Article

Markup

August 22, 2026 · Aditya Gupta

Accounting

Markup is the amount added to cost to set selling price, often expressed as a percentage of cost. A product with $40 cost sold at $100 has a 150% markup ($60 markup / $40 cost). Different from margin: that same product has a 60% margin ($60 profit / $100 revenue). Industries use markup conventions: retail often 100-200% markup; restaurants 200-400% markup on food. Service-based pricing often uses bill rate / cost rate. The math: Margin = Markup / (1 + Markup). A 100% markup = 50% margin. Many small businesses use markup pricing because it's intuitive but underestimate true profitability margins.

Accounting

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