Raise selling price 10%
Biggest change1.73x
0.12x lower than 1.85x (6.7% easier)
Selling price +10%; fixed costs unchanged and percentage fees recalculated automatically.
Advertising calculator
Break-Even ROAS Calculator
Find the minimum ROAS your ads need to cover product costs, shipping and transaction fees.
Break-even ROAS
1.85x
Your store can spend up to $32.46 acquiring this order before reaching break-even.
At your current cost structure, every $1 of ad spend needs to generate at least $1.85 in revenue to break even.
Max CPA
$32.46
The most you can pay to acquire one order before it stops contributing.
Contribution margin
$32.46
Selling price minus every cost except advertising. This is the money advertising is spent out of.
Contribution margin %
54.1%
Contribution as a share of the order value. The higher it is, the lower the ROAS you need.
Profit before ads
$32.46
The same figure as contribution margin, read the other way round: what the order is worth before you pay for traffic.
Total non-ad costs
$27.54
Product cost, shipping, fees and other variable costs added together.
Revenue after fees
$57.96
What lands in your account once the payment and platform percentage is taken.
Where the order value goes
One order at $60.00, split into costs and the contribution left over.
- Product cost$18.0030.0%
- Shipping$6.0010.0%
- Payment + platform fees$2.043.4%
- Other variable cost$1.502.5%
- Available for ads & profit$32.4654.1%
Profit at different ROAS levels
Each row assumes one order at $60.00 and the costs you entered. Ad spend per order is the order value divided by the ROAS.
| ROAS | Ad cost per order | Profit per order | Profit margin | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5x | $40.00 | -$7.54 | -12.6% | Loss |
| 2.0x | $30.00 | $2.46 | 4.1% | Profitable |
| 2.5x | $24.00 | $8.46 | 14.1% | Profitable |
| 3.0x | $20.00 | $12.46 | 20.8% | Profitable |
| 4.0x | $15.00 | $17.46 | 29.1% | Profitable |
| 5.0x | $12.00 | $20.46 | 34.1% | Profitable |
How could you improve your break-even ROAS?
The same order with one number changed. Everything else stays exactly as you entered it.
Cut product cost 10%
1.75x
0.10x lower than 1.85x (5.3% easier)
Product cost −10%; selling price, shipping and the fee percentage unchanged.
Cut shipping cost by $2.00
1.74x
0.11x lower than 1.85x (5.8% easier)
Shipping −$2.00 per order
These are arithmetic simulations of your own inputs — not advice, and not a claim that any of them is achievable in your business. Whether a price rise costs you volume, or a supplier will move on unit cost, is a judgement only you can make. Current break-even requirement: 1.85x at a $60.00 order value.
Want to see what you actually keep per order?
Break-even ROAS sets the acquisition floor. The Ecommerce Profit Calculator adds the CPA you actually paid, returns and the rest of the variable cost stack.
What your break-even ROAS result means
Your break-even ROAS is the revenue each unit of ad spend has to return before the order stops paying for itself. Beat it and the order contributes; miss it and you paid to ship a product.
Fees = Selling price × Fee %
Contribution = Selling price − Fees − COGS − Shipping − Other variable costs
Break-even ROAS = Selling price ÷ Contribution
The calculation uses the gross selling price, which is the conversion value ad platforms report — so the result can be compared directly with the ROAS column in your ads manager. Fees are treated as a cost inside contribution rather than netted off revenue.
The number is a floor, not a goal. It leaves nothing for rent, salaries, software or profit, all of which are paid out of what remains after advertising. A fuller explanation is in what is break-even ROAS.
Maximum CPA explained
Maximum CPA is the same ceiling expressed in money instead of as a ratio: the most you can pay to acquire one order before it stops contributing. It equals your contribution, and the two convert directly.
Maximum CPA = Contribution
Maximum CPA = Selling price ÷ Break-even ROAS
Break-even ROAS = Selling price ÷ Maximum CPA
Media buyers usually prefer CPA, because cost per purchase already appears in every campaign report. ROAS travels better when basket sizes vary, since the ratio holds while the absolute cost per order moves. Both are in the results above. See how to calculate your maximum CPA for the full treatment, including how it differs from CAC.
Contribution margin explained
Contribution margin is what one order leaves behind after every cost that scales with it: product cost, seller-paid shipping, percentage fees and other per-order costs. It is not gross margin, which usually stops at product cost, and it is not net profit, which is what survives after fixed costs too.
Break-even ROAS is simply its inverse. A contribution margin of 50% means a break-even ROAS of 2.00x; 25% means 4.00x.
Break-even ROAS = 1 ÷ Contribution margin %
Which is why improving ad performance and improving margin are the same project. A campaign cannot outrun a cost structure.
Worked ecommerce example
One order of $80.00 with $25.00 of product cost, $8.00 of seller-paid shipping, a 3% payment and platform fee, and $4.00 of packaging.
