to calculate profit per campaign and per order.
Related guides
- Profit-first promotions: how much discount your margin can carry
- How Shopify discount combinations work, and how to stop stacking
- BOGO without losing money: the effective discount of every offer
- How to measure the profit of a Shopify promotion
Shopify's order of calculation is from its discount combinations guide. Discount Prime is our app.