01
Enter the revenue
Your selling price, or the average order value if a typical order holds more than one item. Everything is measured against this.
Break-Even ROAS Calculator
Minimum profitable ROAS for any channel — break-even, target, and ACoS.
Updated Reviewed by Sajid Hussain· Editor
What ROAS keeps you profitable?
Know your floor before you spend a cent on ads
Break-even ROAS is the minimum return on ad spend at which advertising neither profits nor loses money — the floor every campaign must beat. It equals selling price ÷ pre-ad profit, or equivalently 100 ÷ contribution margin %. A product with a 50% contribution margin has a 2.0× break-even ROAS; at 25% it climbs to 4.0× — a headline "3× ROAS" can still burn cash if your floor is 4.0×. This calculator finds the floor from your real costs, adds a target ROAS that banks a chosen profit margin on top, and shows the matching ACoS — for any channel, any marketplace, and any currency.
A high ROAS can still lose money. ROAS is just revenue ÷ ad spend — a 4.0x ROAS means each unit of ad spend brought back 4 times its value in sales. But if product cost, fees, and shipping eat 80% of the sale, you only have 20% left to pay for ads, and any ROAS under 5.0x is a loss. The break-even point is the exact ROAS where ad profit is zero — your floor. Above it, ads make money; below it, every campaign quietly burns cash.
The math is simpler than it looks. Every sale carries pre-ad profit: selling price minus product cost minus fees minus shipping. That leftover — the contribution margin — is the entire budget you have for ads. Break-even ROAS = selling price ÷ pre-ad profit. Break-even ACoS = the contribution margin itself. The two are reciprocals: ACoS% = 100 ÷ ROAS, and ROAS = 100 ÷ ACoS%.
This calculator is channel-agnostic and goes further than the floor. Most tools are hard-wired to Amazon. This one is fee-aware, works for Meta, Google, TikTok, Shopify, and Amazon, and adds a target ROAS so you can solve for a real profit cushion — not just zero.
Sales tax and VAT are excluded — correctly. They are collected from the buyer and remitted, so they are never your money and never a cost. Building them in would understate your ad budget and inflate the break-even ROAS. Enter costs net of tax and the floor will be right.
Quick facts
- Heroes computed
- Break-even ROAS · Break-even ACoS · Target ROAS
- Channel-agnostic
- Amazon · Meta · Google · TikTok · Shopify · dropshipping
- Killer feature
- Target ROAS with a real profit cushion, not just zero
- ACoS ⇄ ROAS
- Reciprocal conversion shown both ways
- Fee-aware
- Contribution margin after marketplace + payment fees
- Works in any currency
- Per-order math, no FX needed
How it works
From one sale to your ad-spend floor
Four short steps — seconds to the ROAS you must beat.
02
Add your costs
Product cost, the marketplace/payment fee %, and any per-order shipping you absorb. These set the budget left to fund ads.
03
Set your profit goal
The margin you want to keep after ads. Break-even ROAS is the floor; target ROAS banks this extra margin on top.
04
Read the floor
Get break-even ROAS and ACoS, your target ROAS, contribution margin, and the per-order profit you have to spend on ads.
Steps to use the Break-Even ROAS Calculator: Enter the revenue, Add your costs, Set your profit goal, Read the floor.
Formula
Exactly what the calculator computes
No black boxes — the break-even and target ROAS math in plain algebra.
01
Contribution margin (the budget for ads)
Pre-Ad Profit = Price − Product Cost − (Price × Fee%) − Other Cost → Contribution Margin% = Pre-Ad Profit ÷ Price × 100
The profit each sale carries before any ad spend, as a % of revenue. This is the entire budget you have to fund ads on that order — and it is also your maximum profitable ACoS.
02
Break-even ROAS
Break-Even ROAS = Price ÷ Pre-Ad Profit = 100 ÷ Contribution Margin%
At break-even, ad cost equals the entire pre-ad profit, so ad profit is zero. The ROAS that does this is the selling price over the margin available — the lowest ROAS that does not lose money.
03
Break-even ACoS
Break-Even ACoS% = Contribution Margin% = 100 ÷ Break-Even ROAS
ACoS (ad cost ÷ sales) is the reciprocal of ROAS. Your break-even ACoS is simply your contribution margin: spend that share of revenue on ads and you exactly break even.
04
Target ROAS (for a profit cushion)
Target ACoS% = Contribution Margin% − Target Profit Margin% → Target ROAS = 100 ÷ Target ACoS%
To keep a profit margin after ads, reserve it first: subtract your target margin from the contribution margin to get the ACoS you can afford, then flip it to a ROAS. If the target margin meets or exceeds the contribution margin, no ROAS can reach it.
