Discount Percentage Calculator
Find the discount percentage applied between an original price and a sale price.
About the Discount % Calculator
Sometimes you know the before-and-after prices but want to know what percentage discount was actually applied — useful for comparing sales, verifying advertised discounts, or tracking how deep a markdown really went.
How It Works
The calculator subtracts the sale price from the original price to find the dollar amount saved, then divides that by the original price to express the discount as a percentage.
Discount (%) = (Original Price − Sale Price) / Original Price × 100.
Worked example
Scenario: An item reduced from $80 to $60.
- Amount saved: $80 − $60 = $20.
- Discount percentage: $20 ÷ $80 × 100 = 25%.
Result: A 25% discount.
Understanding the discount
Discount percentage compares the amount saved with the original price. It is useful when a store shows only the original and sale prices and you want to know the actual percentage reduction.
Tips and common mistakes
- Always divide by the original price, not the sale price (20 ÷ 60 would wrongly give 33%).
- Compare 'was' prices with caution; some retailers set high reference prices to inflate discounts.
- If the sale price is higher than the original, it's a price increase — use Percentage Change.
Assumptions & Limitations
- Assumes the sale price is lower than the original price — if it is higher, the calculator will report a negative discount, indicating a price increase instead.
- If multiple discounts were stacked to reach the final sale price, this calculator reports only the single effective overall discount percentage, not each individual step.