Digital Product Profit Calculator — Real Earnings After Every Fee
“Digital products have high margins — but only when you price them correctly. This digital product profit calculator accounts for every fee.”
Use this free digital product profit calculator to find your real profit per sale after platform fees, payment processing, affiliate commissions, refund rate, and taxes — for courses, ebooks, templates, presets, or any downloadable product.
What This Digital Product Profit Calculator Shows You
- Profit per sale after all fees and refund rate
- Monthly revenue at your current sales volume
- Impact of affiliate commissions on your real margin
- Post-tax annual profit at different price points
- Which platform leaves you with the most per sale
Your Real Digital Product Profit Margin
Digital products — courses, ebooks, templates, presets, or software — have no inventory cost and no shipping. That makes them one of the highest-margin products you can sell. But platform fees, payment processing, affiliate commissions, and refund rates still take a significant cut of every sale.
This digital product profit calculator shows your real profit margin so you can price confidently and understand exactly what you keep from each sale before you launch.
How to Use This Digital Product Profit Calculator
Enter your product selling price, platform fee percentage, payment processing fee, affiliate commission percentage, and refund rate. Add your monthly sales volume and income tax rate to see monthly and annual post-tax profit.
The digital product profit calculator updates in real time so you can test different price points and platform combinations instantly.
Platform Fee Comparison — Which Pays You Most in 2026
The platform you choose has a direct impact on your margin at every price point. This digital product profit calculator lets you test each platform combination:
Gumroad — 10% flat fee on all sales. Simple but expensive at higher price points. On a $97 product Gumroad takes $9.70 per sale.
Lemon Squeezy — 5% + $0.50 per transaction. Better than Gumroad at higher prices. On a $97 product the fee is $5.35 per sale.
Teachable — 0-5% depending on your plan. Free plan takes 10% plus payment processing. Paid plans reduce or eliminate the transaction fee.
Podia — flat monthly fee with no per-transaction percentage. Most cost-effective at high sales volume since fees do not scale with revenue.
Shopify Digital Downloads — 2.9% + $0.30 payment processing only. Lowest per-transaction fee but requires a Shopify subscription.
Enter each platform’s fee into this digital product profit calculator to see exactly which one leaves you with the most per sale at your specific product price.
Refund Rate Reality — Plan for It Before Launch
Digital products typically see 2-5% refund rates depending on product type, price point, and audience expectations. This digital product profit calculator includes refund rate so your income projection reflects reality not best-case scenario.
On a $97 course selling 100 units per month a 3% refund rate means 3 refunds reducing monthly revenue by $291. At $297 the same 3% refund rate costs $891/month in lost revenue.
Factor this into your pricing from the start rather than treating refunds as a surprise. The higher your price point the more important accurate refund rate modeling becomes.
What Digital Products Actually Earn at Different Price Points in 2026
Here is what this digital product profit calculator reveals across common price points on Lemon Squeezy with a 3% refund rate and 25% tax:
$27 ebook, 50 sales/month:
Gross revenue: $1,350
Platform fees: -$94
Refunds (3%): -$41
Tax (25%): -$304
Monthly take-home: $911
$97 course, 30 sales/month:
Gross revenue: $2,910
Platform fees: -$161
Refunds (3%): -$87
Tax (25%): -$666
Monthly take-home: $1,996
$297 course, 15 sales/month:
Gross revenue: $4,455
Platform fees: -$238
Refunds (3%): -$134
Tax (25%): -$1,021
Monthly take-home: $3,062Fewer sales at higher prices often generate more monthly take-home because platform fees become a smaller percentage of revenue. This digital product profit calculator makes that math visible instantly.
Affiliate Commissions — Growth Tool or Margin Killer?
Affiliate programs can dramatically increase your sales volume but they also reduce your margin per sale. This digital product profit calculator includes affiliate commission percentage so you can model whether running an affiliate program makes financial sense at your price point.
At 30% affiliate commission on a $97 product you pay $29.10 per affiliate sale. If affiliates generate 20 additional sales per month that is $1,940 in gross revenue at a cost of $582 in commissions — net $1,358 in additional revenue you would not have had otherwise.
Use this digital product profit calculator to find the commission percentage that keeps your margin acceptable while making your affiliate program attractive enough to actually recruit affiliates.
How to Price Your Digital Product Correctly
Use this digital product profit calculator to work backwards from your income goal:
Step 1 — Enter your monthly income target
Step 2 — Estimate a realistic monthly sales volume for your audience size
Step 3 — Add your platform fees and expected refund rate
Step 4 — The calculator shows you the minimum price needed to hit your target
Most creators discover their intuitive price point is 20-40% below what the math actually requires. This is why digital products underperform income expectations even when they sell well.
Compare Digital Products Against Other Creator Income Streams
Side Hustle Profit Pro lets you compare digital product income alongside YouTube AdSense, newsletter monetization, affiliate marketing, and 100+ other income models — all in one place with ROI ratings and effort scores.
Try Side Hustle Profit Pro Free →
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I include my product creation time in this digital product profit calculator?
Your creation time is a one-time sunk cost amortized across all future sales. For ongoing profitability focus on per-sale economics. To calculate total ROI including creation time estimate total hours multiplied by your hourly rate and divide by projected lifetime units sold — then compare to your monthly profit figure.
What price point works best for digital products in 2026?
For ebooks and templates $27-97 is the common sweet spot. Courses typically range $97-497. Higher prices require stronger positioning but generate better margin dynamics because platform fees become a smaller percentage of revenue. Use this digital product profit calculator to compare margin at different price points for your specific product.
Which platform has the best fees for digital products?
It depends on your sales volume. Podia’s flat monthly fee wins at high volume. Lemon Squeezy and Gumroad work well at lower volume without a monthly commitment. Use this digital product profit calculator to enter each platform’s fee structure and see which leaves you with the most at your expected monthly sales volume.
What refund rate should I expect for a digital course?
Online courses typically see 3-7% refund rates. Ebooks and templates see 1-3%. Higher priced courses with strong sales pages and clear expectations see lower refund rates. Use a conservative 5% estimate in this digital product profit calculator until you have your own data.
Is selling digital products worth it compared to services in 2026?
Digital products scale without proportional time investment — once created they sell while you sleep. Services trade time for money with no scaling ceiling. Most successful creators combine both — services provide reliable income while digital products build toward passive revenue. Use this calculator alongside the freelance rate calculator to compare both models with your specific numbers.
