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Free price increase calculator

How much business could you lose after raising prices?

Compare current and proposed contribution per sale, estimate the volume response, and find the sales level that preserves the current contribution dollars.

Quick answer

A price increase can improve contribution even when revenue or sales volume falls.

Compare contribution per sale before and after the change. The higher price works financially only when contribution from the remaining volume, less any added recurring cost, holds or improves the current baseline.

Contribution per sale = selling price − variable cost per sale

Sales needed to preserve contribution = (current total contribution + added recurring cost) ÷ proposed contribution per sale

Reviewed August 15, 2026

Step 1

Compare price with volume risk

Current baseline
$

Current pre-tax customer price for one order, job, subscription period, or unit.

$

Direct labor, materials, fees, shipping, and other costs caused by one current sale.

sales / period

Whole sales in one consistent week, month, quarter, or other planning period.

Proposed price
$

The proposed pre-tax customer price for the same sale unit and channel.

$

Expected variable cost per sale after supplier, wage, channel, packaging, or service changes.

%

Evidence-based change in sales volume. Enter a decline as a negative number, such as −10%.

$/ period

New recurring retention, service, payment, support, or other period costs caused by the change.

This is an educational contribution model, not a demand forecast or profit guarantee. It holds existing fixed costs constant and excludes taxes, customer mix, competitor reactions, capacity, churn timing, price elasticity, and one-time implementation costs unless reflected in the inputs. Test more than one volume scenario before changing a live price.

Understand this decisionHow much business can a price increase lose?Use contribution, break-even volume, customer evidence, and downside scenarios before changing a live price.Read the guide →

Contribution, not reassurance

Do not ask whether every customer will accept the increase.

Some resistance may be financially tolerable because each remaining sale contributes more. The useful question is how much volume the business can lose before total contribution falls.

That answer is only a financial boundary. Customer trust, positioning, competitor response, capacity use, and long-term demand still require judgment and evidence.

Review the exact formulas →

The arithmetic is not demand research

Pressure-test the price change

Why does this use contribution instead of revenue?

Revenue ignores the cost caused by each sale. Contribution shows what remains after variable cost to support fixed costs and profit.

What belongs in variable cost?

Include materials, direct fulfillment labor, transaction fees, shipping, commissions, and other costs that change with one additional sale. Keep fixed overhead out unless the price change itself adds a recurring period cost.

Does the maximum decline predict customer behavior?

No. It is the financial tolerance boundary under the costs entered. Use order history, customer interviews, competitor evidence, cohorts, or a bounded test to estimate actual response.

Should every customer receive the same increase?

Not automatically. Different products, contracts, customer groups, and channels may have different costs, value, switching risk, and notice requirements. Run the relevant segments separately.