Discount Calculator
What you pay after a discount, and what you actually saved.
About this discount calculator
Three modes cover what people actually need at a till or in front of a sale rail. Enter a price and a percentage to get what you pay; enter the original and the sale price to find out what percentage the sign is really claiming; or stack two discounts to see what "extra 20% off already-reduced prices" comes to.
An optional tax field adds sales tax or VAT on top, so the headline figure is what actually leaves your account.
Stacked discounts multiply, they do not add
"50% off, then an extra 20% off" is 60% off โ not 70%. The second reduction applies to the already-reduced price, so the discounts multiply: 0.5 ร 0.8 = 0.4, meaning you pay 40% of the original.
The order does not matter. Twenty per cent then fifty per cent lands on exactly the same number, which is worth knowing when a shop insists on applying them in a particular sequence. The same arithmetic explains why a 30% markup followed by a 30% discount does not return you to the starting price: 1.3 ร 0.7 = 0.91, so you end up 9% below where you began.
Reading a sale sign honestly
The reference price matters more than the percentage. "Was ยฃ200, now ยฃ100" is only a genuine 50% saving if anything ever sold at ยฃ200 โ which is why most countries have rules requiring the previous price to have been charged for a real period.
Per-unit price beats headline discount for anything you buy repeatedly: three-for-two is 33% off, which is worse than it sounds if you only wanted one. For splitting a discounted bill, the tip calculator handles the division; for the tax side on its own, the VAT and sales tax calculator adds or strips tax at any rate.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate a 25% discount?
Enter the original price and 25 as the percentage. The calculator shows the sale price, the amount saved and the total with any tax added.
What is 30% off then 20% off?
44% off in total, not 50%. The second discount applies to the already-reduced price: 0.7 ร 0.8 = 0.56, so you pay 56% of the original.
How do I work out what percentage off something is?
Use the โWhat % is this?โ tab and enter both the original and the sale price. The calculator works the percentage out for you.
Does it include sales tax or VAT?
Yes โ enter a rate in the optional tax field and it is added to the discounted price, so the total is what you actually pay.
Does the order of two discounts matter?
No. Multiplying by 0.7 then 0.8 gives the same result as 0.8 then 0.7, so you land on the same price either way.