Discount Calculator

Discounts show up everywhere: retail sales, invoice negotiations, clearance racks, subscription cancellations. The math behind them is straightforward, but it runs in three directions depending on what you already know. This calculator handles all three. If a store advertises 25% off a $120 jacket, you can find the final price. If you see a $90 jacket labeled as a sale price but no original price is posted, you can reverse-calculate what it was before the discount. And if you paid $90 for something that was originally $120, you can find what percentage you saved. All three modes use the same underlying relationship. Knowing any two of the three values (original price, final price, discount percentage) lets you calculate the third.

• Shopping for sale items: Enter the original price and the advertised percentage off to see the final price before you reach the register. Useful for comparing two sale items from different stores.
• Checking a receipt: If a receipt shows a sale price but not the original or the percentage, enter both prices to confirm the discount percentage actually matches what was advertised.
• Negotiating a price: If a vendor offers a final price and you want to know the implied discount from the list price, use the discount-percent mode. This helps you evaluate whether the offer is substantial or superficial.
• Calculating net after coupon stacking: Run two passes for stacked coupons: first coupon applied to original, second coupon applied to that result. The total saved is the difference from the original price.

• Adding percentages instead of compounding them: Two sequential discounts of 20% and 10% do not equal 30% off. The correct total is 28%: 0.80 x 0.90 = 0.72, meaning you pay 72% of the original. This calculator does one discount at a time; for stacked discounts, run it twice.
• Confusing markup and discount percentages: A 50% markup and a 50% discount are not inverses. A $100 item with a 50% markup sells for $150. That same $150 item at 50% off sells for $75, not $100. Markups and discounts use different bases.
• Using sale price as original for comparison: Some retailers mark items up before applying a "sale" discount. If you want to know whether a deal is real, compare the sale price to actual market prices rather than the retailer-stated original.
• Forgetting taxes and fees: The discount applies before taxes in most jurisdictions. The final amount you pay is the discounted price plus applicable sales tax. This calculator shows the pre-tax discounted price.

1. 1Select the calculation type: final price, original price, or discount percentage.
2. 2For final price: enter the original price and the discount percentage.
3. 3For original price: enter the discounted (sale) price and the discount percentage.
4. 4For discount percentage: enter both the original price and the final price.
5. 5The calculator applies the relevant formula and returns the missing value.
6. 6Secondary outputs show the amount saved and the values you entered for confirmation.

• Verify "percent off" claims at the shelf: Use the discount-percent mode to verify that the price you see matches the advertised discount. Retailers occasionally post incorrect markdowns. A quick check at the shelf beats a price dispute at checkout.
• Work backward to find a realistic sale target: If you have a budget for an item, use the original-price mode to see what the pre-sale price would need to be for your budget to represent a given discount. Useful when shopping seasonal sales.
• Use amount saved to evaluate opportunity cost: A $30 saving on a $120 item is significant. A $1.50 saving on a $6 item is the same percentage but may not be worth the detour to a different store. Look at the dollar amount, not just the percentage.
• Compare across categories with the same percentage: Identical discount percentages produce very different dollar savings across price ranges. A 10% discount on a $500 appliance saves $50. On a $20 item, it saves $2. Use absolute savings to prioritize where to shop.