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Calculate the original value before a percentage decrease, given the new value and percentage decrease.
Practical Uses
- Budget (Pre-Cut):
What was the original renovation budget [Original] before a 25% [Decrease] cut made it $3,750 [New]?
$5,000 - Investment (Pre-Loss):
What was the original stock portfolio [Original] before a 12% [Decrease] loss made it worth $1,760 [New]?
$2,000 - Expense Before Cut:
What were the original subscription costs [Original] before a 7% [Decrease] cut made them $930 [New]?
$1,000 - Salary Before Cut:
What was the original freelance income [Original] before an 8% [Decrease] drop made it $46,000 [New]?
$50,000 - Pre-Decline Population:
What was the original population of a city [Original] before a 3% [Decrease] decline left it at 97,000 [New] people?
100,000 - Price Before Discount:
What was the original price [Original] before a 5% [Decrease] local retailer discount made it $95 [New]?
$100
How to Use
- Enter the new value (after the decrease) in the first box.
- Enter the decrease percentage in the second box.
- The original value (before decrease) appears instantly.
- Check "Round" if you want to keep the result to two decimal places.
- Save it to Memos with Enter or the "Add to Memos" button.
How It Works
The Original Before Decrease calculator uses this formula:
Example: What was the original if 75 is after a 25% decrease?
The original value was 100.
What Is an Original Value Before Decrease?
Definition
Finding the original value before a decrease restores a sale or markdown price to the full starting amount. It is the “undo” button for discounts, discount codes, and losses. If shoes cost $84 after a 30% sale, what was the sticker price? If a stock is down 18%, what was its value last month? By working backward you can verify if a deal is real, compare offers on equal footing, and understand how much value was actually removed. This matters because sellers sometimes anchor prices with big percent-off claims; knowing the original lets you see whether the discount is meaningful. It also helps in budgeting and analytics: if revenue is 12% lower, reversing that decrease shows the target you must regain to get back to baseline. Thinking in reverse keeps you from adding the percent to the sale price (which is wrong) and instead uses the remaining share of the price as the key. Once you internalize that the sale price equals “original × remaining percent,” you can audit any bargain or loss in seconds.
Common Applications
- Verifying Sales: Checking the original sticker price of a clearance item to confirm the discount is actually accurate.
- Investment Recovery: Calculating what your stock portfolio was worth before a specific percentage market drop.
- Real Estate: Determining the original listing price of a home that has been reduced to sell quickly.
- Contract Negotiation: See what a vendor normally charges before they applied a discount.
- Insurance claims: Recover the pre-loss value when you only see the reduced payout.
- Scholarships: Reconstruct the list price of tuition after a percent-based award.
Mathematical Context
Original = Current ÷ (1 − Percent/100) Use the complement factor to reverse the cut. For a 30% discount, you paid 70% of the price, so divide the sale price by 0.70 to get back to the original. Adding the percent to the sale price undercounts because the base changed. For multiple sequential discounts, know they compound: two cuts leave less than a single combined percent. If you only know the dollars saved, divide the savings by the discount rate to recover the original price.
Need more percentage tools?
- Basic Percentage Calculator
For discounts or taxes. - Part-to-Whole Percentage
Find what % one number is of another. - Original Value Calculator
Reverse a percentage to the original amount. - Percentage Change Calculator
Work out increases or decreases. - Increased Value Calculator
Calculate value after percentage increase. - Decreased Value Calculator
Calculate value after percentage decrease. - Original Before Increase Calculator
Find original amount before percentage increase. - Specialized Calculators (63+)
Practical everyday calculations for real-life scenarios.
Requirements and Important Information
- No installation required – works directly in your browser.
- Compatible with all modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge).
- Calculations are performed locally – no data is sent to any server.
- Your calculation memos is stored only on your device.
Each calculator stores up to 20 most recent calculations, automatically removing the oldest entries when this limit is reached. - Works offline after the initial page load.
- Supports both desktop and mobile devices.
- No account or login required.
Helpful Calculator Features
- Instant results that appear as you type—no delays.
- Round toggle to keep results neat (2 decimal places).
- Copy results to clipboard with a single click.
- Memos that persists between sessions.
- Clear visual formulas to understand the math.
- Mobile-friendly interface that works on all devices.
- Dark mode support for comfortable viewing.
- Keyboard shortcuts for faster calculations.