ROI Calculator
Any country Currency-neutral arithmetic. Enter figures in your own currency; no country tax rules are applied.
ROI calculator using the standard ROI formula: gain minus cost, divided by cost, with fees and income included, plus the compound annual return over the period.
Educational estimate only. Not a lending decision. Your numbers stay in this browser.
Results
How to read this: the verdict describes how much room your numbers leave, not a decision or an offer. Change any input to see how much the result moves.
Assumptions and formula
Total cost is the initial investment plus any additional costs; total return is the final value plus any income received. ROI is the net gain — total return less total cost — divided by total cost. Over a holding period, the annualised figure is the compound annual growth rate, the single yearly rate that would turn the total cost into the total return in that time.
Dividing the total ROI by the number of years is the common shortcut and over more than a year it overstates the rate, because it ignores that each year builds on the last (over less than a year it understates it); both figures are shown so the gap is visible. Cash flows during the period are treated as arriving at the end, which understates the rate for income received early, and by a lot when the amounts are large or early. A complete loss is reported as −100% for both figures, since no yearly rate compounds to zero. Tax and inflation are not applied unless you include tax in the costs.
Worked example
$10,000 invested and $15,000 back is a $5,000 gain, a 50% ROI. Over five years that is a compound rate of 8.45% a year — (1.5)^(1/5) − 1 — not the 10% that 50 ÷ 5 suggests. A rental bought for $200,000 and sold for $230,000 after $40,000 of net rent has a total return of $270,000 and a 35% ROI, not the 15% the sale price alone shows.
Total ROI vs annualized ROI
A total return of 50% means very different things over one year and over ten. Annualized ROI converts a total return into the steady yearly rate that produces it, so investments held for different lengths of time can be compared.
| Total ROI | Over 1 year | Over 3 years | Over 5 years | Over 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | 10.0% | 3.2% | 1.9% | 1.0% |
| 25% | 25.0% | 7.7% | 4.6% | 2.3% |
| 50% | 50.0% | 14.5% | 8.4% | 4.1% |
| 100% | 100.0% | 26.0% | 14.9% | 7.2% |
| 200% | 200.0% | 44.2% | 24.6% | 11.6% |
Doubling your money is a 100% total return. Done in three years that is about 26% a year; done in ten, about 7.2% a year. A high total return over a long hold can be an unremarkable investment.
ROI includes only the money you count. Fees, taxes, maintenance and the time you put in all reduce the real return, and simple ROI ignores when cash went in and out. For investments with several deposits or withdrawals, XIRR gives a truer yearly figure.
Frequently asked questions
How is ROI calculated?
Net gain divided by total cost, as a percentage. Put $10,000 in, get $15,000 back, and the ROI is (15,000 − 10,000) ÷ 10,000 = 50%. Include everything paid in — fees, taxes, improvements — in the cost, and everything received — sale proceeds, dividends, rent — in the return, or the figure flatters the investment. It works through the return on investment (ROI) formula for you: the initial investment, the final value and any income received give the ROI percentage and the annualized ROI, with each step shown.
What is annualised ROI, and why is it not just ROI divided by years?
Annualised ROI is the compound rate that would produce the same total over the same period: for 50% over 5 years it is (1.5)^(1/5) − 1 = 8.45% a year. Dividing 50% by 5 gives 10%, which is wrong because each year’s growth builds on the last. The gap widens with longer periods and bigger returns: 200% over 10 years is 11.6% a year, not 20%. This page shows both so the mistake is visible.
Is a 50% ROI good?
Only with the period attached. 50% in one year is exceptional; 50% over ten years is about 4.1% a year, below what a broad index fund has historically returned. Compare the annualised rate, not the total, against the alternatives — and against the risk taken to earn it.
How do I handle income received during the investment, like dividends or rent?
Add it to the return. A rental bought for $200,000, sold for $230,000 after collecting $40,000 of net rent, has a total return of $270,000 and a 35% ROI, not 15%. The timing of that income is ignored here — it is treated as arriving at the end — which understates the true annual rate, by more the earlier the income arrived. For exact timing, use an IRR.
What does a negative ROI mean?
That you got back less than you put in. Selling for $8,000 what cost $10,000 is a −20% ROI. A complete loss is −100%, and the annualised figure is reported as −100% too, since no yearly rate can compound to zero. A negative ROI on part of a portfolio is normal; the question is the return of the whole.
Is a return on investment calculator the same as a CAGR calculator?
They report two different things about the same investment. A return on investment calculator gives the total percentage gain over the whole holding period: £10,000 that becomes £14,000 is a 40% ROI whether it took one year or four. A CAGR calculator turns that total into a compound annual growth rate, the steady yearly rate that would produce the same result: 40% over four years is 8.8% a year. This page reports both, because a 40% ROI sounds strong until you learn it took a decade.
What is an annualized return calculator, and can I use this for marketing ROI?
An annualized return calculator converts a total gain over any period into the equivalent yearly rate, so that an investment return percentage of 40% over four years (8.8% a year) can be compared with 12% over one year. This page reports both figures. It works as a marketing ROI calculator too: put the campaign spend as the cost and the attributable revenue as the return, and the same formula gives the ROI; just be honest about what revenue you can genuinely attribute, because that assumption, not the arithmetic, is where marketing ROI goes wrong.
What does ROI mean?
ROI means return on investment: the gain or loss on an investment as a percentage of what it cost. An ROI of 25% means the investment made back its cost plus a quarter more.