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ROI calculator

Measure the return on an investment you sold, fees and dividends included, or project what money invested today could grow to.

Use the calculator Read the guide first

Example ROI on $5,000 sold for $6,500 30%

StockEducation Editorial Team · Updated · 15 min read · How we check our tools

The calculator

Project your investment’s growth and ROI

Output Calculated from your inputs

Project future growthThis calculatorMeasure a past investmentRealized ROI, further down
Try an example
↓ Investment Growth Calculator ↓

Your Investment Details

Enter your time period, return rate, starting amount, and contributions to project your total value.

How many years you plan to stay invested.
Your expected annual rate of return. Enter 7 for 7%.
The lump sum you are investing at the start.
The amount you add each period. Set to 0 for none.
How often you make your regular contribution.
Total Investment Fund After 10 Years

$—

Illustration from your inputs, not live market data or a forecast. Contributions arrive at period-end; compounding follows the chosen frequency. None means annual growth with no contributions. Simple interest uses the initial amount only; remaining growth is shown separately. Tax, fees and inflation are excluded. Full method.

Enter your numbers and click Calculate.
Invested Capital$—
Simple Interest$—
Compound Interest$—
Annual Investment Returns
Invested Capital $— Simple Interest $— Compound Interest $—

ROI Summary

MetricValueNotes
Total After Period$—Future value of initial plus contributions
Invested Capital$—Initial plus all contributions
Simple Interest$—Initial investment × annual rate × years
Compound Interest$—Total minus invested capital minus simple interest

Year-by-Year Breakdown

Year Total Value Invested Capital Simple Interest Compound Interest
Important calculator disclosure

General education only — check the assumptions before using the result.

Purpose: This calculator is a general educational tool that performs a numerical calculation from the values you enter. It does not recommend, advertise or promote a specific financial product.

Assumptions: The calculation uses the input values and assumptions displayed in the calculator. Default values are illustrative starting points, not forecasts. Change each non-statutory assumption so it matches the scenario you want to test.

Limitations: Actual market returns, prices, dividends, interest rates, fees, tax, inflation and timing may differ from the assumptions. The calculator may omit factors relevant to you. Small input changes can materially change the result, so the output is an illustration rather than a prediction.

This financial calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. You should consider obtaining advice from a financial services licensee before making any financial decisions.

You can print this page or save it electronically using your browser controls.

DisclaimerTerms of Use

Educational content only. Projections assume a constant annual return and do not account for taxes, fees, inflation, or variable market returns. Use this as a planning guide, not a guaranteed forecast.

How to use it (three steps)

Enter the years, a yearly return, what you start with and what you add, then press Calculate. You get the final value, how much you put in and how much came from growth. Already sold an investment? Use the completed investment ROI calculator instead.

  1. 1Enter the years, a yearly return, what you start with and what you add
  2. 2Press Calculate and read the final value in words
  3. 3Compare contributions with growth to see which did more

Your result in words

Projected

Your result will appear here once the calculator runs.

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    Keep or share this result

    Saved numbers and images stay on this device. A copied link holds only the tool inputs, nothing else.

    Quick answer

    How do I calculate ROI on an investment?

    ROI, or return on investment, is your gain divided by what you paid, times 100. Buy for $5,000, sell for $6,500 and your gain is $1,500, so your ROI is 30% before costs and tax. For money you are still investing, the projector below estimates the final value instead. In its default example, $100,000 plus $1,000 a month at 7% for 10 years grows to $374,051 from $220,000 put in, a 70% total return.

    ROI on $5,000 sold for $6,50030%
    Projected value after 10 years$374,051
    Money put in$220,000
    Total gain$154,051

    Checked against IRS · Investor.gov · see sources

    Key takeaways
    • The formula. Net gain ÷ total cost × 100.
    • Count everything. Include fees paid and dividends received.
    • Per year. 30% over five years is about 5.4% a year.
    • Time first. Holding the default plan 20 years instead of 10 adds $550,750.
    • Steady deposits. Monthly beats yearly because money starts growing sooner.
    • After tax. Gains in a taxable account are usually taxed when you sell.

    ROI on a saleROI per yearWhat changes the resultTest yourself

    Part 1 of 3 · ROI explained

    What is ROI, and how do you work it out?

    ROI tells you how much you made compared with what you put in. It is the simplest way to compare two results, as long as you remember what it leaves out.

    1

    How do I calculate ROI on an investment I sold?

    Use the amount you paid, the amount you received and any fees or dividends along the way. The calculator below does the math, including fees.

    Calculate a completed investment’s ROI

    Use the amount you paid and the amount you received. For example, buying for $5,000 and selling for $6,500 produces a $1,500 gain and 30% ROI before costs and tax.

