Example numbers. A quarterly plan. Replace with yours.
Commission earned
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…How to use the sales commission calculator
This sales commission calculator works for a flat rate or a tiered plan and shows your commission, your effective rate and your total pay with base.
- Pick “Tiered plan”, a tiered commission calculator, or “Flat rate”, a plain commission calculator (sales × rate), and your currency.
- Enter closed sales, or gross profit on a margin plan.
- Add your quota (needed only for tiers by % of quota).
- Add your base for the same period as your sales and quota (annual for an offer) for total pay, salary plus commission.
- Enter the rate, or each tier’s start and rate.
- Pick where tiers start (% of quota or a sales amount) and the tier method.
- Read your commission and the next tier line.
- Open “Show the working”, then copy the result or a link to your plan.
It’s built for reps paid on their own sales, not real estate fee splits.
How to calculate sales commission
Here’s how to calculate commission on a flat rate: multiply the sales by the rate. $80,000 closed at 10% pays $8,000, and with a $15,000 base the quarter pays $23,000. That’s the whole sales commission formula:
Formula
Sales commission = sales × commission rate
How tiered commission works: marginal vs retroactive
A tiered commission structure pays a higher rate as sales climb, and the same tiers pay very differently by method. The calculator offers both:
- Marginal, also called graduated: each rate pays only on the sales inside its tier. This is the calculator’s default.
- Retroactive: the highest tier reached pays on all sales.
Here’s a commission calculation for one quarter on the sales commission calculator’s default plan: $165,000 closed on a $120,000 quota (137.5% of quota), with tiers at 8% from 0%, 12% from 100% and 15% from 150% of quota.
- Marginal: $120,000 × 8% = $9,600, plus $45,000 × 12% = $5,400, so $15,000 in total. The 15% tier starts at $180,000 and isn’t reached.
- Retroactive: the 12% tier is the highest reached, so it pays on all $165,000: $19,800.
Same sales, $4,800 apart.
Tiers by % of quota or by sales amount
A tier can start at a share of quota or at a sales amount, and the two convert with the quota: with a $120,000 quota, 100% and 150% are $120,000 and $180,000. Enter those as tier starts in the sales commission calculator and $165,000 still pays the same, with no quota needed.
When sales land exactly on a tier start
In the calculator, sales exactly on a tier start pay that tier’s rate, but plans differ, and on a retroactive plan the last dollar can be worth about $4,800 in the default example. $120,000 on a $120,000 quota pays $14,400 retroactive. A plan that gives the threshold to the lower tier pays $9,600, and one dollar under pays $9,599.92. Your plan document decides. Marginal plans pay $9,600 either way.
What is a good sales commission rate?
For a B2B SaaS account executive, about 11% of sales at quota matches a median plan in Bridge Group’s 2024 SaaS AE benchmark, but judge your own commission rate by the dollars it pays at quota on top of your base.
Leaders at more than 170 B2B SaaS companies reported a median $190,000 in on-target earnings (OTE), 53% base, 47% variable, and a median $800,000 annual ACV quota. The rate is our arithmetic on separate medians, not a reported figure: 47% of $190,000 is $89,300, about 11% of $800,000.
To test your rate, enter your quota as sales in the sales commission calculator, with your rate and base, and read total pay.
In Bridge Group’s 2026 report, covering AEs at 158 B2B companies, not only SaaS, the quota-to-OTE ratio rose to 4.6x from 4.2x in 2024. For the same pay mix, a higher ratio means a lower rate per dollar of sales.
Rates vary by industry and role, so compare yours with a benchmark for your role.
How to read your result: quota, next tier and accelerators
The pill shows how much of quota you’ve closed, and the sentence under the number shows how much more in sales reaches the next tier. It reads “Quota hit” from 100%, “X% of quota” below it, or your effective rate (commission ÷ sales) with no quota.
Tiers from 100% of quota up work as accelerators: 12% and 15% in the default plan. From $165,000, another $15,000 in sales reaches the 15% tier at $180,000. Until then each extra $10,000 earns $1,200; after it, $1,500.
The sales commission calculator also works as a commission pay calculator: add your base and it shows total pay, your base plus commission earned, not on-target earnings.
