Original price calculator
The tag says $59.99 after 40% off. What did it cost before? Or you know both prices and want the percentage: switch modes below.
Before the sale
- Sale price
- $59.99
- Discount
- 40%
- Original price
- $99.98
- You save
- $39.99
$59.99 is 60% of the original, so the original is $59.99 ÷ 0.6 = $99.98.
Working backwards from a sale price
The tempting shortcut is to add the percentage back on: 40% off gave $59.99, so the original must be $59.99 plus 40%, or $83.99. It wasn't. The 40% was taken from the original price, which is bigger, so you divide instead:
Original price = sale price ÷ (1 − percent off ÷ 100)
Example: $59.99 after 40% off is 60% of the original, so the original was 59.99 ÷ 0.6 = $99.98.
Finding the percentage
If you know both prices, switch to "% off": the discount is the saving divided by the original price. $120 down to $84 is a $36 saving, and 36 ÷ 120 = 30% off. If the "sale" price is higher than the original, the calculator says so.
Questions
Why can't I just add the percentage back?
Because the percentage was a share of the original price, not of the sale price. Adding 40% of $59.99 gives $83.99, about $16 short of the real $99.98.
Does a "was" price prove it's a real discount?
Not on its own. A "was" price only means something if the item really sold at that price for a while. Comparing with other shops, or with the price a few weeks earlier, tells you more.
What about 100% off?
A 100% discount leaves nothing to work back from, so the calculator accepts discounts up to just under 100%.