Original price after 15% off
Enter what you paid and this page works back to the pre-sale price. The discount is fixed at 15% — the price is yours to change.
Worked example at 15% off
You paid £68.00 in a 15% off sale.
- 100% − 15% = 85% of the original price remains
- As a decimal that is 0.85
- 68 ÷ 0.85 = £80.00
- You saved £12.00
Check it forwards: £80.00 − 15% = £68.00 ✓
Adding 15% back to £68.00 would give £78.20 — which is wrong, and wrong by more as the percentage grows. The discount was taken off the larger original, so putting it back on the smaller sale price never reaches it.
Where 15% off shows up
Fifteen percent is the mid-tier promotional rate — bigger than a routine sign-up code, smaller than a seasonal sale. Retailers reach for it when they want a real incentive without signalling that the item is being cleared, so it is common on new-season stock and full-price ranges.
It is also the standard depth for a bulk or multi-buy threshold: spend over a set amount and 15% comes off the basket. Reversing it on a basket total gives you what the goods were priced at before the threshold was met.
15% off price table
What twenty common sale prices were before the 15% reduction. Every figure is divided by 0.85.
| You paid | Original price | You saved |
|---|---|---|
| £6.00 | £7.06 | £1.06 |
| £10.00 | £11.76 | £1.76 |
| £14.00 | £16.47 | £2.47 |
| £18.00 | £21.18 | £3.18 |
| £22.00 | £25.88 | £3.88 |
| £26.00 | £30.59 | £4.59 |
| £30.00 | £35.29 | £5.29 |
| £34.00 | £40.00 | £6.00 |
| £38.00 | £44.71 | £6.71 |
| £42.00 | £49.41 | £7.41 |
| £46.00 | £54.12 | £8.12 |
| £50.00 | £58.82 | £8.82 |
| £54.00 | £63.53 | £9.53 |
| £58.00 | £68.24 | £10.24 |
| £62.00 | £72.94 | £10.94 |
| £66.00 | £77.65 | £11.65 |
| £70.00 | £82.35 | £12.35 |
| £74.00 | £87.06 | £13.06 |
| £78.00 | £91.76 | £13.76 |
| £82.00 | £96.47 | £14.47 |
Doing it without a calculator
There is no clean shortcut at 0.85, which is precisely why this rate is worth reaching for a calculator on. The nearest useful approximation is to add a fifth and then trim a little: 68 + 13.6 = 81.6, against a true answer of £80. Close enough to catch a wrong order of magnitude, not close enough to put on an expense claim.
The exact method is always the same: divide by 0.85. 15% off leaves 85% of the original, so dividing by 0.85 undoes it precisely. Multiplying, or adding the percentage back on, gives a number that is always too small — and the error grows with the discount.
Frequently asked questions
›Why is 15% off harder to work out in my head?
Because 0.85 is not a friendly divisor. The trick is to do it in two steps: take off 10%, then take off a further 5% of the original. Reversing works the same way in reverse, but dividing by 0.85 once is more accurate.