Reverse Percentage Calculator
Find Original Value

For decreases, use negative values. For example, a 20% decrease would be entered as -20%.

Percentage change finds the change between two values. Reverse percentage finds the original when you know the final and change.

This calculator works for single percentage changes. For compound changes, use our Reverse Compound calculator.

For increases of 100% or more, the calculator works normally. For decreases approaching 100%, the original value becomes very large.

Reverse percentage calculators are most often used for discounts. Suppose a jacket is on sale for $60 after a 25% discount. To find the original price, you divide the sale price by (1 - discount rate). In this case: 60 ÷ (1 - 0.25) = 60 ÷ 0.75 = $80. This means the jacket originally cost $80 before the store applied the 25% discount. This method is widely used in retail, especially during seasonal sales, where customers want to know the "real" price before the markdown.

Yes. Reverse percentage calculations are perfect for working out pre-tax values. For example, imagine you paid $220 for a product that includes 10% GST (Goods and Services Tax). To find the base price, divide the total by 1.10: 220 ÷ 1.10 = $200. This shows the original value before tax was added. Businesses often use this approach when reporting sales revenue excluding taxes.

If you only know your new salary after a raise, reverse percentages can help you figure out your old salary. Example: You now earn $55,000, which is 10% higher than before. To calculate the original, divide the new salary by 1.10: 55,000 ÷ 1.10 = $50,000. This is useful in HR scenarios or when analyzing pay increases across multiple years, especially when you're comparing salaries pre- and post-adjustment.

Yes. Businesses often use reverse percentages to backtrack from the final selling price to the cost price. Example: If a store sells a product for $150 after adding a 25% profit margin, you can calculate the cost price as: 150 ÷ 1.25 = $120. This shows that the store originally bought or produced the item for $120 and added 25% to reach the selling price. Reverse percentage is an essential tool for auditing profits and adjusting markup strategies.

Reverse percentages aren't just for shopping or finance—they play a big role in data analysis. Analysts often encounter situations where only the "final" value is available, and they need to uncover the original baseline. Example: If a city reports that its population grew to 132,000 after a 10% increase, the original population is 132,000 ÷ 1.10 = 120,000. This technique helps governments, businesses, and researchers accurately track growth, measure baseline values, and adjust forecasts. Without reverse percentages, analysts would struggle to reconstruct accurate historical data from reported changes.