Find the selling price that hits a target margin after product cost, shipping, transaction fees, and ad spend per unit.
All calculations run in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server. Last updated: 2026-07-19 · Formula verified against published sources (see below).
Most dropshippers pick a selling price by feel — "let's try $40 and see what happens." This calculator inverts that: you tell it the costs and the target margin you want, and it solves for the selling price that hits that margin after every cost.
The math solves the profit-margin equation for selling price. Starting from margin = (price − costs) ÷ price and isolating price:
price = (COGS + shipping + ad cost + flat fee) ÷ (1 − target margin − fee rate)
The fee rate has to be inside the denominator because the payment fee scales with price — a higher selling price means a higher Stripe fee, which means you need an even higher selling price to hit the same margin. That's why pricing from a flat markup ("I'll just add 50% to my cost") undershoots margin.
Use this calculator when you have a target margin in mind (e.g. "I want 25% margin after everything"). Use the Markup Calculator when you have a target markup in mind (e.g. "I want to add 50% to my cost"). They are not interchangeable — see our article on markup vs margin.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Product cost | $15.00 |
| Shipping | $5.00 |
| Ad cost per unit | $8.00 |
| Target margin | 25% |
| Stripe fee rate | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Recommended selling price | $38.30 |
| Actual margin | 25.00% |
If you'd priced this at $30 (a 100% markup on $15 cost), your actual margin would have been only about 4.8% after shipping, ad spend, and Stripe fees — barely above water.
Calculate the real profit margin on a dropshipping product after product cost, shipping, transaction fees, and ad spend.
Calculate selling price from a cost and a markup percentage. Plain markup math, no margin confusion.
See the difference between markup % and margin % for the same product. The two are not interchangeable and mixing them up loses money.
A three-step pricing framework: cost floor, competitive ceiling, psychological anchor. With real numbers from a $25 COGS product.
A 50% markup is not a 50% margin. This article shows why mixing them up costs you money, with a real product example.
Benchmarks by product category, sourced from real ecommerce data, plus the margin range that actually survives ad spend.