The exact ROAS your ads need to hit to not lose money. Considers selling price, COGS, shipping, and transaction fees.
All calculations run in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. Last updated: 2026-07-19 · Formula verified against published sources (see below).
Break-even ROAS is the minimum Return on Ad Spend your campaigns need to hit for the product to not lose money. If your actual ROAS is above break-even, you're profitable. Below break-even, you're losing money on every order — even if revenue looks high.
The formula, in plain language: Break-even ROAS = selling price ÷ (selling price − non-ad costs per unit). Equivalently, it's 1 ÷ gross margin %. If your gross margin is 50%, break-even ROAS is 2.0×. If your gross margin is 25%, break-even ROAS is 4.0×.
This calculator includes product cost, shipping cost, and the payment processing fee. It does not include ad spend — because the whole point of break-even ROAS is to find the ad spend threshold. Once you know your break-even ROAS, you compare it to your actual ROAS to know if you're making money.
The most common mistake is calculating break-even ROAS as 1 ÷ ((selling price − product cost) ÷ selling price) — i.e. ignoring shipping and payment fees. That gives a falsely low break-even ROAS, which makes you think a campaign is profitable when it's actually underwater. The Dropship.io BEROAS calculator does this, for example. Always include shipping and payment fees in non-ad costs.
Break-even ROAS is the floor, not the target. Reddit consensus (r/dropshipping) is that a campaign should run at 20–30% above break-even ROAS before you call it "profitable" — because real life has returns, chargebacks, scaling inefficiency, and weak days. Read our full article on profitable ROAS for the reasoning.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Selling price | $40.00 |
| Product cost | $15.00 |
| Shipping | $5.00 |
| Stripe fee on $40 (2.9% + $0.30) | $1.46 |
| Non-ad cost per unit | $21.46 |
| Gross margin | $18.54 (46.35%) |
| Break-even ROAS | 2.16× |
Common beginner mistake: calculating break-even ROAS as 40 ÷ (40 − 15) = 1.6× — ignoring shipping and Stripe fees. That makes you think 1.8× ROAS is profitable when it's actually losing money.
With the correct break-even of 2.16×, you need your ad campaigns to deliver at least 2.16× return to not lose money — and realistically 2.6–2.8× to be profitable after returns and chargebacks.
Calculate actual ROAS from ad spend and revenue, and compare it to your break-even ROAS to see if a campaign is profitable.
Calculate the real profit margin on a dropshipping product after product cost, shipping, transaction fees, and ad spend.
Net profit on a campaign after ad spend, product costs, and fees. Shows whether your ads actually make money.
A worked example: $40 product, $15 COGS, $5 shipping, 2.9% + $0.30 Stripe fees. Find the exact ROAS that keeps you above water.
Break-even ROAS is the floor, not the target. Reddit consensus and real campaign math show what "profitable" really means.
These three ad metrics answer different questions. Mixing them up is the most common beginner mistake in the r/dropshipping threads.