# How to find the original price before a discount in Excel

Divide the sale price by 1 minus the discount: `=B2/(1-C2)`. A $60 price after 25% off was $80.

**Excel:** `=B2/(1-C2)` (Every current version)

**Google Sheets:** the same formula works.

## Example

Sample data (row 1 is the header):

| A | B | C | D |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Product | Sale price | Discount | Original price |
| Jacket | 60 | 0.25 |  |
| Boots | 149.4 | 0.1 |  |
| Backpack | 36 | 0.2 |  |
| Tent | 337.5 | 0.25 |  |
| Sleeping bag | 84.15 | 0.15 |  |

Formula in D2, filled to D6: `=B2/(1-C2)`

Result: $80.00; $166.00; $45.00; $450.00; $99.00

## How it works

After a 25% discount you pay 75% of the original, so sale price = original × 0.75. Dividing the sale price by `1-C2` undoes that: 60 / 0.75 = 80.

## Other ways

- `=B2*(1+C2)`: Adds the discount back on top, a common mistake. (Gives $75 for the jacket instead of $80, because 25% of 60 is less than 25% of 80.)

## Common mistakes

- Adding the percentage back (`B2*(1+C2)`) is wrong: the discount was a percentage of the original, not of the sale price.
- A discount of 100% makes the formula divide by zero. Nothing can be worked back from a free item.

## Questions

**How do I find the original price before a price increase?**

Divide by 1 plus the increase: `=B2/(1+C2)`.

**How do I find how much was taken off?**

Subtract: `=D2-B2`, or `=B2/(1-C2)*C2` in one step.

Every formula and result on this page was checked by running it in the Spreadsheet Practice formula engine on 2026-10-30.

Source: https://spreadsheetpractice.com/formulas/original-price-before-discount