    Formula: net gain ÷ total purchase cost × 100. Total purchase cost includes buying fees. Net gain includes cash distributions and subtracts both sets of fees.

    This is a holding-period return, not an annual rate or a forecast. It excludes tax, inflation and reinvestment. Use one currency throughout. For several deposits or withdrawals at different times, simple ROI does not account for cash-flow timing.

    The investment growth calculator below is a separate projection. It uses an assumed return rate rather than calculating a return from sale proceeds.

    With fees included

    Buy for $5,000 and sell for $6,500, with $10 to buy and $10 to sell. Your total cost is $5,010 and your net gain is $1,480, so your ROI is 29.54% instead of 30%. Small fees matter more on small trades.

    2

    What is the ROI formula?

    ROI = net gain ÷ total cost × 100. Net gain is what you received, plus any dividends or other cash, minus what you paid and minus fees. Total cost is the price plus buying fees.

    1. Add up what you paid, including buying fees.
    2. Add up what you got back: the sale proceeds and any dividends, minus selling fees.
    3. Subtract the first number from the second to get your net gain.
    4. Divide by what you paid and multiply by 100.
    3

    Why is ROI not the same as a yearly return?

    ROI covers the whole time you held the investment, however long that was. A 30% ROI over one year is a large gain, but it does not establish that the risk was appropriate. Over five years it works out to about 5.4% a year, and over three years about 9.1% a year. To compare investments held for different lengths of time, convert to a yearly rate. The CAGR calculator does that for you.

    4

    How do dividends change my ROI?

    They add to it, often more than people expect. ROI should count every dollar the investment paid you, not just the sale price. Leave out the dividends and you understate your return.

    Take the same $5,000 purchase sold for $6,500, and say it paid $400 in dividends while you held it. Your net gain is $6,500 plus $400 minus $5,000, which is $1,900. Divide by $5,000 and your ROI is 38%, not 30%. On a stock or fund held for many years, dividends can make up a large share of the total return.

    Two cautions. First, taxable dividends in a regular brokerage account are generally reportable when received, even if reinvested; qualified dividends can receive lower capital-gains rates. Tax-exempt distributions and retirement accounts have different rules.3 Second, if you reinvested dividends into more shares, do not count them twice. For an overall holding-period return, use your original external investment and the final proceeds including the reinvested shares; leave those reinvested distributions out of the cash-distributions field. Tax cost basis is a separate calculation. Additional external deposits at different dates require a cash-flow-aware return measure.

    The rule

    ROI tells you how much. Use CAGR, not ROI divided by years, to compare annualized growth.

    Marks Part 1 done

    Part 2 of 3 · Projected growth

    What changes your projected result the most?

    The projector grows your starting amount and your regular contributions at a yearly return you choose. Time does more than anything else.

    5

    How does the projector work?

    It adds your contributions at the end of each period and compounds at the frequency you choose. It then splits the gain into simple interest on your first deposit and everything else, which comes from compounding and from growth on your later contributions.

    The default, split up

    $100,000 plus $1,000 a month for 10 years at 7% reaches $374,051. You put in $220,000. Simple interest on the first $100,000 is $7,000 a year, or $70,000. The other $84,051 is compounding: growth on growth, and on your monthly deposits.

    6

    How much does time matter?

    The default plan held for longer

    Money put inGrowth
    Same plan: $100,000 to start, $1,000 a month, 7% a year. From 10 to 30 years the money put in roughly doubles, but the value grows more than five times.
    One change at a time from the $374,051 default
    ChangeDifferenceEffect
    10 to 20 years+$550,750Large
    7% to 9% a year+$64,599Medium
    7% to 5% a year−$54,068Medium
    $1,000 a month to $12,000 once a year−$11,538Small

    All figures from this calculator on October 15, 2026. Illustrations, not forecasts or recommendations.

    7

    Why does growth speed up in later years?

    Because each year’s growth is calculated on a bigger balance. Compound interest is interest paid on your original money and on the interest it has already earned.4 The rate stays the same, but the base keeps growing.

    Watch a single $10,000 deposit at 7% a year. In year 1 it earns $700. In year 10 it earns about $1,287, because the balance has almost doubled. In year 30 it earns about $4,980 in that one year alone, roughly seven times the first year’s growth, from the same deposit and the same rate.

    This is why the bars in this part look so lopsided. The middle and late years do most of the work. Stopping contributions or cashing out early gives up the years when compounding pays the most, and starting five years sooner can matter more than finding a slightly higher return.

    The rule

    Give money time. The growth on growth is what makes the big numbers.

    Marks Part 2 done

    Part 3 of 3 · Reality check

    What could make your real ROI different?