Selling price$80.00
Product cost (COGS)−$25.00
Shipping−$8.00
Fees at 3% of $80.00−$2.40
Other variable cost−$4.00
Contribution (50.8%)$40.60
Maximum CPA$40.60
Break-even ROAS1.97x
In plain English: this store keeps $40.60 from a $80.00 order before paying for traffic, so it can spend up to $40.60 to win that order. Every $1.00 of ad spend has to return $1.97 in revenue just to stand still. At a reported 3.00x, ad cost is $26.67 and the order contributes $13.93 towards fixed costs and profit.
How changing costs changes break-even ROAS
Each row below is the same order with one input changed, calculated by the same engine as the tool above.
| Change | Contribution | Max CPA | Break-even ROAS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baseline example | $40.60 | $40.60 | 1.97x |
| Product cost −$5 | $45.60 | $45.60 | 1.75x |
| Shipping −$4 | $44.60 | $44.60 | 1.79x |
| Fees 3% → 2% | $41.40 | $41.40 | 1.93x |
| Selling price +$8 | $48.36 | $48.36 | 1.82x |
Two things are worth noticing. Cost cuts pass through to contribution one-for-one, so a $5.00 supplier saving is $5.00 more you can pay for a customer. A price rise does not: percentage fees scale with the price, so part of the increase goes straight back out again — which is why the calculator recalculates fees automatically in its price scenario.
Break-even ROAS vs target ROAS
Break-even is where profit reaches zero. Target ROAS is the return that leaves the profit you actually want. Same arithmetic, one extra subtraction:
Target profit = Selling price × Target margin %
Ad budget = Contribution − Target profit
Target ROAS = Selling price ÷ Ad budget
Enter a target profit margin in the calculator and both numbers appear together. If the target profit exceeds contribution, no ROAS achieves it — the tool says so rather than returning an impossible figure. The full comparison, including which number belongs in a platform bid strategy, is in break-even ROAS vs target ROAS.
Related guides
- What Is Break-Even ROAS?The definition, the formula and how each cost line changes the number you have to beat.
- Break-Even ROAS vs Target ROASOne number keeps you from losing money, the other earns you some. Where each belongs.
- How to Calculate Your Maximum CPAThe acquisition ceiling in currency rather than as a ratio — and why buyers often prefer it.
- All guidesThe full ecommerce unit economics cluster.
Methodology
How the Break-Even ROAS Calculator calculates
Fees = Selling price × Fee %
Contribution = Selling price − Fees − COGS − Shipping − Other variable
Max ad spend = Contribution
Break-even ROAS = Selling price ÷ Max ad spend
Max CPA = Max ad spend
Target ROAS = Selling price ÷ (Contribution − Target profit)
Costs included
- Product cost (COGS) for the order
- Shipping and fulfilment paid by the seller
- Payment and platform fees charged as a percentage of order value
- Other per-order variable costs you enter
Costs excluded
- Fixed costs: salaries, rent, software, subscriptions
- Refunds, returns and chargebacks
- Sales tax and VAT
- Repeat purchases and customer lifetime value
- Flat per-transaction fees (add them to other variable cost)
Assumptions
- Revenue is the gross selling price, matching ad platform conversion values
- Fees are a straight percentage of the order value
- One order is modelled at a time; costs scale linearly with orders
- All figures are in a single currency — no conversion is applied
- Fee rates are the ones you enter; confirm them against your provider statement
Calculations run locally in your browser. No figures are transmitted, logged or stored, and the page works with the network disconnected once loaded.
Formula and copy last reviewed 2026-08-20. Read how every calculator on this site is built and checked in the methodology.
This tool is informational. It is not accounting, tax, investment or financial advice, and it does not replace your own books.
Frequently asked questions
Is a 2x ROAS good?
It depends entirely on your contribution margin. At a 50% contribution margin, 2x is exactly break-even. At 70% it is comfortably profitable. At 30% it loses money on every order. That is what this calculator is for — the number is a property of your costs, not of the ad platform.
Should I use gross revenue or revenue after fees?
Use the gross selling price, because that is the conversion value ad platforms report. Fees are handled as a cost inside the calculation, so the ROAS produced here compares directly with the ROAS in your ads manager.
Where do returns and refunds fit in?
They are not included. The clean way to account for them is to model the order you actually keep: reduce the selling price by your refund rate, or add the cost of a return to the other variable cost field. Building an assumed return rate into the tool would mean assuming a figure you never gave it.
What about overheads, salaries and software?
Deliberately excluded. Those are fixed costs — they do not change when one more order arrives, so putting them in a per-order calculation distorts the break-even point. Contribution is what pays for them; how many orders that takes is a separate calculation.
Does the currency selector convert my numbers?
No. It changes symbols and number formatting only. Enter every figure in the same currency and the maths is unaffected — the calculation is a set of ratios, so it holds in any single currency.
Are my figures stored anywhere?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server, logged or saved between visits, and no account is required.
Can I use this for a whole campaign rather than one product?
Yes, with average order value in place of the selling price and blended costs in place of per-product ones. The result is an average break-even point, useful for setting a target but liable to hide variation between products with very different margins.
Related ecommerce calculators
- Advertising calculatorsEverything that turns unit economics into ad targets.
- Break-even calculatorsOrder-level and store-level break-even, from the same contribution figure.
- Profit calculatorsWhat an order leaves behind once every cost is accounted for.
- All calculatorsThe full directory.