Percentage Increase Calculator – Price Increase & % Change

What is a Percentage Increase?

A percentage increase describes how much a value has grown relative to where it started. It makes changes of different sizes comparable: a $5 rise means a lot on a $10 item and little on a $1,000 one. This percentage increase calculator finds the percent change between any two numbers, including decreases, and works the other way too, applying a percentage to raise a price or any other value.

Percentage increase formula

Percentage Increase = (New Value - Original Value) / Original Value × 100

Absolute Change = New Value - Original Value

A negative result is a percentage decrease. The original value is always the base you divide by, which is why going from 80 to 100 is a 25% increase but going from 100 back to 80 is a 20% decrease. A percentage change from zero can't be calculated.

Example: monthly rent goes from $1,600 to $1,720. The increase is $120, and $120 / $1,600 × 100 = 7.5%.

Price increase calculator: how to raise prices by a percentage

To raise a price by a percentage, multiply it by 1 plus the percentage written as a decimal. Choose "Apply an increase" above to do this for any price.

New Price = Original Price × (1 + Percentage / 100)

Original Price = New Price / (1 + Percentage / 100)

Example: a subscription costs $49.99 a month and the price goes up 8%. $49.99 × 1.08 = $53.99, an increase of $4.00. If you only know the new price, divide to get back to the old one: $53.99 / 1.08 = $49.99.

If your costs stay the same, a price increase also lifts your gross margin: raising the price of an item with a 40% margin by 10% takes the margin to about 45.5%. Check the effect on your own prices with the Gross Margin Calculator.

Percentage increase vs. percentage points

When the values you are comparing are already percentages, such as interest rates, tax rates or margins, there are two ways to describe a change. The difference in percentage points is a simple subtraction. The percentage increase is the relative change, using the formula above.

Example: a savings rate rises from 4% to 5%. That is an increase of 1 percentage point, and a 25% increase in the rate, because (5 - 4) / 4 = 0.25. Both are correct, but they are easy to confuse, so say which one you mean.

Tips for Best Results

Divide by the original value: The starting value is always the base. Dividing by the new value gives the wrong answer.
Percentages don't simply add: Two 10% increases are 21% in total, not 20%, because the second is taken of a larger number.
Over several periods, use a rate: For growth over months or years, the Growth Rate Calculator gives the steady rate per period, and the Year Over Year Growth Calculator compares periods.
Round at the end: Rounding a price before applying a second percentage change adds small errors.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you calculate a percentage increase?

Subtract the original value from the new value, divide by the original value and multiply by 100. Going from 80 to 100 is (100 - 80) / 80 × 100 = 25%. If the result is negative, it is a percentage decrease.

How do I increase a price by a percentage?

Multiply the price by 1 plus the percentage as a decimal. To raise a $49.99 price by 8%, multiply by 1.08: $49.99 × 1.08 = $53.99. For a decrease or discount, subtract instead: a 20% discount multiplies by 0.80.

How do I find the original price before a percentage increase?

Divide the new price by 1 plus the percentage. If a price is $54 after an 8% increase, the original price was $54 / 1.08 = $50. Subtracting 8% of $54 gives $49.68, which is wrong because the 8% was taken of the original price, not the new one.

Why isn't a 10% increase followed by a 10% decrease back to the start?

Because each percentage is taken of a different base. 100 increased by 10% is 110, and 110 decreased by 10% is 99. Overall that is a 1% decrease. To undo a 10% increase you need a decrease of about 9.09%.

What is the difference between percent and percentage points?

Percentage points measure the plain difference between two percentages; percent measures the relative change. An interest rate rising from 4% to 5% is an increase of 1 percentage point, but a 25% increase in the rate.