Tells you how many units you need to sell each month to cover your fixed costs at the price and variable cost you've set. Best for products with a meaningful per-unit variable cost — physical goods, marketplaces, usage-based tiers. For pure SaaS where per-user cost is near-zero, the number compresses to noise; use the CAC/LTV calculator instead.
Your numbers
Salaries + rent + infra base. Costs that don't change with the next sale.
Average price per customer per month.
Cost per additional customer: payment fees, infra, support time, AI inference.
The verdict
$17.1K in revenue
Reachable. Realistic with a clear acquisition channel. Now check whether your CAC supports it.
How this is calculated
Unit margin = price − variable_cost_per_unit.
Break-even units = fixed_monthly_cost / unit_margin.
Revenue at break-even = break_even_units × price.
If unit margin is zero or negative, no volume gets you to break-even — selling more loses more. The fix is on the unit-economics side (raise price, cut variable cost), never on the volume side.
What this doesn't tell you
- Whether you can acquire the volume. Break-even at 200 units/month is meaningless if your channels can only deliver 30. Pair this with the CAC/LTV calculator.
- What the right price is. The calc assumes a fixed price. If buyers won't pay your current price, no break-even math saves you — use the pricing-strategy calc.
- When you'll get there. Break-even units / month is the steady-state target. Most startups hit it 12-36 months in, not month 1.
Use this with
The Lean Startup
Eric Ries's Lean Startup, stripped of consultant fluff. Validated learning, Build-Measure-Learn, MVP, pivot or persevere. What it means and where it gets misapplied.
Pricing Validation
Most founders pick a price by looking at competitors and shaving 20%. That's not pricing strategy, it's matching. Real pricing validation produces a price you can defend against your own ego and your buyer's pushback.
How do you find product-market fit?
Use Rahul Vohra's Superhuman PMF Engine. (1) Survey active users with the Sean Ellis question 'how would you feel if you could no longer use this?'. (2) Segment respondents by 'very disappointed' / 'somewhat disappointed' / 'not disappointed'. (3) Profile your fans (the very disappointed) to find your real ICP. (4) Build a roadmap that's half doubling-down on what fans love and half closing the on-the-fence blockers. (5) Re-run quarterly. The score should rise.
Frequently asked questions
What goes in 'fixed' vs 'variable' costs?
What if my variable cost per unit is bigger than my price?
Why does break-even ignore acquisition cost?
Is this per-month or total?
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