A contractor markup calculator turns what a job costs you into the price you charge. Enter your cost, then either the markup you want (a percentage of cost) or the profit margin you want (a percentage of price), and it gives you the selling price, the dollars of profit, and both percentages so you never mix them up.
Open the free markup calculator in your browser. No login, no email, nothing to pay.
Open the free toolThe free Contruva calculator does three things: price a job from a markup, price a job from a target margin, or check a price you already quoted. It also shows a markup-to-margin table and can add HST, GST, PST or QST for your province so you see what the customer actually pays. No login and no email.
How to use the markup calculator
Pick the mode that matches the question you’re asking. Most contractors use the first one for quick quotes and the third one to sanity-check a number before it goes out.
Enter your total cost and a markup percentage. You get the price, the profit in dollars and the margin that markup really gives you.
Enter your cost and the margin you want to keep. The calculator works backwards to the price and tells you the markup you need.
Enter your cost and the price you quoted or a competitor charged. You get the profit, the markup and the margin on that price.
Switch on sales tax and pick your province. The calculator adds HST, GST, PST or QST on top of the price to show the customer’s total.
Every result shows four numbers together: price, profit, margin and markup. That’s on purpose. The most common pricing mistake in the trades is treating those two percentages as the same thing.
The markup and margin formulas
Markup is profit as a percentage of your cost. Margin is profit as a percentage of the selling price. Same dollars of profit, different base, so the margin is always the smaller number.
| You want | Formula | Example on $10,000 cost |
|---|---|---|
| Price from a markup | Price = cost × (1 + markup) | 25% markup: $10,000 × 1.25 = $12,500 |
| Price from a margin | Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin) | 25% margin: $10,000 ÷ 0.75 = $13,333.33 |
| Markup from a price | Markup = (price − cost) ÷ cost | ($12,500 − $10,000) ÷ $10,000 = 25% |
| Margin from a price | Margin = (price − cost) ÷ price | ($12,500 − $10,000) ÷ $12,500 = 20% |
| Markup from a margin | Markup = margin ÷ (1 − margin) | 0.25 ÷ 0.75 = 33.3% |
| Margin from a markup | Margin = markup ÷ (1 + markup) | 0.25 ÷ 1.25 = 20% |
Look at the first two rows. A 25% markup and a 25% margin on the same $10,000 job are $833.33 apart. On a year of jobs, that gap is the difference between a good year and a tight one.
Markup to margin conversion table
Keep this table handy, or use the one built into the calculator. Read across: the markup on the left gives you the margin on the right.
| Markup on cost | Margin on price | Price on $1,000 cost |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9.1% | $1,100 |
| 15% | 13.0% | $1,150 |
| 20% | 16.7% | $1,200 |
| 25% | 20.0% | $1,250 |
| 30% | 23.1% | $1,300 |
| 33.3% | 25.0% | $1,333 |
| 40% | 28.6% | $1,400 |
| 50% | 33.3% | $1,500 |
| 60% | 37.5% | $1,600 |
| 75% | 42.9% | $1,750 |
| 100% | 50.0% | $2,000 |
And the other way round, when you know the margin you need and want the markup to enter in your price book:
| Target margin | Markup you need |
|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 15% | 17.6% |
| 20% | 25.0% |
| 25% | 33.3% |
| 30% | 42.9% |
| 35% | 53.8% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
Worked examples in CAD
1. Pricing a deck from a markup
Your cost for a 300 sq ft pressure-treated deck is $8,400: $4,900 in loaded labour, $3,100 in lumber and hardware, and $400 for the footing auger rental and disposal. You use a 25% markup.
Price $10,500 · Profit $2,100 · Markup 25% · Margin 20%
2. Pricing a bathroom to a target margin
A bathroom renovation costs you $14,000 all in, and you want to keep 30% of the selling price as gross profit to cover overhead and leave a real net profit.
Price $20,000 · Profit $6,000 · Margin 30% · Markup 42.9%
If you had typed “30% markup” instead, you’d have quoted $18,200 and kept $4,200, a margin of only 23.1%. That’s $1,800 gone on one job without anyone noticing.