05
ACoS ⇄ ROAS identity
ACoS% = 100 ÷ ROAS and ROAS = 100 ÷ ACoS%
The two metrics are the same information flipped. A 4.0x ROAS is a 25% ACoS; a 20% ACoS is a 5.0x ROAS. We show both so every advertiser reads their native number.
Worked example
A 40 order, 14 cost, 15% fee, 10% target margin
Watch the contribution margin become a break-even ROAS, then a target ROAS.
Scenario
You sell an item for $40.00 that costs $14.00 to make, on a channel that charges 15% in fees. You want to keep a 10% profit margin after ads. What ROAS do you need?
1
Step 1 · Find the pre-ad profit
The 15% fee on $40.00 is $6.00. Pre-ad profit = $40.00 − $14.00 − $6.00 = $20.00. As a share of revenue that is a 50% contribution margin — your whole ad budget per order.
Pre-ad profit $20.00 · contribution margin 50%
2
Step 2 · Break-even ROAS
Break-even ROAS = $40.00 ÷ $20.00 = 2.0x. Equivalently, break-even ACoS = the contribution margin = 50%. Spend all $20.00 of margin on ads and you net zero.
Break-even 2.0x ROAS (50% ACoS)
3
Step 3 · Reserve your profit
You want to keep 10% of $40.00 = $4.00 as profit. That leaves $16.00 for ads. Target ACoS = 50% − 10% = 40%.
Target ACoS 40% · ad budget $16.00
4
Step 4 · Target ROAS
Flip the target ACoS: target ROAS = 100 ÷ 40 = 2.5x. Run campaigns at 2.5x or better and you bank your 10% margin after ads.
Target 2.5x ROAS
The takeaway
Stay above 2.0x to avoid losses, and above 2.5x to also keep your 10% margin. Drop the fee to 0% (pure dropshipping) and the contribution margin — and your floor — improve immediately; raise the product cost and the floor climbs.
Industry benchmarks
What break-even and target ROAS to expect
Rules of thumb by margin profile. A higher contribution margin means a lower break-even ROAS and more room for ads.
| Metric | Poor | Average | Good | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Contribution margin Shopify Ecommerce Profit Margin Guide 2025 | < 15% | 15–30% | 30–50% | 50%+ |
Break-even ACoS Jungle Scout Amazon Advertising Benchmarks 2025 | < 15% | 15–30% | 30–50% | 50%+ |
Break-even ROAS Triple Whale Breakeven ROAS Guide 2025 | > 6.67x | 3.33–6.67x | 2.0–3.33x | < 2.0x |
Target ROAS (profit cushion) Polar Analytics Ecommerce Benchmarks 2026 | > 8.0x | 5.0–8.0x | 3.0–5.0x | < 3.0x |
Profit margin after ads NYU Stern Sector Margins 2025 | < 5% | 5–10% | 10–20% | 20%+ |
ROAS headroom (target vs break-even) Eightx Ecommerce ROAS Benchmark Report 2026 | < 0.5x | 0.5–1.0x | 1.0–2.0x | 2.0x+ |
Why this calculator
Calcrux vs other break-even ROAS calculators
Most are Amazon-only and stop at the floor. This one is channel-agnostic, fee-aware, and adds a real profit target.
| Feature | Calcrux | SellerApp | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Break-even ROAS (the floor) | Manual | ||
| Target ROAS for a profit cushion | Rare | Manual | |
| ACoS ⇄ ROAS shown both ways | ACoS only | Manual | |
| Fee-aware contribution margin | Sometimes | Manual | |
| Works for Meta / Google / TikTok | |||
| Dropshipping / Shopify friendly | Manual | ||
| Excludes tax (no margin distortion) | Varies | Manual | |
| Interprets the result (warnings) | |||
| Works in any currency | US-only | ||
| Free, no signup | Most |
Common mistakes
Why advertisers misread their ROAS floor
Treating a high ROAS as automatically profitable
Why it matters
ROAS measures revenue per unit of ad spend, not profit. A 4.0x ROAS loses money if your break-even is 5.0x. The headline number says nothing about whether your margin covers the spend.
Fix
Compare your campaign ROAS to your break-even ROAS, not to a generic "good ROAS" figure. The floor is what matters.
Forgetting marketplace and payment fees
Why it matters
Fees come off the top of every sale and shrink the contribution margin — the budget you have for ads. Leave them out and your break-even ROAS looks lower than it really is, so you overspend.
