Vending Machine Revenue Calculator
Calculate vending machine revenue, profit, ROI, and break-even timeline based on daily sales, profit per item, and machine cost.
Vending machine profit calculation helps operators decide whether a specific location is worth the investment in equipment, stocking, and maintenance time.
The core formulas:
Monthly Gross Revenue = Daily Sales × Average Item Price × Days per Month
Monthly Profit = Gross Revenue − (Product Cost + Location Fee + Service Cost + Depreciation)
Payback Period (months) = Machine Cost / Monthly Profit
ROI = (Annual Profit / Total Investment) × 100
What each variable means:
- Daily Sales — average number of items sold per day (varies widely: 5–10 for poor locations, 50–150+ for busy offices or schools)
- Product Cost — wholesale cost of items (typically 40–60% of vending price)
- Location Fee — commission paid to the property owner (typically 10–25% of gross revenue)
- Service Cost — your time to restock, collect cash, and handle repairs
Worked example: Machine cost: $3,000. Daily sales: 30 items. Average price: $1.75. Product cost ratio: 50%. Location commission: 15%. Monthly service cost: $80.
Monthly revenue = 30 × $1.75 × 30 = $1,575 Product cost = $1,575 × 0.50 = $787.50 Location fee = $1,575 × 0.15 = $236.25 Monthly profit = $1,575 − $787.50 − $236.25 − $80 = $471.25/month Payback period = $3,000 / $471.25 = 6.4 months
Location quality benchmarks:
- Excellent (factory/warehouse 200+ workers): 80–150 sales/day
- Good (office 50–100 workers): 20–50 sales/day
- Average (small gym): 10–20 sales/day
- Poor (low-foot-traffic area): under 10 sales/day
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
SuperGlobalCalculator is independently built and maintained. See how we build and verify our calculators.