Take an $80 item with a 25% discount, plus an extra 10% off applied after (the calculator's own fields, filled in). The first discount brings it to $60.00. The second 10% applies to that $60.00, not the original $80 — taking it down to $54.00. Total savings: $26.00, for an effective discount of 32.5% — not the 35% you'd get by simply adding 25% and 10% together.
| Step | Price |
|---|---|
| Original price | $80.00 |
| After 25% off | $60.00 |
| After extra 10% off | $54.00 |
The gap between 35% (added) and 32.5% (actual) grows with bigger numbers and more stacked discounts, since every additional discount applies to an already-shrunken price. It's never in your favor to assume stacked percentages simply add up — always slightly less, never more.
A flat 32.5% off and "25% off, plus an extra 10%" produce the exact same final price — but the two-step version is a very common way discounts get marketed, because two smaller numbers presented together tend to read as a bigger deal than one equivalent number, even though the math works out identically. Multiplying the sale price by both percentages the way this calculator does is the fastest way to see through that framing and know exactly what you're really paying, regardless of how the discount is presented at checkout.
It's when a second discount, like a promo code, is applied to the already-discounted price rather than the original price — common at checkout for many retailers.
Because the second discount applies to a smaller number after the first one, two stacked discounts are always worth slightly less than simply adding the percentages.
This tool is built for discounts specifically — for a markup, try the Percentage Calculator instead.