Discount Calculator

How the Discount Calculator Works

Our discount calculator helps you quickly figure out sale prices and savings. Use it in two ways: enter the original price and discount percentage to find the sale price and how much you save, or enter the original price and sale price to calculate the discount percentage.

Discount Formulas

Mode 1 — Find Sale Price from Discount %:

Sale Price = Original Price × (1 − Discount% / 100)
Savings = Original Price − Sale Price

Mode 2 — Find Discount % from Sale Price:

Discount% = [(Original Price − Sale Price) / Original Price] × 100
Savings = Original Price − Sale Price

For a concrete example, a $120 jacket marked 30% off has a sale price of 120 × (1 − 0.30) = $84, saving you $36. In the other direction, if you paid $84 for an item originally listed at $120, the discount percentage is ((120 − 84) ÷ 120) × 100 = 30%. Both modes give you the same four figures — sale price, savings, discount percentage, and amount you pay — so you can verify a deal from either direction.

Common Discount Types

• Percentage Off: A flat percentage reduction (e.g., 25% off).
• Fixed Amount Off: A set dollar amount reduction (e.g., $10 off).
• Buy One Get One (BOGO): Effectively 50% off when you buy two items.
• Stacked Discounts: Multiple discounts applied sequentially (e.g., 20% off, then an additional 10% off the sale price).

Fixed-amount discounts work slightly differently from percentage discounts. To compare them, convert the fixed amount to a percentage: $10 off a $50 item is 20% off, but $10 off a $200 item is only 5% off. The same dollar discount can be a great deal or a negligible one depending on the original price, which is why retailers love "$10 off your purchase" promotions — they sound generous but shrink as a percentage the more you spend.

How to Calculate Stacked Discounts

When stores apply multiple discounts in sequence, each discount applies to the already-discounted price, not the original. For example, 20% off then 10% off is not 30% off — it's 28% off total:

Final Price = Original × (1 − d₁) × (1 − d₂)

On a $100 item, 20% off brings it to $80, and 10% off $80 brings it to $72 — a $28 total saving, or 28% off. The pattern extends to three or more discounts: multiply (1 − each rate) together, then subtract from 1 to get the total discount percentage. This is also why a "40% off plus an extra 20% off" sale sounds like 60% off but is really 52% off — still a good deal, just not as good as the signage implies.

BOGO and Multi-Buy Deals

Buy One Get One (BOGO) offers are a staple of retail marketing. A true BOGO — buy one, get one free — is equivalent to 50% off when you buy two items, but only if you actually want both. If you would have bought only one item anyway, BOGO doesn't save you money; it just gives you a second item you didn't plan for. Variations like "buy two, get one free" work out to 33% off three items, and "buy one, get one 50% off" averages to 25% off two items. The calculator can help you find the effective discount percentage for any of these by entering the total you paid and the original total as the "original price."

Discounts and Sales Tax

Sales tax is almost always calculated on the discounted price, not the original. A $100 item with 25% off in a state with 8% sales tax costs $81 after discount, then $87.48 with tax — not $108. The discount reduces the taxable amount, which is a small but real secondary saving. If you're comparing a discounted item to a full-price alternative, remember that the tax savings compound the discount savings. This calculator shows pre-tax prices, so add your local rate separately if you need the final out-of-pocket cost.

Tips for Smart Shopping

• Compare the per-unit price, not just the total — bulk isn't always cheaper.
• Calculate the actual discount before buying — "up to 70% off" may apply to few items.
• Factor in shipping costs when comparing online deals.
• Remember that a bigger discount percentage doesn't always mean a better deal if the original price is inflated.

A few more strategies help you avoid common retail traps. Watch for "was/now" pricing where the "was" price was never actually charged — some retailers inflate the original price to make the discount look bigger. Compare final prices across stores rather than discount percentages, since a 50% off sale at a store with high baseline prices may still cost more than a 20% off sale at a discounter. Finally, time your purchases around known sale cycles — January for winter apparel, November for electronics, and end-of-season clearances for anything seasonal — to stack natural markdowns on top of promotional discounts.