In economics, the benefit sellers receive when they sell above the minimum price they would accept is called producer surplus.
Producer surplus measures the difference between the market price a seller receives and the lowest price that seller would have accepted. On a standard supply-and-demand graph, it is the area above the supply curve and below the market price, up to the quantity sold.
The concept is closely related to consumer surplus, which measures buyers’ gains from trade. Together, producer surplus and consumer surplus make up total economic surplus. A competitive equilibrium generally maximizes this combined surplus when no other market effects are present.
Producer surplus is not identical to accounting profit. A seller’s minimum acceptable price can include explicit costs and the opportunity cost of resources, while accounting profit usually subtracts recorded monetary costs only. Taxes, price controls, and trade restrictions can change how surplus is divided between buyers and sellers.