TheCalculatory
Financial · Everyday Money Formula verified

Discount Calculator

Enter a price and a discount percentage for the sale price and savings — or flip it around to find the original price from what you paid.

Direction
$
$0$500$1,000
%
0%45%90%
On-screen number pad
Tap to type into the highlighted field
Sale price
$70.00
30% off
Sale price
$70.00
You save
$30.00

Step-by-step proofCheck by hand
Visual breakdown

Sale price vs. savings

Sale price You save

The bar shows the sale price and the amount saved as shares of the original price — the same two numbers as the result panel, drawn to scale.

How a discount is calculated

A percentage discount is subtracted from the original price: multiply the price by the discount rate to find how much comes off, then subtract that from the price for what you actually pay.

Working backward — from a sale price to the original price — is not the same as adding the discount rate back onto the sale price. The rate applies to the original price, not to the reduced one, so the correct method divides the sale price by (1 − rate) to recover the original first, then finds the savings as the difference.

Stacked discounts multiply, not add
Two 30% discounts applied one after another leave 0.7 × 0.7 = 49% of the original price — a 51% total discount, not 60%. Each discount applies to an already-reduced price.
Tax isn't part of this calculation
This tool works out the discount only. Whether sales tax applies before or after a discount depends on your jurisdiction and the type of discount — check the Sales Tax Calculator for that step.

The formulas

discount = price × (rate ÷ 100)  ·  sale price = price − discount

Reversed: price = sale price ÷ (1 − rate ÷ 100)  ·  discount = price − sale price

Worked example

A $100.00 item at 30% off: discount = 100 × 0.30 = $30.00, for a sale price of $70.00. Going the other way, a $70.00 sale price at the same 30% discount divides back to price = 70 ÷ 0.7 = $100.00, with $30.00 of that original price being the discount.

Frequently asked questions

Is 30% off the same as taking 30% off twice for a 60% off deal?
No. Two 30% discounts multiply, not add. Taking 30% off, then another 30% off the reduced price, leaves 0.7 × 0.7 = 0.49 of the original — a 51% total discount, not 60%. Stacked discounts are always smaller than they sound, because the second one applies to an already-reduced price.
How do I find the original price from a sale price?
Divide by what's left, not by the discount. A $70 item after 30% off means that $70 is 70% of the original, so 70 ÷ 0.7 = $100. Adding 30% of 70 back on gives $91, which is wrong — the discount applied to the original price, not the sale price.
What's the difference between markdown and margin?
A markdown is the percentage cut from the price a customer sees. Margin is a retailer's profit as a percentage of the selling price, calculated from their cost — a different base entirely. A 20% markdown and a 20% margin are unrelated numbers that happen to share a percentage sign.
Does this handle tax on top of a discount?
No — this calculates the discount only. Whether sales tax applies before or after a discount varies by jurisdiction and by whether the discount is a manufacturer's coupon or a store markdown; use the Sales Tax Calculator for the tax step once you have the discounted price.
Sources and method
  • Standard percentage-discount arithmetic — general published mathematics, identical in structure to the sales tax calculator's forward/reverse relationship.
Last reviewed: 19 Sep 2026 Sources last verified: 19 Sep 2026 Results use the assumptions explained on this page. Report an error How we check calculations

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