Two calculators, one real result
Feeding a ₹800 cost price into the markup calculator at 25% gives a ₹200 markup amount and a ₹1,000 selling price. Feeding the identical ₹800 cost price into the margin calculator at 20% gives a ₹200 profit amount and the same ₹1,000 selling price. Same sale, same rupee profit, two calculators, two different-looking percentages.
Why markup% is always higher than margin% for the same sale
The ₹200 profit is a fixed rupee amount, but the two percentages measure it against different bases: markup divides it by the smaller cost price (₹200 ÷ ₹800 = 25%), while margin divides it by the larger selling price (₹200 ÷ ₹1,000 = 20%). Dividing the same numerator by a larger denominator always gives a smaller percentage — so margin% is mathematically guaranteed to be lower than markup% whenever there's any profit at all.
The pattern holds at a different scale: ₹700 cost, 30% margin
A ₹700 cost price with a 30% margin produces a ₹1,000 selling price and a ₹300 profit. That same ₹300 profit on the same ₹700 cost is a 42.8571% markup — feeding costPrice=700 and markupPct=42.8571 into the markup calculator returns the identical ₹1,000 selling price and ₹300 profit, confirming the relationship holds regardless of the numbers chosen.
Why this matters when comparing pricing across suppliers or teams
If one supplier quotes pricing in markup% and another in margin%, comparing the raw numbers directly is misleading — a 25% markup and a 20% margin might be the exact same deal, as shown above, while a 25% margin is actually a much higher markup (33.33%) and a meaningfully more expensive one. Converting both to the same basis (or just comparing the resulting selling prices directly) avoids that confusion.