Discount Calculator
What you pay, what you saved, what it cost before the discount, and what "30% off, then 20% off" actually comes to.
Useful when a receipt shows only the final price and the percentage, which is how most sale receipts are printed.
Three questions a shop window will not answer
The first is simple arithmetic: 25 percent off two thousand. The second is the one that catches people out, working backwards from what you paid to what it was listed at, which is what you need when a receipt prints only the final price and the percentage. The third is the interesting one, and it is where discounts get quietly generous to the shop rather than to you.
Two discounts do not add up
"30 percent off, then an extra 20 percent at checkout" is not 50 percent off. The second discount applies to what is left after the first, so 2,000 becomes 1,400 and then 1,120, which is 44 percent off, not 50. The gap widens as the numbers grow: 50 and 50 is 75 percent off, not 100, which is why nothing is ever free. The stacked tab shows both figures side by side, the real effective discount and the simple sum people expect, because the difference is exactly what makes the offer look better than it is.
Where the tax lands
Whether tax is charged on the list price or the discounted price changes the total, and the rule genuinely differs. In India, GST is charged on the transaction value after a discount that was agreed at the time of sale, so tax follows the lower price. The same is broadly true across the EU for VAT. Several US states, by contrast, charge sales tax on the pre-discount price when the discount is a manufacturer's coupon, because the shop is being reimbursed for it. Since neither answer is universally right, it is a setting here rather than a silent assumption, and the working shows which price the tax was applied to.
Reading a sale honestly
The one line worth watching in the first tab is the last one: what you pay as a share of the list price. A 40 percent discount means you pay 60 percent, and seeing it that way makes two offers comparable at a glance in a way that competing percentages do not. It is also the number to check against the price before the sale started, when you can find it, since a discount is only a saving if the reference price was real.
Related calculators
For working with percentages generally, including percentage change and increase or decrease, use the percentage calculator. If the price you are working out includes Indian GST and you need the split, the GST calculator handles both directions.
Frequently asked questions
Is 30 percent off plus 20 percent off the same as 50 percent off?
No. The second discount applies to the already reduced price, so it comes to 44 percent, not 50. Two discounts of 50 percent come to 75 percent, not 100.
How do I find the original price from a sale price?
Use the second tab. It divides the price you paid by one minus the discount rate. A price of 1,500 after 25 percent off means the original was 2,000, not 1,875, which is what adding 25 percent back would wrongly give.
Should tax be applied before or after the discount?
In India and across most of the EU, tax is charged on the discounted price. Some US states charge it on the pre-discount price when a manufacturer coupon is involved. The tool lets you choose, and the working states which price it used.
Which currency does it use?
Whichever you have selected in the Preferences menu in the site header. The arithmetic is the same in any currency.
Does it handle a fixed amount off rather than a percentage?
Divide the amount off by the list price and multiply by 100 to get the percentage, then enter that. A 500 discount on a 2,000 item is 25 percent.