Why your commission check might not match
Most gaps between the calculator and your commission check come from what the plan counts. Check these in order:
- The basis: revenue, bookings, gross profit or collected cash. A $120,000 deal at a 40% gross margin and a 10% rate pays $12,000 on revenue but $4,800 on gross profit. For a margin plan, enter gross profit as sales.
- Timing: when a deal counts (signed, invoiced or paid) and which period it lands in.
- Splits: your credited share of shared deals.
- Clawbacks for refunds or churned customers.
- Caps, decelerators or a gate that pays nothing below a threshold (a 0% first tier works as one).
- Tax: if your statement’s gross commission matches the calculator, the gap is withholding.
Then compare your statement line by line with “Show the working” in the sales commission calculator.
What to check before you accept a commission plan
Before you sign, run the plan through the sales commission calculator with these answers.
Ask what counts as a sale. Revenue or gross profit, and when it’s credited.
Ask how tiers apply. Marginal or retroactive (on $165,000, $15,000 or $19,800), and which tier owns the threshold.
Ask about caps, clawbacks and splits. None of them is in the calculator, and each can make the check smaller.
Ask what share of the team hit quota last year. In Bridge Group’s 2026 report, 48% of reps achieved annual quota; a plan most of the team misses pays target only on paper.
Price it at your real attainment. Run your current plan and the offer at the same sales (the sales you expect, then your quota), copy each link, and compare total pay.
Frequently asked questions
Is 10% commission on sales good?
It depends on the quota and the base it comes with. On an $800,000 annual quota with a $100,000 base, 10% pays $80,000 in commission at quota, $180,000 in total. That’s a little under the roughly 11% we worked out for the SaaS AE benchmark above. On a smaller quota the same 10% pays far fewer dollars, so compare what it pays, not the percentage.
Is 1% a good commission?
Only on very large sales volumes. On the same $800,000 quota and $100,000 base, 1% pays $8,000 in commission, $108,000 in total. To earn the benchmark’s $89,300 of variable pay at 1%, you’d need $8,930,000 in sales, by our arithmetic.
What is 5% commission on $200,000?
$10,000: $200,000 × 5%. On the $800,000 quota plan above, 5% pays $40,000 at quota, $140,000 with the $100,000 base.
How do I find my commission rate?
Divide the commission by the sales it was paid on and multiply by 100. $6,000 on $75,000 closed is 8%; check it the other way, since 8% of $75,000 is $6,000. On a tiered plan the same division gives your effective rate, the blended rate across all your tiers.
What does a 60/40 split mean in sales pay?
It’s the pay mix: 60% of target pay is base and 40% is variable. It isn’t the commission rate. On $150,000 in target pay, 60/40 means $90,000 base and $60,000 variable at quota, and with a $600,000 quota the rate that pays $60,000 is 10%. The same mix on a bigger quota means a lower rate. The SaaS AE median above is 53:47.
How are commission checks taxed?
The IRS treats commission as a supplemental wage, so when it’s identified separately from your regular pay, federal income tax can be withheld at a flat 22% (37% on supplemental wages above $1 million in the year). Social security takes 6.2% on wages up to $184,500 in 2026, and Medicare 1.45%. On a $10,000 commission that’s $2,200, $620 and $145 withheld, leaving $7,035 before state tax. The 22% is withholding, not the tax you owe: your annual return settles it.
How do I calculate sales commission in Excel?
With sales in A2, a marginal plan with tiers by amount (5% from $0, 8% from $50,000, 10% from $100,000) is =SUMPRODUCT((A2>{0,50000,100000})*(A2-{0,50000,100000})*{0.05,0.03,0.02}). The last array holds each tier’s rate minus the one below, and $120,000 gives $8,500. With the quota in B2 and tiers by % of quota, the default plan is =SUMPRODUCT((A2>B2*{0,1,1.5})*(A2-B2*{0,1,1.5})*{0.08,0.04,0.03}), which gives $15,000 on $165,000. For a retroactive plan by amount, use =A2*LOOKUP(A2,{0,50000,100000},{0.05,0.08,0.1}): $120,000 gives $12,000. The same formulas work in Google Sheets. Check your sheet against the sales commission calculator on one number before you trust it.