Chartered Financial Analyst specializing in digital products and online business finance.
Find out how many tickets you need to sell for your webinar to be profitable. Enter any three variables—Total Fixed Costs, Ticket Price, Variable Cost per Attendee, or Breakeven Attendees—to solve for the fourth.
Webinar Breakeven Calculator
Webinar Breakeven Formula
The breakeven formula for a webinar finds the number of attendees (Q) you must register for total revenue to equal all fixed and variable costs.
Q = F / (P – V)
Solve for Total Fixed Costs (F):
F = Q * (P – V)
Solve for Ticket Price (P):
P = (F / Q) + V
Solve for Variable Cost per Attendee (V):
V = P – (F / Q)
Variables Explained
- Total Fixed Costs (F): Your total, upfront costs to run the webinar, regardless of attendees. This includes webinar platform fees, ad spend, and any speaker fees.
- Ticket Price (P): The price you charge for one ticket to the webinar.
- Variable Cost per Attendee (V): The costs directly tied to each person who signs up, such as credit card processing fees, transaction fees, or costs for digital workbooks.
- Breakeven Attendees (Q): The total number of ticket sales you need to reach $0 in profit.
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What is a Webinar’s Breakeven Point?
A **Webinar Breakeven Point** is the minimum number of tickets (Q) you must sell to cover all your costs. This is the most important number to know when planning your marketing budget and setting your ticket price.
**Fixed Costs (F)** are all the money you spend *before* you sell a single ticket. This is primarily your advertising budget (e.g., Facebook Ads, Google Ads) plus the cost of your webinar software (like Zoom or WebinarJam) and any fees paid to guest speakers or designers.
**Variable Costs (V)** are the costs you pay *per ticket sold*. The most common variable cost is the credit card processing fee (e.g., 2.9% + $0.30 from Stripe or PayPal). If you offer a physical workbook, the printing and shipping cost is also a variable cost.
The **Contribution Margin** (P – V) is the profit from a single ticket that goes toward paying off your fixed costs. For example, if your ticket is $49 (P) and your processing fees are $4 (V), your contribution margin is $45. This $45 is what you use to pay back your ad spend.
How to Calculate Webinar Breakeven (Example)
Let’s calculate the breakeven point for a paid online webinar.
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Identify Total Fixed Costs (F):
You plan to spend $500 on Facebook ads and your webinar software costs $100 for the month. Your (F) is $600.
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Identify Ticket Price (P):
You are selling tickets for $49 each.
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Identify Variable Cost (V):
The credit card processing fee for a $49 ticket is about $4.
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Apply the Formula: Q = F / (P – V)
First, calculate the contribution margin per ticket: $49 (P) – $4 (V) = $45.
Next, divide the fixed costs by this margin:
Q = $600 / $45 = 13.33 -
Conclusion:
You must sell 14 tickets (you must round up) to cover all your costs and start making a profit.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This calculator is for profit-driven webinars. If your webinar is free and you sell a high-ticket item on the back end, your “unit” is a “sale” (Q), your (P) is the price of the high-ticket item, and your (F) is your ad spend.
For this analysis, treat your *total ad budget* as a **Fixed Cost (F)**. While you can also calculate “Cost per Acquisition” as a variable cost, it’s simpler to set your ad budget (e.g., $1,000) as the fixed cost you need to overcome.
If your webinar platform charges a *per-attendee* fee, that is a **Variable Cost (V)**. If it charges a *flat monthly fee* (e.g., $99/mo), that is a **Fixed Cost (F)**.
Enter your (F) (e.g., $600), (V) (e.g., $4), and your target number of attendees (Q) (e.g., 20). Solve for (P): `P = ($600 / 20) + $4 = $30 + $4 = $34`. This means your ticket price must be at least $34 to break even with 20 attendees.