Discount & sale price
Find the sale price from a discount, or the discount from prices.
1. Sale price (list price · discount % → sale price)
2. Discount rate (list price · sale price → discount %)
You are standing in front of a rail marked 40% off and the tag still shows the original price. Or the receipt says you paid 47,600 on something listed at 68,000, and you want to know what that actually worked out to. This calculator runs the sum both ways: list price plus a percentage gives you the sale price, and two prices give you the discount between them.
How it works
1. List price and discount rate to sale price
Enter the original price and the percentage off. The sale price is:
sale = list price × (1 − rate ÷ 100)
A 68,000 item at 30% off comes to 68,000 × 0.7 = 47,600, and the line underneath shows the 20,400 you saved.
2. Two prices to a discount rate
Enter the original price first and what it actually costs second. The rate is:
rate = (list price − sale price) ÷ list price × 100
The result is rounded to one decimal place. Note that the original price is the denominator — the saving is always measured against what the item started at, never against what you paid.
Stacked discounts do not add together
A 30% coupon on top of a 20% sale is not 50% off. Each cut applies to what is left after the previous one, so you multiply the remainders:
| Discounts | Remaining | Actual total |
|---|---|---|
| 20% then 10% | 0.8 × 0.9 | 28% off |
| 30% then 20% | 0.7 × 0.8 | 44% off |
| 50% then 50% | 0.5 × 0.5 | 75% off |
To do this here, run the calculator once, then feed the answer back in as the new list price.
One caveat
Figures are rounded to whole currency units, and nothing here accounts for tax, shipping, or a minimum-spend condition attached to the coupon. Those are why a checkout total sometimes lands a little away from the number on screen.
Terms explained
- List price
- The original, undiscounted price of the item — sometimes shown as RRP, MSRP, or the struck-through figure on a tag.
- Sale price
- What you actually pay after the discount is applied.
- Discount rate
- The reduction expressed as a percentage of the list price.
- Amount off
- The cash value of the saving: list price minus sale price.
- Stacked discount
- Two or more reductions applied in sequence, each one calculated on the price left by the one before it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out 30% off a price?
Multiply the original price by 0.7, or subtract 30% of it — both give the same answer. On a 50,000 item that is 35,000, with 15,000 taken off. Enter the price and 30 in the first calculator and it does the arithmetic for you.
If I use a 20% coupon on a 10% sale, is that 30% off?
No, it comes to 28%. The coupon applies to the already-reduced price, not the original, so you multiply what remains after each step: 0.8 × 0.9 = 0.72. Stacked discounts always total slightly less than the sum of their parts.
The shop advertises 40% off but the till charges more — why?
Usually the discount is applied before tax and shipping, or it only covers part of the basket. Some promotions also cap the saving or exclude certain lines. Comparing the pre-tax subtotal against this calculator's figure is the quickest way to see where the gap comes from.
Can I use this to find a markup instead of a discount?
Not directly — the second calculator assumes the second price is lower than the first, so a price increase will return a negative rate. That negative figure is still readable as the size of the increase relative to the starting price.
Are the results rounded?
Sale prices are rounded to the nearest whole currency unit and discount rates to one decimal place. On large amounts that rounding can shift the figure by a unit or two against a receipt.
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