Calculate total cost from fixed and variable costs, or find a shopping cart total from quantity, unit price, tax, and shipping fees.

Amounts use US dollars. Cart tax applies only to the item subtotal; shipping is added afterward. Use your actual applicable rate.

Average costs

Blank omits average costs; zero output has no per-unit average.

Total Cost Formula

The following formula is used to calculate the Total Cost. 

TC = TFC + TVC
  • Where TC is the Total Cost ($)
  • TFC is the total fixed costs ($) 
  • TVC is the total variable costs ($) 

To calculate total production cost, add total fixed and variable costs for the same period. Optional output gives per-unit averages only when greater than zero. The shopping-cart mode multiplies quantity by unit price, rounds the subtotal to cents, applies the entered tax rate to that subtotal, rounds tax to cents, and adds shipping or fees. Shipping tax and legal tax rules are not inferred.

How to Calculate Total Cost?

The following example problems outline how to calculate Total Cost.

Example Problem #1:

  1. First, determine the total fixed costs ($). The total fixed costs ($) are given as 350.
  2. Next, determine the total variable costs ($). The total variable costs ($) are provided as 25.
  3. Finally, calculate the Total Cost using the equation above: 

TC = TFC + TVC

The values given above are inserted into the equation below:

TC = 350 + 25 = 375 ($)

Example Problem #2: 

The variables needed for this problem are provided below:

total fixed costs ($) = 700

total variable costs ($) = 300

Entering these values and solving gives:

TC = TFC + TVC = 1,000.00 ($)