Markup is not margin

Two numbers get swapped in almost every pricing conversation, and the swap always costs the seller. Markup is measured against your cost; margin is measured against the price. The same "35%" means two different prices.

The tiers below are built around a target margin. Type a price of your own and watch the profit line move.

Filament usedgPart weight — supports and purge are added by the waste factorPrint timeh

Material

Printer

Sales channel

ElectricityUSDper kWhYour hour of workUSDZero means “I do not count my time”. A fair choice, but it is the most common reason a workshop runs at a loss without knowingConsumables per plateUSDAlcohol for washing, gloves, filters — spent per print, not per hour. Mostly a resin thing; on filament it is usually zero

Your selling priceUSDLeave empty to see the recommended one

Preparation, post-processing, hardware and packaging. Without them the cost treats your time as free

True cost

$2.38

everything included, per unit

Profit per unit

$1.61

Per machine-hour

$0.81/h

Your selling price

$3.99

Break-even

$2.38

Three price levels — tap to apply

Where the money goes

Filament$2.16

Wear & maintenance$0.16

Failed prints$0.04

Electricity$0.02

The arithmetic, once

Add 35% to a cost of $10 and you get $13.50, of which $3.50 is yours — a margin of 26%, not 35%. To actually keep 35% of the price you have to sell at $15.38, which is a markup of 54%.

The conversion is margin ÷ (1 − margin), and the gap widens as you aim higher: a 50% margin needs a 100% markup.

Which one to think in

Margin, when you are deciding whether a job is worth taking: it answers "what share of this sale is mine". Markup, when you are setting a price at the bench from a cost you already know. The mistake is computing one and believing the other.

Why the gap hurts most on cheap orders

Marketplace fees and tax are taken from the price, not from your cost, so they come straight out of margin. A seller adding 20% on a platform that charges 10% plus a fixed fee per order is often working for the platform.