Question 1

How do I figure out what percent off a sale actually is?

Accepted Answer

Use the "Find the %" mode: enter the original price and the sale price you're actually being charged, and it works backward — subtracting to find how much you saved, then dividing that by the original price. This is the move for checking whether a store's advertised "up to 50% off" banner is actually giving you that much on the specific item in your cart.

Question 2

If I stack a 20% off coupon on a 30%-off sale item, is that 50% off?

Accepted Answer

No — successive percentages compound, they don't add. A $100 item at 30% off is $70; take another 20% off that $70 and you land at $56, which is a combined 44% off the original price, not 50%. Retailers rely on this math working in their favor, since "20% + 30%" sounds bigger than the 44% you actually get.

Question 3

What's the Batch List mode for?

Accepted Answer

It's built for the moment you're standing in a sale where everything in the store — or everything in your cart — gets the same flat percentage off, and you want to see the final price of each item plus your total savings without doing the math item by item. Add each item's original price, set the one shared discount percentage, and every row updates at once.

Question 4

Does a percent-off discount apply before or after sales tax?

Accepted Answer

In virtually every US jurisdiction, a percent-off discount is applied first to reduce the item's price, and sales tax is then calculated on that already-discounted amount — not on the original sticker price. This calculator gives you the discounted price; run that number through our sales tax calculator if you need the final total with tax included.

Question 5

Why does 100% off give a final price of $0?

Accepted Answer

By definition, taking the full 100% off leaves nothing left to pay — the formula final = original × (1 − percent/100) hits exactly zero when percent equals 100. Entering more than 100% would produce a negative price, which this calculator won't let happen since a negative price isn't meaningful for a purchase.

Percent Off Calculator — Sale Prices, Fast

Percent Off Calculator

Three Ways to Think About a Sale

🏷️ You Know the Discount

🔍 You Know Both Prices

🛒 You're Shopping a List

➕ Stacked Discounts

Frequently Asked Questions

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