Minimum Order Quantity Calculator

It's the desired quantity at which the per-unit price advantage of ordering at MOQ gets completely eaten up by the storage cost of the units you'd have left over. Below that quantity, storing the excess costs more than the discount is worth; above it, committing to the MOQ pays off even after accounting for carrying the extra inventory.

Because MOQ orders usually leave you with more units than you actually need, and this calculator applies a monthly storage cost to every one of those excess units (MOQ minus desired quantity). If your desired quantity is far below the MOQ, the accumulated storage cost on a large excess can outweigh the per-unit savings, which is exactly what the Effective Per Unit and Excess Storage Cost outputs are meant to surface.

It's the total MOQ-order cost (unit cost plus excess storage cost) divided by the MOQ quantity — the real all-in cost per unit once carrying the extra inventory is factored in. Comparing this number to Unit Price Below MOQ tells you whether committing to the larger order is genuinely cheaper once storage is included, rather than just cheaper on the supplier's price sheet.

It only models the monthly storage cost of excess units — it doesn't account for markdown risk if those extra units never sell at full price, the cash tied up in unsold inventory, or the possibility some units never sell at all. Those factors typically make ordering exactly what you need look relatively more attractive than the storage-cost comparison alone suggests.