    Both calculators are clean math. Real investing adds costs, taxes and uneven returns.

    8

    What does ROI leave out?

    • Time. ROI does not say how long the gain took. Always compare yearly rates.
    • Taxes. Gains on investments sold in a taxable account are usually taxed. Held more than a year, they qualify for lower long term rates.1
    • Inflation. A 30% gain over 10 years buys less than it sounds. The inflation calculator shows how much.
    • Uneven returns. The projector uses one steady rate. Real markets rise and fall from year to year.
    9

    Do fees matter for ROI?

    Yes, and they compound. Fund fees come out every year, so they lower your return every year. The SEC’s investor site shows $100,000 earning 4% for 20 years ending near $208,000 with a 0.25% yearly fee, but near $179,000 with a 1% fee.2

    Your turn

    Turn your ROI into a yearly rate. The CAGR calculator converts a start value, an end value and the years into the compound annual growth rate, so you can compare investments fairly.

    Open the CAGR calculator Free, no signup.
    10

    How do I adjust ROI for inflation?

    Compare your growth with the rise in prices over the same years. Inflation is commonly measured with the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the average change in prices paid by urban consumers.5 Your real return is what is left after that rise.

    The math is a division, not a subtraction. Add 1 to your ROI, divide by 1 plus total inflation, then subtract 1. Say you earned 30% over 10 years while prices rose 3% a year. Ten years of 3% inflation compounds to about 34%. So 1.30 divided by 1.34 is about 0.97, a real return of about minus 3%. Your account grew, yet it buys a little less than when you started.

    A short holding period hides this effect and a long one exposes it. That is one more reason to convert ROI to a yearly rate and to compare it with inflation over the same stretch.

    The rule

    Compare ROI per year, after fees and tax, or you are not comparing like with like.

    Marks Part 3 done

    Mistakes to avoid

    Three mistakes to avoid, and what to do instead

    Confusing total return with yearly return

    A 50% ROI over five years is about 8.4% a year, not 10%. Use CAGR for the yearly figure.

    Leaving out costs

    Fees, taxes and trading costs all lower the real return. Include them for an honest number.

    Comparing ROI across different risks

    A 7% return from a broad fund and 7% from one small stock are not the same result. Risk is part of the picture.

    Quick check

    Three quick questions and one why

    0 of 3 answered

    1. You buy shares for $2,000 and sell them for $2,500, with no fees. What is your ROI?

    Answer: C, 25%.Gain of $500 ÷ $2,000 cost = 0.25, or 25%. 20% would be the gain divided by the sale price, a common mistake.

    2. Investment A returns 40% over 8 years. Investment B returns 25% over 2 years. Which grew faster per year?

    Answer: B, B.B is about 11.8% a year. A is about 4.3% a year. Total ROI hides the time.

    3. In the default projection, which single change adds the most?

    Answer: B, 20 years instead of 10.It adds $550,750. A 9% return adds $64,599, and yearly deposits instead of monthly actually lower the result by $11,538.
    Why: why are monthly deposits worth more than one yearly deposit of the same total?

    Money that goes in earlier starts growing earlier. With monthly deposits, most of each year’s $12,000 is invested before the year ends, so it earns a few extra months of growth every year. Over 10 years in the default plan that adds $11,538.

    Common questions

    ROI Calculator FAQ

    How do you calculate ROI on an investment?

    Divide your net gain by your total cost, then multiply by 100. Net gain is what you got back, including sale proceeds and any dividends, minus what you paid and minus fees. Buy for $5,000, sell for $6,500 and pay no fees, and your gain is $1,500, so ROI is 30%. Add $10 of fees each way and total cost becomes $5,010, net gain $1,480, and ROI 29.54%. The completed investment calculator on this page does that math for you.

    What is a good ROI?

    A good ROI beats what you could have earned elsewhere for similar risk over the same time. Investors expect higher returns for taking more risk, so a few percent a year can be good for a savings account but weak for a stock. Time matters too: 30% in one year is a large gain, while 30% over five years is about 5.4% a year. Convert to a yearly rate, subtract fees, and compare it with inflation and a simple index fund over the same period.

    Is ROI the same as profit?

    No. Profit is the dollar gain, while ROI is that gain as a percentage of what you put in. The percentage lets you compare investments of different sizes. A $1,000 profit on a $2,000 investment is a 50% ROI, while the same $1,000 profit on $20,000 is only 5%. Both made the same money, but the first used far less capital to do it. Report both numbers, along with how long you held each investment.

    How do I include dividends in ROI?

    Add them to what you received. The completed investment calculator has a field for cash distributions such as dividends, and it counts them in your net gain. A $5,000 purchase sold for $6,500 that also paid $400 in dividends has an ROI of 38% rather than 30%. If you reinvested the dividends into more shares, do not count them a second time, because they are already part of what you sold. Taxable dividends in a regular brokerage account are generally reportable when received; retirement accounts and exempt distributions differ.