Fix
Enter your fee % so the contribution margin reflects what you actually keep. The break-even ROAS rises to a number you can trust.
Confusing ROAS with ACoS
Why it matters
They are reciprocals, not the same scale. A 25% ACoS is a 4.0x ROAS; people who read one as the other set bids wildly wrong.
Fix
We show both side by side. Remember ACoS% = 100 ÷ ROAS, and a lower ACoS is a higher ROAS.
Aiming only for break-even
Why it matters
Break-even ROAS keeps you out of a loss but leaves zero profit. Running campaigns exactly at break-even means working for free after costs.
Fix
Set a desired profit margin and aim for the target ROAS, which reserves that profit before spending.
Setting a target margin above the contribution margin
Why it matters
If you want to keep 40% but only have a 30% contribution margin, no ad spend can leave that much profit — the target ROAS is impossible.
Fix
Keep your target profit margin below your contribution margin. Fix the unit economics first if it is not.
Building tax into the cost
Why it matters
Sales tax, VAT, or GST is collected and remitted, not kept. Counting it as a cost understates your contribution margin and overstates your break-even ROAS.
Fix
Enter costs net of tax. The calculator deliberately excludes tax from the margin.
Tips
Use your ROAS floor to bid smarter
Bid against the floor, not a rumor
Set max bids so your expected ROAS clears break-even with room to spare. A generic "4x is good" number is meaningless without your margin.
Raise contribution margin to lower the floor
A higher price, lower COGS, or fewer fees all lift contribution margin — which directly drops your break-even ROAS and frees up ad budget.
Use AOV, not unit price, for bundles
If buyers usually take more than one item, enter the average order value. A higher AOV spreads fixed-ish costs and improves your ROAS floor.
Keep a cushion for inefficiency
Real campaigns waste some spend on poor search terms. Target a ROAS comfortably above break-even so a noisy week still profits.
Convert to your team's native metric
Amazon teams think in ACoS; Meta/Google teams think in ROAS. Use the side-by-side conversion so everyone reads the same floor.
Re-run when fees or costs change
A fee hike or a COGS increase quietly raises your break-even ROAS. Recompute so your bids and targets stay honest.
Use cases
When sellers reach for this calculator
The Break-Even ROAS Calculator works across every stage of the workflow.
Dropshippers planning Meta ads
Work out the minimum profitable ROAS on a product before launching a Facebook or TikTok campaign, so you scale only winners.
Amazon PPC managers
Translate the contribution margin into a break-even ACoS and a target ACoS to set Sponsored Products bids that protect margin.
Shopify store owners
Find the ROAS each product must hit across Google and Meta to fund ads profitably, fees included.
Launching a new product
Check whether the unit economics can even support paid ads before committing a budget — if the floor is too high, fix margin first.
Setting agency / client targets
Agree a target ROAS that bakes in a real profit margin, not just break-even, so campaigns are judged against the right number.
Auditing a money-losing account
Compare actual campaign ROAS to the break-even floor to spot exactly which products are advertising at a loss.
Glossary
ROAS and ACoS vocabulary
Every important term you'll encounter in this calculator and the broader topic.
- ROAS
- Return on ad spend — revenue divided by ad spend. A 4.0x ROAS means 4 in sales for every 1 spent on ads. It measures revenue efficiency, not profit.
- Break-even ROAS
- The lowest ROAS at which ads make zero profit. Above it you profit; below it you lose money. Equals selling price ÷ pre-ad profit.
- Target ROAS
- The ROAS that leaves a chosen profit margin after ad spend — always higher than break-even because it reserves profit first.
- ACoS
- Advertising cost of sales — ad spend divided by sales, as a %. The reciprocal of ROAS: ACoS% = 100 ÷ ROAS. Amazon advertisers use it most.
- Break-even ACoS
- The highest ACoS you can run and still break even. It equals your contribution margin.
- Contribution margin
- Profit per sale before ads, as a % of revenue — selling price minus product cost and fees. The entire budget available to fund ads.
- Pre-ad profit
- The money left on an order after product cost, fees, and shipping, before any ad spend. The cash you can spend on ads at break-even.
- BEROAS
- A common shorthand for break-even ROAS, used widely in the dropshipping community.
- Profit cushion
- The gap between your target ROAS and your break-even ROAS — the safety margin that keeps a campaign profitable when efficiency dips.
Help & answers
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about how the Break-Even ROAS Calculator works.
01What is break-even ROAS?
