Percent Change Calculator

Written byOleh Soloninupdated 5 October 2026

From Value

To Value

Result

Change Percent30%
Delta360

From one value to another, as a percentage

Work out the percentage change between two numbers, whether prices rose, traffic fell or a salary moved. Shows the direction and the absolute gap.

Percentage change measures movement between a starting figure and a final one. Which number you treat as the start completely changes the answer, and that is where most errors creep in.

Going from 80 to 100 is a 25% rise. Going back from 100 to 80 is a 20% fall. Same two numbers, same gap of 20, different percentages — because the base changed.

How to use

Enter the starting value.
Enter the value it changed to.
Read the change as a percentage and as an absolute difference.

The base is always where you started

Change is measured against the original: the difference divided by the starting value. Moving from 1,200 to 1,560 is 360 ÷ 1,200 × 100 = 30%. Dividing by the final figure instead gives 23.1%, which answers a different question entirely.

Equal percentage falls and rises do not cancel. A value that drops 50% needs a 100% rise to recover, and the deeper the fall the sharper the asymmetry: after −80% it takes +400% to get back.

Worked out with this calculator; the reverse move always needs a different percentage.
From	To	Change	Difference
1,200	1,560	+30%	360
1,000	500	−50%	−500
500	1,000	+100%	500
80	100	+25%	20
100	80	−20%	−20

What this calculator shows

The percentage change from your first value to your second
The raw difference between the two, for a sanity check
A negative result when the value dropped, so direction is never ambiguous

What to keep in mind

The change is always measured against the first value as the base.
If the starting value is zero, percentage change is mathematically undefined — nothing can be a percentage of nothing.

FAQs

Why isn't a 25% rise cancelled by a 25% fall?

Because the fall is calculated on a bigger number. 100 rises to 125, then 25% of 125 is 31.25, leaving you at 93.75 — down 6.25%.

What is the difference between percent change and percentage points?

If a rate moves from 4% to 6%, that is a rise of 2 percentage points but a 50% increase. News reports blur these two constantly.

How do I express a fall as a percentage?

Subtract the new value from the old, divide by the old, then multiply by 100. From 250 to 200 that gives 50 ÷ 250 = 20% down.

Can the change exceed 100%?

Increases can, without limit — doubling is +100%, tripling is +200%. For a quantity that cannot go negative, decreases stop at −100%, which means it reached zero; a value that can go below zero, such as profit, can fall by more. Temperatures in °C or °F are a poor case for percentages: their zero is arbitrary, so the same cooling gives different percentages on the two scales.

What is the percentage increase from 1,200 to 1,560?

30%: the difference of 360 divided by the original 1,200. Dividing by the final 1,560 would give 23.1%, which is the share the increase represents in the new total.

Why does a 50% fall need a 100% rise to undo?

Because the base moved. Half of 1,000 is 500, and getting 500 back to 1,000 means adding another 500 — the whole of the new base.

Worked example

A price rise

Input: From 80 to 100

Output: +25%

Note: Reversing it gives −20%. Percentage changes are not symmetrical, which is why 'we lost 50% then gained 50%' leaves you down overall.

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Result

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