Published 29 October 2026 · Shopping
The sign says 25% off, and there's an extra 20% off at checkout. It's tempting to read that as 45% off. It isn't. The real discount is 40%.
Why the discounts don't add up
The second discount applies to the price after the first discount, not to the original price.
Take an $80 jacket:
- 25% off $80: $80 × 0.75 = $60
- An extra 20% off $60: $60 × 0.80 = $48
You pay $48 and save $32. $32 out of $80 is 40%, not 45%.
If you'd simply added the two percentages, you'd have expected to pay $44. The difference is small here, but it grows as the discounts get bigger.
The shortcut for the total discount
Turn each discount into the share of the price you still pay, multiply those together, and subtract from 1.
Total discount = 1 − (1 − first discount) × (1 − second discount)
| Discounts | What it sounds like | Real total discount |
|---|---|---|
| 25% + 20% | 45% | 40% |
| 30% + 30% | 60% | 51% |
| 50% + 20% | 70% | 60% |
| 50% + 50% | 100% | 75% |
Two 50% discounts don't make something free. They make it a quarter of the original price.
The discount calculator takes a second discount and shows the sale price, the amount saved and the effective total.
Does the order matter?
For two percentage discounts, no. 25% then 20% gives the same price as 20% then 25%.
It does matter when one discount is a fixed amount. With a $100 item, a 20% discount and a $10 coupon:
- Percentage first: $100 × 0.80 = $80, then minus $10 = $70
- Coupon first: $100 − $10 = $90, then × 0.80 = $72
Taking the percentage off first leaves you better off. Stores decide the order at checkout, but it's worth knowing which one you're getting.
Was it ever really that price?
A label that says "40% off, now $59.99" implies an original price of about $100. You can check that by working backwards: divide the sale price by the share you're paying.
$59.99 ÷ 0.60 = $99.98
If you've never seen it for close to $100, the "original" price may only exist to make the discount look bigger. The reverse percentage calculator does this calculation for any sale price and discount.