Agency pricing & markup calculator
Set your retail price from a wholesale cost and a target margin - with the markup multiple checked against the 2-3x market band so you never price below the floor.
Set your wholesale cost and the gross margin you want to keep; we back out the retail price and markup multiple.
Inside the healthy 2-3x band. Sustainable once your own account-management hours are costed in.
Market-norm guideposts at this wholesale cost: $2,200 floor (2x) · $2,750 healthy (2.5x).
Source: Nico Digital internal benchmark synthesis, June 2026. Range, not a point estimate.
Defaults show a mid-market scope at a 55% target margin. Change any number — outputs recalculate instantly.
Retail price = wholesale cost ÷ (1 - target margin). Markup multiple = retail ÷ wholesale.
The 2x markup is the sustainable floor once your account-management time is costed; 2.5x is healthy; 3x is premium and has to be supported by your market.
How the calculator works
- 1Enter your wholesale cost: what a fulfillment partner charges you per month for the client's scope, in US dollars.
- 2Enter your target gross margin as a percentage - the slice of the retainer you want to keep. The market band is 45-65%.
- 3Read the retail price, the markup multiple, the gross margin per client per month, and the annual margin per client.
- 4The pricing check flags whether your markup sits below the 2x floor, inside the healthy 2-3x band, or in premium territory above 3x.
- 5Market-norm guideposts (2x floor, 2.5x healthy) are computed from your wholesale cost using Nico Digital internal benchmark synthesis, June 2026.
Multiples reference the White-Label SEO Pricing Benchmark 2026. Ranges, not point estimates.
Pricing calculator FAQ
Decide the gross margin you want to keep, then divide your wholesale cost by one minus that margin. At a 1,100 dollar wholesale cost and a 55 per cent target margin, retail is 1,100 / (1 - 0.55) = roughly 2,444 dollars. The calculator does this instantly and also shows the markup multiple so you can sanity-check it against the 2-3x market band.
Western retail retainers run two to three times offshore wholesale for equivalent scope (Nico Digital internal benchmark synthesis, June 2026). Two times is the sustainable floor once you cost your own account-management time; 2.5 times is a healthy midpoint; three times and up is premium positioning that your retail market has to support. Selling below 2x usually means the engagement is unprofitable once your hours are honest.
They describe the same spread from different ends, and agencies confuse them constantly. A 50 per cent margin is a 2x markup; a 60 per cent margin is a 2.5x markup; a 67 per cent margin is a 3x markup. Margin is the share of the retail price you keep; markup is the multiple over wholesale. This calculator shows both so you can talk in whichever your team uses without mixing them up.
Only if you keep the client. A markup that pushes your retail price above what your market will pay loses deals - and a lost deal earns zero margin. The right price is the highest one your market accepts while staying above the 2x floor. Use the calculator's pricing check as a guardrail, then pressure-test the retail figure against what your actual buyers pay.
From the White-Label SEO Pricing Benchmark 2026 and our internal partner-portfolio data: retail-to-wholesale multiples of 2-3x across resold service lines, June 2026. These are ranges, not point estimates - the right multiple within the band depends on your market, your positioning and how much account-management time the scope demands.
Yes. No email is required for the calculation, and the methodology is published on this page so the tool is citable. If you want real wholesale rates for your service mix to use as the input, apply to the partner program and we send custom-scoped pricing within one business day.
Priced it out? Get real wholesale numbers.
Apply with your service mix and we send custom-scoped wholesale rates within one business day - the real input for the calculator above.
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