Know what you will pay before the till does
A "30% off" sign is easy to read and surprisingly hard to turn into a price in your head, especially when there is an extra 10% at checkout as well. This discount calculator gives you the sale price, the amount you save, and the real total discount when two offers are stacked.
It works for sellers too. If you are setting a sale price for your own products or services, you can see what you take home after the discount, or work backwards from two prices to the percent off you are actually offering.
How to use it
- Choose Price after a discount to get a sale price, or Find the percent off if you already know both prices.
- Enter the original price and the percent off. Add an extra percent off if there is a second offer, or leave it empty.
- Pick the currency symbol you want in the answer. It does not change the maths.
- Read the sale price and the amount you save. With two discounts, you also see the single percent they add up to.
The discount formula
sale price = original price × (1 − percent off ÷ 100)
amount saved = original price − sale price
percent off = (original − sale price) ÷ original × 100Thinking in what you pay rather than what you save is the quickest route. 30% off means you pay 70% of the price, so multiply by 0.7. A second 10% off means you then pay 90% of that, so multiply by 0.9 again. Prices are rounded to the cent at each step, the way a till would.
Worked example: a jacket at 30% off, plus 10% more
A jacket is priced at $120. The sale gives 30% off, and a voucher takes another 10% off at the checkout.
- After 30% off: $120 × 0.7 = $84.00
- After the extra 10%: $84 × 0.9 = $75.60
- Amount saved: $120 − $75.60 = $44.40
You pay $75.60 and save $44.40. Together the two offers come to 37% off, not the 40% you might expect from adding 30 and 10. The second discount is taken from a price that has already been cut, so it is worth less.
Stacked discounts at a glance
| First discount | Extra discount | Total off |
|---|---|---|
| 20% | 10% | 28% |
| 30% | 10% | 37% |
| 40% | 20% | 52% |
| 50% | 20% | 60% |
| 50% | 50% | 75% |
The order of two percent discounts does not matter: 30% then 10% gives the same price as 10% then 30%. What does matter is a fixed amount off mixed with a percent off. On a $100 item, 20% off and then $10 off comes to $70, while $10 off and then 20% off comes to $72, so it pays to check which way a shop applies them.
Common discount mix-ups
- Adding stacked percents together. 30% plus 10% is 37% in total, not 40%.
- Taking the percent off the sale price instead of the original. If something is 25% off and now costs 60, the original was 80, not 75.
- Forgetting sales tax. In many places tax is added after the discount, so the price at the till is higher than the sale price here.
- Confusing a discount with a margin. A seller who gives 20% off a price with a 30% margin keeps far less than 10%. The profit margin calculator shows what is left.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a discount?
Multiply the original price by the percent off as a decimal, then take that from the price. For 25% off $80, the discount is 0.25 × 80 = $20 and the sale price is $60. A quicker way is to multiply by what you pay: 75% of $80 is $60. The calculator does both and shows the steps.
How do I work out the percent off from two prices?
Take the sale price from the original, divide by the original and multiply by 100. If a $80 item is on sale for $60, that is $20 ÷ $80 × 100 = 25% off. Choose Find the percent off and enter both prices; it also tells you what share of the original you are paying.
Is 20% off and then another 10% off the same as 30% off?
No. The second discount is worked out on the reduced price, so together they make 28% off, not 30%. On a $100 item that is $72 instead of $70. The calculator shows the real combined percent whenever you add an extra discount.
What is the discount formula?
Sale price = original price × (1 − percent off ÷ 100). The amount saved is the original price minus the sale price, and the percent off is the amount saved divided by the original, times 100. Those three lines cover every discount question, whichever two numbers you start with.
How do I find the original price before a discount?
Divide the sale price by what share of the price you paid. If you paid $63 after 30% off, you paid 70%, so the original was $63 ÷ 0.7 = $90. The percentage calculator does this with its X is P% of what option.
Related calculators
More free tools from CloveDesk
CloveDesk gives freelancers and small teams one place for quotes, e-signatures, invoices, files and a portal for each client.
Last updated: