How many units to break even on $6,600 of fixed costs at a $5.50 price and $2.20 variable cost?

Exactly 2,000 units. The contribution margin is $5.50 − $2.20 = $3.30 per unit, and 6,600 ÷ 3.30 = 2,000 — which is $11,000 of break-even revenue.

Does the units view work for services?

Yes — pick the unit. For services it is usually a billable hour, a session, or a project: the price is your rate, and the variable cost is whatever each engagement consumes (materials, subcontracting, travel). Fixed overhead divided by the margin per engagement gives the bookings needed to break even.

What is my profit at exactly the break-even volume?

Zero, by definition — contribution exactly equals fixed costs. At 2,000 cups, the cart's contribution is 2,000 × $3.30 = $6,600, matching its fixed costs to the dollar. When the calculator rounds a fractional answer up, profit at the reported volume is a few dollars above zero rather than exactly zero.

Break-Even Calculator

Break-Even Calculator — Break-Even Units Calculator

The count-of-units view, for a single product or service where unit economics are knowable: how many do we have to sell? A coffee cart selling a $5.50 cup with $2.20 of variable cost keeps a $3.30 contribution margin (60% of price), so $6,600 of monthly fixed costs breaks even at exactly 2,000 cups — $11,000 of revenue. Whole units only: fractional answers round up, because the fraction you cannot sell leaves bills unpaid.

Break-even point

Solve forFixed costs ($ per period)Price per unit ($)Variable cost per unit ($)

Break-even units

500 units

$20.00 contribution margin / unit · 40% of price

Breakdown

Contribution margin / unit$20.00

Break-even revenue$25,000.00

Fixed costs$10,000.00

Standard break-even arithmetic on the costs you enter: contribution margin = price − variable cost, units = fixed costs ÷ contribution margin (rounded up to whole units), and revenue = fixed costs ÷ CM ratio. A planning estimate — taxes, cash timing, and step-fixed costs are not modeled. Not business or accounting advice.

From unit economics to a daily sales target

A break-even count becomes useful the moment you divide it by time. The coffee cart's 2,000 cups a month is roughly 67 cups per day over thirty days — a number you can stand at the register and check. If foot traffic supports 100 cups a day, the business clears break-even with room to spare; if 50 is realistic, no amount of optimism fixes the math, and the levers are the $5.50 price, the $2.20 variable cost, or the $6,600 of fixed costs.

Per-unit volume targets also expose which lever matters. Cutting variable cost by a few dimes moves the margin on every single cup, while trimming fixed costs moves only the numerator — at a $3.30 margin, every $33 of monthly rent saved is ten fewer cups to sell.

Rounding up is a capacity reality check

Suppose the cart's fixed costs rise to $7,000. The raw division is 7,000 ÷ 3.30 = 2,121.2 cups, and the calculator reports 2,122 — $11,671 of revenue at $5.50 a cup. The bumped-up unit matters more than it looks: break-even counts are commitments in whole sales, and a plan built on the fractional answer is short by one sale every period.

The whole-unit framing also forces the capacity question. If 2,122 cups a month exceeds what one cart, one person, and one espresso machine can physically produce, the break-even point is not reachable with the current setup — which means the fixed costs need to shrink, or the price needs to carry more of the load.

Questions

How many units to break even on $6,600 of fixed costs at a $5.50 price and $2.20 variable cost?: Exactly 2,000 units. The contribution margin is $5.50 − $2.20 = $3.30 per unit, and 6,600 ÷ 3.30 = 2,000 — which is $11,000 of break-even revenue.
Does the units view work for services?: Yes — pick the unit. For services it is usually a billable hour, a session, or a project: the price is your rate, and the variable cost is whatever each engagement consumes (materials, subcontracting, travel). Fixed overhead divided by the margin per engagement gives the bookings needed to break even.
What is my profit at exactly the break-even volume?: Zero, by definition — contribution exactly equals fixed costs. At 2,000 cups, the cart's contribution is 2,000 × $3.30 = $6,600, matching its fixed costs to the dollar. When the calculator rounds a fractional answer up, profit at the reported volume is a few dollars above zero rather than exactly zero.