Percent Off Calculator

1. Pick the direction. Choose sale price to find what you pay, or original price to find what an item cost before the sale.
2. Enter the price and the percent off. Add an extra percent off if a coupon or clearance markdown stacks on top, and a tax rate if you want the checkout total.
3. Read the result and the chart. You get the sale price, the savings, the true total percent off and a table of common percent-off values for the same price.

Percent off is a price cut stated as a share of the original price. OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics explains that percent comes from the Latin per centum, "by the hundred", so 30% off means 30 dollars off every 100 dollars of price.

OpenStax Prealgebra 2e sets out the model shoppers use: the amount of discount equals the discount rate times the original price, and the sale price equals the original price minus that discount.

Percent off always refers to the original price, not the sale price. That is why an item marked down 50% and then marked back up 50% does not return to its first price: $100 becomes $50, and 50% of $50 is only $25, giving $75.

Percent off is different from a fixed amount off, such as $15 off, and from multi-buy deals. For those, the discount calculator has dedicated modes.

Turn the percent into a decimal, subtract it from 1 and multiply. That single multiplication gives the sale price directly.

1. Write the percent off as a decimal: 30% = 0.30.
2. Subtract from 1 to get the share you pay: 1 - 0.30 = 0.70.
3. Multiply the original price by that share.
4. For an extra discount, multiply by the second share too.
5. Add tax last, on the discounted price, as OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics shows for total price.

The 10 Percent Mental Shortcut

Move the decimal point one place left to get 10%, then scale. For 30% off $45, 10% is $4.50, so 30% is 3 x $4.50 = $13.50 and the sale price is $31.50. Half of 10% gives 5%, which covers 15%, 25% and 35%.

30% Off $45

$45 x 0.70 = $31.50. You save $13.50.

30% Off Plus an Extra 20% Off $120, with 8.25% Tax

1. First discount: $120 x 0.70 = $84.00.
2. Extra discount on the reduced price: $84.00 x 0.80 = $67.20.
3. Total percent off: 1 - 0.70 x 0.80 = 0.44, so 44% off, not 50%.
4. Tax: $67.20 x 0.0825 = $5.54, so the checkout total is $72.74.

Reverse: a $25.50 Sale Price at 15% Off

$25.50 / 0.85 = $30.00 original price. Adding 15% to $25.50 instead gives $29.33, which is wrong.

Percent-Off Chart for $45

The percent itself matters most, but stacking, tax and rounding change what you really pay.

Stacked Discounts

Each extra percent off applies to a smaller price, so two discounts never add up fully. 30% plus 20% is 44% off; 50% plus 50% is 75% off, not free.

Sales Tax

Tax is charged on the discounted price in most places, so a bigger discount also cuts the tax. On the $120 example, tax falls from $9.90 on the full price to $5.54 on the sale price.

Rounding to the Cent

Stores round each line to the nearest cent, sometimes item by item. Totals can differ from the calculator by a cent or two.

What Counts as the Original Price

A discount is only as meaningful as the price it starts from. A high list price with a big percent off can still cost more than a lower everyday price elsewhere, so compare the sale price itself.

"Percent of" and "percent off" are complements: 30% off means you pay 70% of the price. The percentage calculator handles percent-of questions in general.

Checking a Sale Tag

A tag that says 40% off $100 should show $60. If it shows $65, the tag or the register is wrong, and the calculator makes the gap obvious.

Comparing Two Offers

The percent-off chart shows each discount level for the same price, so 25% off at one store can be set against a lower list price at another.

Clearance with an Extra Markdown

Clearance racks often add an extra percent off at the register. The extra field shows the real total discount before you reach the till.

Pricing a Promotion

Sellers can work back from a target sale price to the list price with reverse mode, then check the margin with the markup calculator.

1. Adding Stacked Discounts

30% off plus an extra 20% off is 44% off, not 50%. On $120 the difference is $67.20 against $60.00.

2. Reversing by Adding the Percent Back

A $25.50 price at 15% off came from $30.00. Adding 15% to $25.50 gives $29.33 and understates the original.

3. Paying the Percent Instead of Saving It

30% off $45 means paying $31.50, not $13.50. $13.50 is the saving.

4. Taxing the Original Price

Sales tax usually applies to the sale price. Taxing the full price overstates the total.

5. Reading "Up to" as a Promise

"Up to 70% off" guarantees the top discount on at least some items, not on the item you want.

The arithmetic is exact to the cent for the numbers you enter; the real checkout price depends on the store and local tax rules.

It is $40.00. $50 x 0.80 = $40, so you save $10.

It is $60.00, a saving of $20. A quarter of $80 is $20.

Find 10%, halve it for 5%, then add the two. For $60: $6 + $3 = $9 off, so you pay $51.

Yes. 50% off means you pay 0.50 of the original, which is half.

Usually not. An extra percent off normally comes off the already reduced price, which is why the total discount is less than the sum.

Paying 60% of the price is 40% off. Subtract what you pay from 100%.

Divide the sale price by 0.60. A $36 sale price at 40% off started at $60.

Most sales tax is charged on the price you pay after the discount. Check your local rules for coupons and rebates.

Stores round each item to the nearest cent and may apply tax per line, so totals can differ by a cent or two.

No. The math runs in your browser. Save keeps a copy only in your own browser storage.

• Discount rate, amount of discount and sale price (OpenStax Prealgebra 2e, section 6.3).
• Percent discounts and total price with sales tax (OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics, section 6.2).
• What a percent means: per centum, by the hundred (OpenStax Contemporary Mathematics, section 6.1).