Inventory Carrying Cost Estimator
Component breakdown · % of value · EOQ holding cost
Average Inventory Value
Enter each period value (comma-separated) — the average is used as the base.
Cost Components
Add, remove or rename components freely. Each is either a % of inventory value or an absolute currency amount per year.
EOQ Handoff (optional)
Result
Set your average inventory value and cost components to get the total annual carrying cost, the carrying cost as a percentage of inventory value against the industry benchmark, a component-wise breakdown, and the holding cost H for the EOQ calculator
Carrying cost is the ongoing cost of holding inventory, and building it from components — capital tied up, storage, insurance, taxes, obsolescence and handling — is far more defensible than a single guessed percentage. Capital or opportunity cost is usually the largest piece, since money tied up in stock cannot earn elsewhere. The often-cited 20–30% figure is a broad convention; your real rate depends on your industry, product perishability and warehousing, so use it only as a sanity check. The resulting rate feeds directly into the EOQ calculation as the holding cost H — a higher carrying cost pushes the economic order quantity down. This is a preliminary estimate; confirm component values with your finance and operations data.