3. Checking a quote before it goes out
Your foreman priced a furnace replacement at $4,000. Your cost, including the unit, parts and two techs for a day, is $3,200.
Profit $800 · Markup 25% · Margin 20%
If your overhead alone runs about 20% of revenue, that job breaks even at best. Either the price goes up or the scope changes. Better to find out now than after the invoice is paid.
What counts as cost
The calculator is only as good as the cost you enter. Contractors who “mark up 20% and still lose money” usually left something out of cost. Include everything you spend because this job exists:
- Labour at the loaded rate, not the wage. Add CPP, EI, vacation pay, WSIB or your province’s workers’ compensation premiums, and any benefits.
- Materials with a waste allowance, delivery charges and the trips to the supplier.
- Subcontractors, with their own invoices including tax if you can’t claim it back.
- Equipment rentals, permits, dumpsters and disposal fees.
- Travel time and fuel for jobs outside your usual area.
Overhead (insurance, the truck payment, the office, software, your admin hours) usually isn’t in job cost. It has to come out of the markup instead, which is why the markup has to be bigger than you think. The full method is in how to price a contractor job, and the contractor hourly rate calculator works out the labour rate that covers your overhead.
Adding sales tax on top
Markup and margin are calculated before tax. Sales tax is added on top of the price and passed on to the government, so it is never part of your profit. Turn on the tax option in the calculator and pick a province to see the customer’s total. Using the $10,500 deck from example 1:
| Province | Tax | Tax on $10,500 | Customer total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | 13% HST | $1,365.00 | $11,865.00 |
| Nova Scotia | 14% HST | $1,470.00 | $11,970.00 |
| New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, PEI | 15% HST | $1,575.00 | $12,075.00 |
| Alberta and the territories | 5% GST | $525.00 | $11,025.00 |
| Quebec | 5% GST + 9.975% QST | $1,572.38 | $12,072.38 |
In British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, provincial sales tax rules for contractors depend on the type of work: on many real property jobs the contractor pays PST on materials rather than charging it to the customer. If that applies to you, your PST belongs in cost, before markup. This is general information, not tax advice; check the CRA’s GST/HST pages and your provincial ministry, and see do contractors charge HST on materials.
How much markup should a contractor use?
There’s no single right number, and anyone who quotes you an industry average without knowing your overhead is guessing. Work it out from your own books instead:
Last year’s overhead divided by last year’s revenue. $90,000 overhead on $600,000 revenue is 15%.
Decide what you want to keep after every bill is paid, say 10%.
15% overhead + 10% profit = a 25% gross margin on every job.
A 25% margin needs a 33.3% markup. That’s the number for your price book.
Many contractors use different markups for different lines: a higher one on small service calls where travel and admin eat more of the job, a lower one on large material-heavy jobs where the customer can compare supplier prices. That’s fine, as long as the blended margin across the year still hits your target.
Markup mistakes that cost money
| Mistake | What it costs | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Using markup and margin as the same number | A “30%” job keeps 23.1% | Price from margin, or check the margin before sending |
| Marking up materials but not labour | Your crew’s time earns no profit | Mark up the whole job cost |
| Leaving overhead out of the plan | Busy year, empty bank account | Set your margin from your overhead rate |
| Calculating markup on the tax-included price | You pay tax on profit you never made | Mark up first, add tax last |
| Cutting markup to win every job | Volume without profit | Cut scope or offer a good-better-best option instead |
| Never checking estimate against actual | Same mistake on every job | Compare quoted cost to real cost when the job closes |
Markup built into every quote
The calculator is free and stays free. If you’re pricing jobs every day, though, you shouldn’t be retyping costs into a calculator. In Contruva your quoting software keeps a catalog with your costs and markup, so every line on a quote is priced the same way every time, and Contruva AI can draft a quote from jobs you’ve already won. When the job is done, job costing shows what you quoted against what it really cost, so your markup gets sharper with every job.
Customers sign the quote on their phone, pay the deposit, and the signed quote becomes the invoice with card payments and automatic reminders. It’s all in one plan, Contruva Pro, at $249.99 CAD a month. Start a 7-day free trial, no credit card needed.