Free Tool
Dropshipping Profit Calculator
Price minus product cost is not profit. A dropshipping order also pays shipping, platform and payment fees, advertising, and the refunds that come back. This calculator shows the full stack — the only margin that means anything.
Planning estimate, not financial advice. Supplier prices and fees are entered by you — never fetched or hard-coded. Tax is excluded. The seller bears product-safety, IP and consumer-protection responsibility, not the supplier. All figures on this page are estimates or scenarios for planning purposes only. They are not financial, tax or legal advice, and no earnings are promised. Read the full financial disclaimer.
What this tool does
Enter the full cost stack for one order: selling price, product cost, shipping cost, platform fee percentage, payment fee percentage plus fixed charge, advertising cost per order, refund rate, and monthly fixed costs (store subscription, tools). The calculator shows the fees, the refund allowance, profit per order, profit margin, the maximum you can pay for advertising before an order loses money (BECPA — break-even cost per acquisition), the break-even ROAS (return on ad spend), and how many orders a month it takes to cover the fixed costs.
Refunds are modelled as a loss, never as a free order: the refund allowance is the refund rate multiplied by the selling price, subtracted from profit. A refunded order still cost you the product, the shipping and the advertising — only the revenue comes back. Pages that leave refunds out overstate profit by exactly the refund rate on every order.
No supplier price is fetched or hard-coded here. You enter your supplier's price, and if it changes, the answer changes — which is the point. The calculator also never presents a "good margin" as a universal rule: the planning bands on this page are labelled as the page's own bands, with the reasoning shown, not as market facts.
Try it
Waiting. Enter the full cost stack for one order and press Calculate profit. A single margin figure is never shown — always the full stack.
How it works
Fees first: percentage fees are the selling price multiplied by the platform and payment percentages, plus the fixed payment charge. Refund allowance: the refund rate multiplied by the selling price — the share of revenue expected to come back as refunds. Profit per order: selling price minus product cost minus shipping minus fees minus advertising cost per order minus the refund allowance. Profit margin: profit per order divided by the selling price, times 100.
BECPA (break-even cost per acquisition) is the most useful number on the page: selling price minus product cost minus shipping minus fees. It is the maximum advertising cost per order before the order loses money (before refunds). Break-even ROAS is 1 divided by the gross margin — gross margin being BECPA divided by the selling price. If gross margin is 52%, break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.52 = 1.92: every $1 of ad spend must return $1.92 of revenue before the order breaks even. Orders to break even: monthly fixed costs divided by profit per order, rounded up.
The margin bands used as commentary on this page are the page's own planning bands, labelled as such: below 20% profit margin after the full stack, an order has little room for a bad advertising week or a refund spike; 20–40% is workable if advertising is stable; above 40% leaves room to scale. Those are planning judgements with reasoning shown, not market facts — no source publishes a universal "good dropshipping margin".
Assumptions and limitations
This calculator models one order at average costs. Real advertising cost per order swings daily, refund rates spike with product problems, and supplier prices move. It does not model tax, import duties, currency conversion, chargeback fees beyond the refund rate you enter, returns shipping, or the time you spend on customer service. A month of good advertising does not prove the model — a month of bad advertising disproves it fast.
- Supplier prices are user-entered. No supplier price is fetched, and none is hard-coded — if your supplier raises the price, re-run the numbers.
- Fees are user-entered and dated at the source; verify on your platform's own fee page.
- The refund allowance treats the refunded share of revenue as lost; it is a planning approximation, not an accounting treatment.
- Break-even ROAS uses gross margin (before advertising). It answers "what ROAS breaks even", not "what ROAS is good" — a ROAS above break-even is necessary, not sufficient.
- You are the seller of record: product safety, intellectual property and consumer-protection responsibility sit with you, not the supplier — including for counterfeits a supplier assured you were legitimate.
Worked example
Example (illustrative inputs, not a real store's figures). A product sells for $39.99. Product cost $12.00, shipping $4.50, platform fee 3%, payment fee 2.9% plus $0.30, advertising $8.00 per order, refund rate 3%, monthly fixed costs $200. Percentage fees: $39.99 × 5.9% = $2.36, plus $0.30 = $2.66. Refund allowance: $39.99 × 3% = $1.20. Profit per order: $39.99 − $12.00 − $4.50 − $2.66 − $8.00 − $1.20 = $11.63. Profit margin: 29.1%. BECPA: $39.99 − $12.00 − $4.50 − $2.66 = $20.83 — advertising above $20.83 per order loses money. Gross margin: $20.83 ÷ $39.99 = 52.1%, so break-even ROAS is 1 ÷ 0.521 = 1.92. Orders to cover $200 of monthly fixed costs: $200 ÷ $11.63 = 17.2, so 18 orders a month.
Frequently asked questions
What is BECPA and why is it the most useful number here?
BECPA is break-even cost per acquisition: the most you can spend on advertising per order before the order loses money. It is selling price minus product cost minus shipping minus fees. If your real ad cost per order is below BECPA, orders profit; above it, they lose money no matter how many you sell. It turns 'is my advertising working' into one number to beat.
What is break-even ROAS?
The return on ad spend at which an order breaks even: 1 divided by the gross margin (BECPA divided by price). At a 52% gross margin, break-even ROAS is 1.92 — each $1 of ads must return $1.92 of revenue. A ROAS below that loses money; a ROAS above it is necessary but not sufficient, because refunds and fixed costs still sit outside it.
Why is price minus product cost not my profit?
Because that figure ignores shipping, platform and payment fees, advertising and refunds — often half the price or more. A product that costs $12 and sells for $40 looks like $28 of profit; after $4.50 shipping, $2.66 fees, $8 advertising and $1.20 refunds, it is $11.63. The full stack is the only margin that pays the bills.
How should I measure advertising cost per order?
Total ad spend in a period divided by orders in the same period. Not cost per click and not cost per day. Ad cost per order moves daily, so use a recent average — a week or a month — and re-run the calculator when it moves.
What profit margin is good for dropshipping?
No source publishes a universal figure, so this page does not quote one as fact. As a planning judgement on this page only: below 20% after the full stack leaves little room for a bad advertising week or a refund spike; 20–40% is workable if advertising is stable; above 40% leaves room to scale. Judge your own store on its own full-stack margin, not on a number from a roundup.
Who is responsible if the supplier ships a faulty or counterfeit product?
You are — the seller, not the supplier. The buyer bought from your store, and product-safety, intellectual-property and consumer-protection responsibility sits with the seller of record. That includes counterfeits a supplier assured you were legitimate. Choose suppliers you can verify, and do not sell products you cannot stand behind.