    What is the difference between ROI and CAGR?

    ROI is the total return over the whole holding period, while CAGR, the compound annual growth rate, is the steady yearly rate that would produce the same result. ROI ignores time, which makes it misleading when you compare investments held for different lengths. A 30% ROI over five years works out to a CAGR of about 5.4%, while 30% over three years is about 9.1% a year. Use the CAGR calculator to convert any ROI into a yearly rate.

    Does a high ROI mean an investment was a good choice?

    Not always, and this is a common mistake. A high ROI can come from taking a large risk that happened to work, from a very long holding period, or from a single lucky stock. It also ignores what the same money could have earned elsewhere. Someone who made 40% on one stock over eight years earned about 4.3% a year, which must be compared with an appropriate benchmark over the same actual dates. Judge results by yearly return, risk taken and the alternative.

    Does ROI include taxes and inflation?

    No. The basic formula shows a pretax, nominal return. Gains on investments sold in a taxable account are usually taxed, at lower long term rates if held more than a year, and taxable dividends in a regular brokerage account are generally reportable when paid. Inflation then shrinks what the remaining money buys. A 30% gain over 10 years with 3% yearly inflation is roughly a 3% loss in buying power. Enter fees in the calculator, then adjust for tax and inflation separately.

    Can I save or share my ROI projection?

    Yes. Save my numbers keeps your projector inputs in this browser on this device. Copy link to these numbers creates a link that opens the projector with the same inputs, and nothing else is stored or sent. Both calculators work only with the figures you type in; they do not look up prices, dividends or tax rates. The projector also uses one steady rate of return, so treat its result as an illustration rather than a forecast.

    Next steps

    You can measure a return. Now learn what drives one.

    A free account saves your course progress and opens the $1,000,000 practice simulator, where you can watch real U.S. stocks rise and fall with virtual money before any of your own is at stake.

    Create your free account Next lesson: How much do investment fees matter?

    Free, no card. Lessons and tools stay free to use without an account.

    ROI on one card, and where to go next
    1. Step 1 · DoneHow ROI works
      See it on one card
      1. The formula. Net gain ÷ total cost × 100.
      2. Count everything. Include fees paid and dividends received.
      3. Per year. 30% over five years is about 5.4% a year.
      4. Time first. Holding the default plan 20 years instead of 10 adds $550,750.
      5. Steady deposits. Monthly beats yearly because money starts growing sooner.
      6. After tax. Gains in a taxable account are usually taxed when you sell.
    2. 2
      Step 2 · NowCompare fairly

      Turn any start value, end value and number of years into a yearly growth rate.

      Open the CAGR calculator Free, no signup.
    3. 3
      Step 3Follow the learning path
      The learning pathFree

      Learn the rest in the right order

      Lessons, videos, tools and quizzes, ordered so each step builds on the last, from market basics to building a portfolio.

      Start the learning path

    Want the full sequence? See the course outline →

    Sources and assumptions

    1. IRS Topic No. 409, Capital gains and losses. Holding an investment more than one year makes a gain long term.
    2. Investor.gov (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission): How Fees and Expenses Affect Your Investment Portfolio. $100,000 earning 4% a year for 20 years ends near $208,000 with a 0.25% yearly fee and near $179,000 with 1%.
    3. IRS: Topic No. 404, Dividends and other corporate distributions. Explains ordinary and qualified dividends, reporting and distribution classifications.
    4. Investor.gov (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission): Compound interest. Defines compound interest as interest paid on principal and on accumulated interest.
    5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index. The CPI measures the average change over time in prices paid by urban consumers.
    6. Investor.gov (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission): Risk. Investors look for higher returns to compensate them for taking more risk.

    Method: the completed investment calculator divides net gain (sale proceeds plus distributions, minus selling fees and total cost) by total cost, where total cost is the purchase amount plus buying fees. The projector adds contributions at the end of each period, compounds at the chosen frequency, and splits the gain into simple interest on the initial amount and the remaining growth. The projection default is 10 years, 7% a year, $100,000 to start and $1,000 a month. Calculator scenarios use the documented assumptions; the additional fee example is attributed to Investor.gov. Results exclude taxes, fees and inflation unless you enter fees. All amounts are in U.S. dollars.

    Page history. October 24, 2026: V11 layout and expanded guide integrated, preserving both working calculators, validation, input sharing and result exports.

    StockEducation provides general education, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Results are illustrations based on the assumptions you enter, not forecasts or promises of any return. Investing involves risk, including the loss of money you invest.

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