Discount Calculator
Work out the final price and the amount you save after applying a discount to an original price — and, if a second discount applies on top of the first, see the real effective discount, which is almost always lower than the two percentages simply added together.
Fill in the form and select "Calculate" to see your results here.
What is the Discount Calculator?
This calculator works out how much a discount actually saves you and what you end up paying. Enter an original price and a discount percentage, and it shows the final price and the rupee amount saved. It also supports a second, successive discount — useful when a sale price is discounted further with an additional offer, a coupon, or a clearance markdown on top of an already-reduced price. In that case, the calculator also shows the effective discount percentage, which is the single discount rate that would have produced the same final price in one step.
How to use this calculator
- Enter the original price of the item before any discount.
- Enter the first discount percentage — the main discount being offered.
- If a second discount applies on top of the first (an extra percentage off the already-discounted price), enter it. Otherwise leave it at 0.
- Select "Calculate Discount" to see the final price, the amount saved, and the effective discount percentage.
Formula
When there is no second discount, the second factor above is simply 1 (a 0% reduction), so the final price is just the original price reduced by the first discount. See the editorial policy for how calculation methods on this site are verified.
Example
Suppose an item has an original price of ₹2,000, marked down by 20%, with an additional 10% off applied at checkout. It's tempting to assume that 20% off plus 10% off means 30% off — but that is not how successive discounts work. The 20% discount first brings the price down to ₹1,600 (₹2,000 × 0.80). The 10% discount then applies to that ₹1,600, not the original ₹2,000, removing a further ₹160 and bringing the final price to ₹1,440. The total amount saved is ₹560, which works out to an effective discount of 28% (₹560 ÷ ₹2,000 × 100) — two percentage points less than the naive 30% figure, because the second discount was calculated on a smaller base.
For comparison, a single discount is much simpler: the same ₹2,000 item with just one 25% discount and no second discount gives a final price of ₹1,500 and an amount saved of ₹500 — an effective discount of exactly 25%, confirming that with only one discount applied, the effective discount always matches the discount you entered.
Factors that affect the result
- Order and compounding of discounts. Successive discounts are applied one after another to a shrinking base, so they compound rather than add. Two discounts of 20% and 10% always produce a 28% effective discount, regardless of which one is applied first — the arithmetic is the same either way.
- Discount vs. markup confusion. A discount percentage and a markup percentage that look like "opposites" are not equal in rupee terms, because a discount is a percentage of the higher (original) price while a markup is a percentage of the lower (discounted) price. Reversing a 20% discount requires a 25% markup, not 20%.
- Taxes and fees. This calculator only computes the discount itself. If GST or other charges apply to the discounted price, calculate the discount first and then apply tax separately using a tool such as the GST Calculator.
- Rounding at the till. Real-world final prices are sometimes rounded to the nearest rupee by a retailer's billing system, so the exact figure you see on a receipt may differ from this calculator's unrounded result by a few paise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Because each discount is applied to whatever price is left after the previous discount, not to the original price. A 20% discount followed by a 10% discount does not give you 30% off — it gives you 28% off. On a ₹2,000 item, 20% off brings the price to ₹1,600, and 10% off that ₹1,600 removes a further ₹160, for a final price of ₹1,440 and a total saving of ₹560, which is 28% of the original ₹2,000, not 30%.
Divide the sale price by (1 − discount / 100) for a single discount, or by the product of (1 − first discount / 100) and (1 − second discount / 100) for two successive discounts. For example, if a final price of ₹1,440 came from a 20% discount followed by a 10% discount, dividing ₹1,440 by (0.8 × 0.9) = 0.72 recovers the original price of ₹2,000. This calculator is built to go the other direction — original price to final price — but the same formula works in reverse.
A discount reduces a price and is calculated as a percentage of the original (higher) price, while a markup increases a price and is calculated as a percentage of the cost (lower) price — so the two are not simple opposites. A 20% discount on ₹100 brings the price down to ₹80. But to get back from ₹80 to ₹100, you need a 25% markup, not 20%, because 20% of ₹80 is only ₹16 (giving ₹96), while 25% of ₹80 is ₹20 (giving ₹100). The percentage base changes direction between the two calculations.
It depends on the price of the item. A flat discount saves the same rupee amount regardless of price, while a percentage discount saves more in rupee terms as the price goes up. There is a break-even price where the two are equal, found by dividing the flat discount amount by the percentage (as a decimal). For example, a flat ₹150 off is equal in value to 20% off at a price of ₹750 (₹150 ÷ 0.20). Below ₹750, the flat ₹150 discount saves you more; above ₹750, the 20% discount saves you more.
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Calculations on this page are estimates based on the information entered and simple percentage arithmetic. They do not account for taxes, rounding at the point of sale, or retailer-specific discount rules. See our full disclaimer.