Most dropshipping “profit” screenshots quietly skip the costs that kill stores: the ad spend per sale, the payment processor’s cut, the platform fee and the returns that come back at your expense. This dropshipping profit calculator puts every one of them in: selling price, product cost, shipping, customer acquisition cost, platform fee percentage, payment processing (percentage plus the fixed per-order fee) and an expected returns loss — and returns your true profit per order, your net margin, the most you can afford to spend on ads per sale, and your break-even ROAS.
Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded. This page is the English, marketplace-neutral version (USD, any platform). ¿Vendes desde España? La versión española del sitio calcula el mismo margen con el contexto de España: Calcular Margen de Ganancia Dropshipping España.
The full formula
Profit per order = price − product cost − shipping cost − ad spend per sale − platform fee − payment fee − other costs − expected returns loss. Each line is small; together they routinely eat the entire visible “margin” between a $50 price and a $15 product cost. The two lines beginners forget are the payment fee’s fixed part (about $0.30 per order on typical processors — small, until your product costs $12) and the returns loss: if 5% of orders come back and each return destroys the product plus outbound shipping you paid, that is a real, expected cost of 5% × (product + shipping) on every order, which is exactly how this calculator models it.
Worked example
A store sells a lamp for $50. Product cost $15, shipping $5, ad spend $10 per sale, no platform fee (own store), payment processing 2.9% + $0.30, returns 5%. The calculator shows: payment fee $1.75, expected returns loss $1.00, total costs $32.75, profit $17.25 per order, net margin 34.5%. More useful still: the most this store can spend on ads per sale before profit hits zero is $27.25, and its break-even ROAS is 1.83 — any ad campaign returning less than $1.83 of revenue per $1 of spend loses money, no matter how good it looks in the ads dashboard.
How to use the three verdicts
Profit per order is the unit economics: negative means the product cannot work at this price with these costs — fix price, product cost or shipping before touching ads. Net margin is the health check across products: it lets you compare a $20 item and a $90 item honestly. Break-even ROAS (and its twin, the maximum ad spend per sale) is the number to take into your ad account: set it as the floor under every campaign, and kill or fix anything that runs below it for a fair test of clicks. If the calculator says your maximum ad spend is below what traffic actually costs in your niche, the product — not the ads — is the problem.
What this calculator leaves out
Monthly fixed costs (store subscription, apps, your time) are not in the per-order math, because they do not scale per order; divide them by your monthly order count and subtract that as “other cost per order” for a fuller picture. Taxes (VAT/sales tax) depend on where you and your customers are — treat the price as the amount you actually keep after tax, or add your tax line into other costs. Chargeback fees and currency conversion are real for some stores; both fit in the same “other” field.
Frequently asked questions
What is break-even ROAS? Revenue divided by the maximum ad spend per sale that still leaves zero profit. Above it you make money on ads; below it you pay for the privilege of selling.
What should I put for ad spend? Your real customer acquisition cost: total ad spend divided by total orders over the same period — not the cost per click, and not the best day you ever had.
Why model returns as a percentage of product + shipping? Because on a typical return you refund the customer while the product and the outbound shipping you paid for are partly or fully lost. If your supplier takes returns back for free, set the rate lower — the field is yours.
Is there a Spanish version? Yes — the site’s calculadora de margen de ganancia dropshipping España covers the same math for sellers in Spain.
Estimator only: figures are as accurate as the numbers you enter and are not financial advice. Verify your platform’s and processor’s current fees before pricing a product.
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Versión en español: Calcular Margen de Ganancia Dropshipping España — Beneficio neto con anuncios, envíos y devoluciones · Amazon FBA Fee Calculator.
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