A gross profit margin only means something next to the figures of similar businesses. This table shows, for each industry, the gross profit margin of the typical company and the range that the middle half of companies fall in. Every figure is calculated from the financial statements that US-listed companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so you can check how it was measured.
To place your own figure, enter it in the gross profit margin calculator and choose your industry under the result.
Median gross profit margin for each industry
| Middle half 25th–75th percentile | Range chart | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All industries | 36.3% | 21.1%–56.5% | 1,845 | |
| Software and IT services | 64.4% | 37.9%–77.1% | 264 | |
| Medical devices and supplies | 60.0% | 45.0%–72.0% | 132 | |
| Pharmaceuticals and biotech | 55.4% | 34.7%–72.0% | 74 | |
| Scientific and measuring instruments | 47.5% | 35.3%–57.4% | 49 | |
| Real estate and REITs | 45.8% | 17.5%–64.0% | 32 | |
| Apparel, textiles and footwear | 45.4% | 37.3%–57.6% | 35 | |
| Education | 45.2% | 26.6%–57.7% | 26 | |
| Computers and hardware | 43.2% | 28.9%–64.1% | 41 | |
| Other manufacturing | 39.3% | 26.3%–50.7% | 31 | |
| Business services | 38.4% | 23.5%–67.4% | 88 | |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | 38.2% | 18.1%–54.5% | 108 | |
| Healthcare services | 36.9% | 20.0%–66.3% | 28 | |
| Apparel and footwear retail | 36.5% | 34.6%–44.2% | 20 | |
| General merchandise and home retail | 36.4% | 30.5%–44.5% | 23 | |
| Telecommunications and media distribution | 36.2% | 18.5%–50.7% | 17 | |
| Engineering, research and consulting | 36.0% | 25.2%–59.2% | 27 | |
| Online and specialty retail | 33.5% | 22.6%–53.2% | 54 | |
| Industrial machinery | 33.4% | 25.6%–40.5% | 85 | |
| Fabricated metal products | 32.3% | 22.5%–42.9% | 39 | |
| Electrical and communications equipment | 31.6% | 18.4%–43.0% | 95 | |
| Chemicals and personal care | 30.5% | 17.4%–47.0% | 70 | |
| Food, beverage and tobacco | 30.1% | 20.2%–44.3% | 72 | |
| Aerospace and defense | 29.9% | 19.0%–52.2% | 31 | |
| Paper, wood and furniture | 27.6% | 21.2%–40.0% | 30 | |
| Building materials and metals | 23.9% | 14.9%–30.3% | 34 | |
| Mining | 23.3% | 13.4%–38.4% | 20 | |
| Motor vehicles and transport equipment | 18.7% | 11.6%–24.2% | 60 | |
| Wholesale distribution | 18.6% | 7.3%–30.8% | 88 | |
| Auto dealers and gas stations | 17.9% | 15.9%–32.6% | 15 | |
| Construction | 14.5% | 7.3%–22.7% | 42 | |
| Agriculture | 11.6% | 4.4%–26.5% | 15 | |
| Transportation and logistics | 10.9% | 2.9%–23.8% | 18 |
The median is the middle company. Half of the companies in each industry fall in the middle-half range. Industries with fewer than 15 companies are counted in "All industries" but not shown on their own. Download the table for every year as CSV (free to reuse with credit, CC BY 4.0).
Reading the table
- The median is the middle company: half the companies in the industry have a higher gross profit margin and half a lower one. It is less affected by a few unusual companies than an average would be.
- The middle half runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile. A quarter of companies sit below it and a quarter above it.
- A figure outside the middle half is not wrong. It is a reason to ask why the business differs from most of its industry.
Gross margin depends on what a business sells and what each sale costs to make or buy. Businesses whose main costs do not rise with each sale, such as software, keep most of each sale as gross profit. Businesses that resell goods made by others, or that pass most of their costs through to customers, keep a smaller share. Companies also draw the line between cost of sales and operating expenses in different places, so two similar businesses can report different gross margins.
The guide to why financial ratios vary by industry explains these differences in more detail.
How the median has changed
| Year | Median | Middle half | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 37.3% | 22.8%–57.0% | 1,554 |
| 2022 | 35.6% | 21.2%–55.6% | 1,708 |
| 2023 | 35.6% | 21.6%–56.3% | 1,805 |
| 2024 | 37.0% | 21.9%–56.7% | 1,829 |
| 2025 | 36.3% | 21.1%–56.5% | 1,845 |
How the figures are measured
- Source: company filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, read through the SEC's free XBRL data API. SEC data is in the public domain.
- Figures: Gross profit (
us-gaap:GrossProfit); Revenue (us-gaap:Revenues, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerExcludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:RevenueFromContractWithCustomerIncludingAssessedTax, or elseus-gaap:SalesRevenueNet), as each company tagged them in its filing. - Calculation: the gross profit margin is calculated for each company with the same formula as the calculator on this site, then the companies are ranked.
- Period: Income statements for each company's financial year closest to calendar 2025. For a company whose financial year ends at another time, a balance sheet near 31 December is usually a quarterly one.
- Companies: Companies listed on Nasdaq, NYSE or Cboe when the data was built, reporting under US GAAP. Blank-check companies (SPACs) are left out. Banks, insurers and brokers are left out: their revenue, costs and borrowing work differently from other businesses. Companies with less than $1 million of revenue are left out, since a tiny revenue figure makes the ratio meaningless. Only companies that report a gross profit line are included.
- Industries: each company's SIC code, as recorded by the SEC, grouped into plain-language industries. The SIC codes in each group are listed in the CSV download.
- Limits: these are public companies, which are larger than most businesses. The list is today's listed companies, so earlier years leave out companies that have since delisted. Companies tag figures themselves, and some tag them inconsistently; medians and quartiles are used because one odd figure barely moves them.
Built on 19 October 2026 from SEC data for 2025 and the four years before.
Using these figures for a smaller business
Listed companies are larger than most businesses and often have easier access to credit, so a small business in the same industry can have a different gross profit margin for good reasons. Use the industry range as a rough reference, and compare most closely with your own earlier periods and with businesses of a similar size and model. Gross margin is only the first step. Operating profit margin also takes off running costs, and net profit margin takes off everything. Gross vs net profit margin shows the difference on one set of figures.