Discount Calculator
What the sale price really is, what you actually save, and what “extra 20% off” adds up to. Nothing is uploaded.
How to use it
- Use the first box for the ordinary question: this price, that percentage, what do I pay?
- Use the second when you only know the final price and want to know what it was before.
- Use the third whenever a sale offers one discount and then another on top.
Every box updates as you type. No currency symbol is shown, because the arithmetic is the same in rupees, dollars or anything else.
Why 50% + 20% is not 70%
This is the single most useful thing on this page, so it is worth spelling out.
Take a shirt at 2,000. Fifty percent off brings it to 1,000. The extra twenty percent is then taken off that 1,000, not off the original 2,000 — so it saves 200, not 400. You pay 800.
Eight hundred out of two thousand is a 60% discount. The sign said 50 and 20, your head said 70, and the real answer is 60. The gap grows with the numbers: 70% and then a further 30% sounds like everything free, and is actually 79% off.
Shops are not being dishonest here — stacked discounts genuinely are applied one after the other. It is simply not how most people read them.
Working backwards from a sale price
The second calculator solves the question a receipt cannot answer. If you paid 1,500 after 25% off, the original was not 1,500 plus 25%. It was 1,500 divided by 0.75, which is 2,000.
Adding the percentage back on is the classic error and it always undershoots: 1,500 plus 25% is 1,875, which is not where you started. The discount was taken from the larger number, so it has to be undone against the larger number.
Frequently asked questions
Is 50% off plus an extra 20% off the same as 70% off?
No, and this is the most common mistake in any sale. The second discount applies to the already reduced price, not to the original one. Fifty percent off followed by twenty percent off is a total of sixty percent off, not seventy. The third calculator on this page works it out for you.
How do I find the original price from a sale price?
Use the second calculator. Enter what you paid and what the discount was, and it works backwards to the price before the reduction. This is the one to use when a receipt shows only the final amount.
Does this include GST or other taxes?
No. This calculator deals only with the discount itself. Whether tax is added before or after the discount depends on the shop and the item, so check your bill rather than assuming.
Is anything I type sent anywhere?
No. The arithmetic happens in JavaScript inside your own browser. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is saved — close the tab and it is gone.