Creator Unit Math · unit economics for creators
What is your real revenue after refunds?
Gross revenue is price times sales — but refunds leak money out of it, and not just the amount you hand back. On many processors you also lose the payment fee you already paid on the original sale, plus any support cost per refund. Enter your price, monthly sales, refund rate and processing, set whether your processor returns its fee on a refund, and watch your gross step down through every leak to the net you actually keep — with the true cost of one refund and the annual picture at your volume.
How do you work out your real net revenue after refunds?
Start with gross revenue: price times sales. Then subtract the refund leak, which has up to three parts. First, the refunded sale value: refunds times price. Second, non-recovered processing: on many processors the percentage-plus-fixed fee you paid on the original sale is NOT returned when you refund a buyer, so that fee is lost on every refund — a toggle lets you model whether your processor returns it or not. Third, an optional support cost per refund. Net revenue after refunds is gross minus that total leak; the true cost of one refund is the total leak divided by the number of refunds, which is usually more than the sale price because the lost fee and support ride along with it.
Every figure on this page comes from the numbers you enter — this tool models your own product and shows no "typical refund rate" and makes no claim about any specific processor's fee-refund policy, because both vary and there is no single official source for them. The fee-refund toggle is yours to set.
Build your refund-leak breakdown
Live recompute as you type — no submit button. Press Esc to reset the example.
Net revenue after refunds
$9,082.63/mo
From $9,900 gross you lose $817.37 (8%) to refunds — this is what you keep.
Gross → leak → net
Your gross revenue stepping down through each refund leak to the net you keep. The blue segment is what you keep; the red ramp is what leaks out.
- Net kept
- $9,082.63(92%)
- Refunded sale value
- $792(8%)
- Non-recovered processingfee not returned on a refund
- $25.37(0.3%)
- Total refund leak
- -$817.37(8%)
Over a year at this volume
The same monthly figures projected across 12 months at your current price, sales and refund rate.
Take it to your pricing decision
Export your refund-leak breakdown · $19 / €19
Download a PDF + CSV of your numbers — the net after refunds, the full gross→leak→net breakdown, the true cost per refund and the annual roll-up. One-time, no account, ready to compare a price change or a money-back-guarantee scenario before you commit.
Purchases handled by Lemon Squeezy (Merchant of Record).
Checkout is being finalised — the export will be available here shortly.
Estimate, not financial advice
This tool is an estimate to help you read your real revenue after refunds before you set a price or a guarantee. It is not financial, tax or accounting advice, and it is not an adviser. The output is only as accurate as the price, sales, refund rate and processing you enter, it uses no benchmark or market-rate figures, and it makes no claim about any processor's fee-refund policy — you set that toggle. Sense-check the result against your own processor statements before deciding.
How the math works
Gross revenue is the starting point
Gross revenue is your price multiplied by the number of sales in the month. It is the headline number creators tend to quote — "I sold 100 at $99, that's $9,900" — but it is the figure BEFORE refunds, so it overstates what actually reaches you. Everything below is subtracted from this starting point.
The refund leak has up to three parts
The number of refunds is your sales times your refund rate. For each refund you lose the sale value you hand back (refunds times price). You may also lose the processing fee on that sale (see below) and any support cost the refund creates. Add those up and you have the total refund leak — the gap between gross and net. The waterfall above shows each part as a segment so you can see which one hurts most.
Why non-recovered processing matters
When you sell at price P, the processor takes a percentage of P plus a fixed amount. If a buyer is refunded, you return the sale value — and on many processors you do NOT get that original processing fee back. So a refunded sale can cost you more than the sticker price: it costs the price PLUS the fee you already paid. At small ticket sizes the fixed fee makes this especially painful: a $0.30 fixed fee on a cheap product is a large share of the sale, and you lose it twice — once when you never earned the sale, and again because the fee does not come back.
The fee-refund toggle (we assert no processor's policy)
Whether a processor returns its fee on a refund varies by processor and changes over time, so this tool does not bake in anyone's policy — it is a toggle you set. Leave it off (the conservative default) to model the case where the fee is lost on every refund; turn it on if your processor returns the fee, in which case the processing leak drops to zero and only the sale value (plus any support cost) leaks. Check your own processor's current terms and set the toggle to match.
The true cost of one refund
The true cost per refund is the total monthly leak divided by the number of refunds. Because the leak folds in the returned sale value, the lost processing and any support cost, the cost per refund is usually MORE than the sale price — sometimes well more on low-priced products with a fixed processing fee. Seeing this number is often the moment a "30-day no-questions" guarantee or a price change stops being a gut call and starts being arithmetic.
Where the numbers come from
Everything shown is computed from your inputs, in your browser — nothing is sent to a server. This tool deliberately asserts no "typical refund rate" and no processor's fee-refund policy: refund rates vary by product, audience and guarantee, processor policies vary and change, and there is no single authoritative source for either, so inventing benchmark figures would be fabricated data. The starting values in the form are an editable example to make the tool usable on first load, not a recommendation.
Frequently asked questions
- How is net revenue after refunds calculated?
- Net is gross revenue (price times sales) minus the refund leak. The leak is the refunded sale value (refunds times price), plus the non-recovered processing fee on each refund when your processor does not return it, plus any optional support cost per refund. Everything is computed from the numbers you enter.
- Why does a refund cost more than the price I gave back?
- Because you usually paid a processing fee on the original sale, and on many processors that fee is not returned when you refund. So a refund can cost you the sale value plus the lost fee plus any support cost. That is why the "true cost per refund" shown above is often higher than your price — it includes everything the refund takes, not just the sticker amount.
- What is the fee-refund toggle and which way should I set it?
- It controls whether the original processing fee is returned when you refund a buyer. This varies by processor and changes over time, so the tool does not assume anyone's policy — you set it. Set it to "No — fee is lost" (the conservative default) if your processor keeps the fee on a refund, or "Yes — fee returned" if it gives the fee back. Check your processor's current terms to be sure.
- What refund rate should I use?
- Use your own observed refund rate from your sales records, as a percent of sales. The tool does not suggest a number — refund rates vary by product, price, audience and whether you offer a money-back guarantee, and any "typical" figure would be invented. If you are unsure, try a range and see how sensitive your net is to it.
- Do you use any typical refund rates or processor fees?
- No. Every figure on the page comes from the numbers you enter. Refund rates and processor policies vary and there is no single official source for them, so the tool asserts none — inventing benchmark figures would be fabricated data. The example values in the form are editable placeholders, not market data.
- Is this financial advice?
- No. It is an estimate to help you read your real revenue after refunds before you set a price or a guarantee, and it is not an adviser. The output is only as accurate as the inputs you enter; sense-check it against your own processor statements before deciding.