| Margin you want | Markup you apply |
|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 15% | 17.6% |
| 20% | 25.0% |
| 25% | 33.3% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 35% | 53.8% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
BidWalk
Markup and margin calculator
Markup is a share of your cost. Margin is a share of your price. They are never the same number, and a 25% markup gives you a 20% margin - not 25%. Set the margin you actually want below and it tells you what to charge.
Materials, labor and subs
Share of the price
Charge the customer
$14,286
Your gross profit
$4,286
Markup on cost
42.9%
Margin on price
30.0%
Those two numbers are 12.9 points apart. Applying 30% as a markup - the common mistake - would have you charge $13,000 instead, giving away $1,286 on this job alone.
What markup do I need for the margin I want?
Read the last row twice. Doubling your cost is a 50% margin, not a 100% one. Every contractor who has ever said “I just double it” was describing a 50% margin business.
Common questions
Is a 25% markup the same as a 25% margin?
No. A 25% markup produces a 20% margin. Markup divides the profit by your cost; margin divides the same profit by the larger price you charged, so margin is always the smaller number.
What markup do I need for a 30% margin?
42.9%. The formula is markup = margin / (1 - margin), so 0.30 divided by 0.70 gives 0.429.
What is a normal margin for a remodeler?
NAHB's Cost of Doing Business Study put the average gross profit margin for remodelers at 29.9% in 2024, with net profit averaging 6.3% after overhead.
The longer version, including why the gap widens as margins rise and why materials and labor usually deserve different markups, is in markup vs margin.
Getting the markup right only helps if the estimate is complete
A perfect margin on a job where you forgot the dump fees is still a job you lose money on. BidWalk builds the estimate while you walk it.
BidWalk
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