How many units you need to sell to cover fixed costs (Shopify plan, apps, ad budget). The line between red and black.
All calculations run in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. Last updated: 2026-07-19 · Formula verified against published sources (see below).
Tells you how many orders per month you need to sell to cover your fixed costs — the line between losing money and breaking even. Below this number, you're in the red. Above it, every additional order contributes pure profit (the contribution per unit).
Break-even units = fixed costs ÷ (selling price − variable cost per unit)
The denominator (selling price − variable cost per unit) is called the contribution margin per unit — what each sale contributes toward covering fixed costs and then to profit. Use the Profit Margin Calculator to get your variable cost per unit (it's the "total cost per order" line).
Fixed costs are expenses you pay regardless of how many orders you ship:
Ad spend is not a fixed cost here — it's part of your variable cost per unit (because you can attribute it to orders using ad cost per unit). If you pay ad spend as a flat monthly budget regardless of orders, treat it as fixed instead.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Shopify Basic plan | $29.00 |
| Apps (reviews, email, upsell) | $71.00 |
| Software (Klaviyo, Loox, etc.) | $400.00 |
| Total fixed costs | $500.00 |
| Selling price (AOV) | $40.00 |
| Variable cost per unit | $29.46 |
| Contribution per unit | $10.54 |
| Break-even units | 48 orders/month |
| Break-even revenue | $1,892/month |
Below 48 orders/month, you lose money. Above it, every order adds $10.54 to your bottom line. If you can profitably scale to 200 orders/month, you make $1,582/month in net profit (200 × $10.54 − $500 fixed).
Calculate the real profit margin on a dropshipping product after product cost, shipping, transaction fees, and ad spend.
Realistic first-90-days startup costs for a new dropshipping store: platform, domain, apps, ads, samples, software.
Project monthly cash flow from sales, costs, ad spend, and payment-processor payout lag. Find the gap before it finds you.
What it actually costs to launch a Shopify dropshipping store in 2026, line by line, with the cheapest viable path highlighted.
A bottom-up revenue forecast built from traffic × conversion × AOV. The same model serious dropshippers use, not a vibes-based guess.