Break-even ROAS is the lowest return on ad spend at which ads make zero profit — the floor. Above it you profit; below it every unit of ad spend loses. Calculated as selling price ÷ pre-ad profit. Example: 20 profit on a 40 sale → break-even ROAS = 2.0x. You must beat 2.0x to profit.
02How do I calculate the minimum profitable ROAS?
Find pre-ad profit: selling price − product cost − fees − other costs. Then divide selling price by that profit. Shortcut: 100 ÷ contribution margin %. A 50% margin gives a 2.0x floor; 25% gives 4.0x; 20% gives 5.0x. The thinner your margin, the higher ROAS you must hit to avoid a loss.
03What is the formula for break-even ROAS?
Break-Even ROAS = Selling Price ÷ Pre-Ad Profit = 100 ÷ Contribution Margin %. Break-even ACoS = Contribution Margin %. Since ROAS and ACoS are reciprocals, break-even ACoS and contribution margin are always equal. This calculator builds the margin from your price, cost, fee %, and other costs.
04What is the difference between ROAS and ACoS?
They are the same information expressed two ways and are exact reciprocals: ACoS% = 100 ÷ ROAS, and ROAS = 100 ÷ ACoS%. ROAS (return on ad spend) is revenue per unit of ad spend — higher is better. ACoS (advertising cost of sales) is ad spend as a % of sales — lower is better. A 4.0x ROAS is a 25% ACoS; a 20% ACoS is a 5.0x ROAS. Amazon advertisers usually think in ACoS, while Meta and Google advertisers think in ROAS, so this tool shows both.
05What is a good break-even ROAS for dropshipping?
Depends entirely on your margin. Dropshipping products with 25–35% contribution margin have a break-even ROAS around 3–4x, so a profit target is roughly 1.3–2x above that. Thin-margin products (under 20%) push break-even above 5.0x, which is hard to sustain on Meta or TikTok.
06How is target ROAS different from break-even ROAS?
Break-even leaves zero profit. Target ROAS reserves a margin first: target ACoS = contribution margin − desired profit margin, then target ROAS = 100 ÷ target ACoS. With a 50% margin and 10% target: target ACoS = 40%, target ROAS = 2.5x vs 2.0x break-even.
07Should I include marketplace fees and shipping in the calculation?
Yes — any per-sale cost belongs. Marketplace fees (Amazon ~15%, eBay ~13.6%, Etsy ~9.5%, Shopify ~2.9%) plus shipping you absorb and return costs reduce profit available for ads and raise your break-even ROAS. Leaving them out makes the floor look lower than reality.
08Does sales tax or VAT affect my break-even ROAS?
No. Sales tax, VAT, and GST are collected from the buyer and remitted to the government, so they are never your money and never a cost. This calculator excludes them from the contribution margin on purpose — including them would understate the budget you have for ads and overstate your break-even ROAS. Enter your selling price and costs net of tax and the floor will be accurate. The tool works in any currency because the math is all per-order ratios.
09What happens if my product has no margin left for ads?
If product cost plus fees plus other costs use up the entire selling price, your pre-ad profit is zero or negative — and no ROAS can be profitable, because there is nothing left to spend on ads. The calculator flags this instead of showing a misleading number. The fix is to improve unit economics first: raise the price, lower COGS, or reduce fees until you have a positive contribution margin, then advertising can work.
10Can I use this break-even ROAS calculator for Meta, Google, and Amazon ads?
Yes — channel-agnostic. Break-even ROAS depends on product economics, not the ad platform, so the same floor applies to Meta, Google, TikTok, and Amazon. The only nuance is fees: use Amazon's ~15% referral fee for marketplace sales, or your payment processing rate (~2.9%) for Shopify/direct.
Keep exploring
Related tools
Amazon PPC Break-Even Calculator
Break-even ACoS, max CPC, and min CVR — from your product economics.
Open tool
Amazon Ads ROAS Calculator
True Amazon ad ROAS, break-even, and the max CPC you can profitably bid.
Open tool
Average Order Value Calculator
Calculate your AOV, get a free-shipping floor, and model what a lift is worth.
Open tool
Discount & Promotion Profit Calculator
Before you run a discount, see the exact volume it needs and your safe floor.
Open tool
Category
Ecommerce Seller Operations
Subcategory
ads marketing
Availability
Global · 9 markets
Price
Free forever
Topics
break-even roasberoastarget roasroas calculatoracosminimum profitable roasdropshippingppcadvertisingcalculatorfacebook ads roasgoogle ads roas calculator
Explore 500+ more tools
Calculators, simulators, and decision tools for every stage of business operations.