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Dropshipping Break-Even Calculator

Find how many dropship orders are needed to cover fixed costs at your margin after fees and ads.

About Dropshipping Break-Even Calculator

Dropshipping has thin absolute margins, so payment fees and advertising consume most of the gap between price and supplier cost. The maximum sustainable ad spend is the hard ceiling on what a customer can cost before the order itself loses money. Most dropshipping failures come from advertising costs drifting above the maximum sustainable figure, which this makes explicit before scale magnifies it.

Formula

Dropshipping Break-Even

Contribution = price − supplier cost − advertising − payment fee

maximum ad spend
The point at which an order breaks even before any fixed costs

Worked example

With the default values below, Dropshipping Break-Even Calculator returns Break-Even Orders per Month of 115. Change any input above and every figure here is recalculated in your browser.

Inputs used

Fixed costs per monthminimum 0
1,200
Selling price per orderminimum 0.01
45
Supplier cost per orderminimum 0
22
Advertising cost per orderminimum 0
11
Payment processing feeaccepts 0–100 %
3.4 %

Results

Break-Even Orders per Month
115
Contribution per Order
$10.47
Contribution Margin
23.27%
Break-Even Revenue
$5,175.00
Maximum Sustainable Ad Spend per Order
$21.47

Step by step

  1. 1Values used
  2. 2Dropshipping Break-Even
  3. 3Break-Even Orders per Month= 115
  4. 4Contribution per Order= 10.47
  5. 5Contribution Margin= 23.27
  6. 6Break-Even Revenue= 5,175.00
  7. 7Maximum Sustainable Ad Spend per Order= 21.47

Assumptions and limits

  • The result is derived only from the 5 inputs listed above. Anything not among them is not part of the calculation.
  • In particular, this calculator does not take inflation, tax or compounding frequency into account.
  • Figures are rounded for display to 2 decimal places, so totals built from several rounded parts can differ slightly from the unrounded arithmetic.
  • This is an estimate for general information and not professional financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer for the limits that apply to this kind of calculator.

How these calculators are built and tested is described on the Methodology page. If a figure looks wrong, please report it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is Dropshipping Break-Even calculated?

Contribution = price − supplier cost − advertising − payment fee Dropshipping has thin absolute margins, so payment fees and advertising consume most of the gap between price and supplier cost. The maximum sustainable ad spend is the hard ceiling on what a customer can cost before the order itself loses money.

Why does Dropshipping Break-Even matter?

Most dropshipping failures come from advertising costs drifting above the maximum sustainable figure, which this makes explicit before scale magnifies it.

What values do I need to enter?

This calculator takes 5 inputs: Fixed costs per month, Selling price per order, Supplier cost per order, Advertising cost per order, Payment processing fee. The pre-filled defaults are a realistic starting point — replace them with figures from your own environment for a result you can act on.

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