Enter your material cost and either a markup percentage or target margin. Instantly see your selling price, profit, and the relationship between markup and margin.
Standard contractor markup is 15–25%. Use 20% as a starting point.
Markup and margin describe the same dollar amount but as a percentage of different things. A 20% markup adds 20% to your cost. A 20% margin means 20% of the selling price is profit.
| Markup % | Margin % | $100 cost → sell at |
|---|---|---|
| 10% | 9.1% | $110 |
| 15% | 13% | $115 |
| 20% | 16.7% | $120 |
| 25% | 20% | $125 |
| 30% | 23.1% | $130 |
| 50% | 33.3% | $150 |
TaskArc lets you add materials to any quote with automatic markup applied. See your exact profit per job before you send it. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Start for freeMost contractors apply a 15–25% markup on materials. 20% is the most common benchmark — it covers your time to source, transport, and manage materials, and any returns or waste. Specialty or hard-to-source materials often carry a higher markup of 25–35%.
Markup is the percentage added to your cost to arrive at the selling price (e.g., $100 cost + 20% markup = $120 selling price). Margin is the percentage of the selling price that is profit ($20 profit / $120 selling price = 16.7% margin). The same dollar amount of profit represents a lower percentage as margin than as markup.
No. You should apply a markup to materials on every job. You are performing a service by sourcing, purchasing, transporting, managing, and warranting those materials. A 15–25% markup is standard practice and clients expect it — it is not price gouging.
Use this formula: Markup % = Margin % / (1 − Margin %). For example, if you want a 20% margin: Markup % = 0.20 / (1 − 0.20) = 0.20 / 0.80 = 25%. So a 25% markup on cost produces a 20% gross margin. This calculator handles this conversion for you.
Your baseline markup can be consistent, but adjust upward for specialty items, items that require significant coordination, or materials with a high risk of price change. For commodities you buy regularly in volume, a standard 20% markup works well. For custom or specialist materials, 25–35% is more appropriate.