Calculate the final sale price and total savings after applying one or two successive discounts.
This calculator computes the final price and total savings after applying one or two successive discounts to an original price - useful for sales, promo codes stacked with existing sales, or any situation where multiple percentage discounts apply one after another.
Each discount is applied to the price as it stands after any previous discount - not to the original price each time. This means two discounts don't simply add together; a 20% discount followed by a 10% discount is not the same as a 30% discount overall.
Formula: Price After First Discount = Original Price × (1 − Discount 1 ÷ 100). Final Price = Price After First Discount × (1 − Discount 2 ÷ 100). Total Savings = Original Price − Final Price.
Example: A CA$100 item with a 20% discount and no additional discount results in a final price of CA$80.00, a savings of CA$20.00. If a second 10% discount were applied on top (to the already-discounted CA$80), the final price would be CA$72.00 - a total savings of CA$28.00, which is more than a simple 30% off CA$100 (CA$70) would have been, but calculated differently: stacked percentage discounts compound on the reduced price, so the combined effect is always less than simply adding the two percentages together. (Note: this example is for illustration purposes only.)
When shopping in Canada, remember that discounts are typically applied to the pre-tax price, and GST/HST/PST is then calculated on the discounted amount - so the tax you pay is also reduced by the discount (see our HST/GST/PST Calculator to add tax to a discounted price). Be aware of common retail discount structures during sales events: "stacked" discounts (an additional percentage off an already-reduced sale price) compound as shown above, rather than adding directly - a "20% off, plus an extra 10% off" deal is not the same as 30% off the original price, and is actually a smaller total discount (28% in the example above) than it might sound. This calculator can help you quickly verify the actual final price and savings for any combination of one or two successive percentage discounts, which is useful for budgeting or comparing deals.
No. The second discount applies to the price after the first discount, not the original price. For a CA\$100 item: 20% off gives CA\$80, then an extra 10% off CA\$80 gives CA\$72 - a total discount of 28%, not 30%. Stacked percentage discounts always result in a smaller total discount than simply adding the percentages together.
Discounts are typically applied to the pre-tax price first, and then GST/HST/PST is calculated on the discounted amount - meaning you also save on the tax portion. If a retailer applies tax before the discount (less common), the final amount would differ slightly. Check your receipt or the retailer's policy if you want to verify which order was used.
Rearrange the formula: Original Price = Final Price ÷ (1 − Discount as a decimal). For example, if an item is CA\$80 after a 20% discount, the original price was 80 ÷ (1 − 0.20) = 80 ÷ 0.80 = CA\$100. This calculator works in the opposite direction (original price → final price), but the formula can be rearranged for this case.
For percentage discounts, the order doesn't actually change the final result mathematically - 20% off then 10% off gives the same final price as 10% off then 20% off (both give CA\$72 from CA\$100). However, if one of the "discounts" is actually a fixed dollar amount off rather than a percentage, the order would matter - this calculator handles percentage discounts only.
This calculator works with percentage discounts. For a fixed dollar-amount discount, you can convert it to an equivalent percentage by dividing the dollar discount by the original price and multiplying by 100 (e.g., a CA\$15 discount on a CA\$100 item is a 15% discount), then enter that percentage.
It depends on the specific numbers - in some cases two smaller stacked discounts can add up to a similar or even larger total discount than one larger single discount, because stacked discounts compound multiplicatively. The only way to know for certain is to calculate the actual final price for each scenario, which is exactly what this calculator does.
Disclaimer: The information and figures provided on this page are for educational and illustrative purposes only. This calculator computes percentage-based discounts only and does not account for sales tax, which is typically calculated separately on the discounted price - see our HST/GST/PST Calculator. Always verify final prices and applicable discounts with the retailer at checkout.