Calculate how much your investment has gained or lost and understand your return after considering time, contributions, fees, and taxes.
Return on Investment Calculator
ROI vs. Annualized ROI
ROI Before vs. After Fees & Taxes
| Final value | Total cost | Net profit | ROI |
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Break-Even Analysis
Investment Performance Breakdown
Your Financial Summary
Add each investment as its own row — its own amount invested, any additional contribution or withdrawal, and its current or final value.
Annualized return for the portfolio is approximated as the amount-weighted average of each investment’s own annualized return, since each investment can have a different holding period.
Compare up to three investment outcomes side by side.
This ROI calculator provides estimates based on the information you enter. Actual investment returns may vary because of market performance, fees, taxes, timing, inflation, and other factors. This calculator is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, financial, or tax advice.
What Is ROI?
Return on Investment, or ROI, measures the gain or loss an investment produces relative to the amount originally invested. It’s expressed as a percentage, which makes it possible to compare very different investments — a savings account, a stock, a piece of real estate — on the same basis, regardless of their dollar size.
How to Calculate ROI
The standard formula is ROI = (Net Gain ÷ Investment Cost) × 100, where Net Gain is the final value minus what you put in. For example, a $10,000 investment that grows to $12,000 has a net gain of $2,000, so the ROI is ($2,000 ÷ $10,000) × 100 = 20%.
How Does an ROI Calculator Work?
An ROI calculator takes your initial investment and final value as the core inputs, then layers in anything else that affects your real return: additional contributions or withdrawals made along the way, fees and expenses that reduce what you keep, taxes owed on any gain, and the length of the investment period. Combining these produces both a total ROI and an annualized ROI.
ROI vs. Annualized ROI
Total ROI measures the overall return over the entire holding period, however long that period is. Annualized ROI expresses that same return on a per-year basis, which makes it possible to compare investments held for different lengths of time. Two investments can share the same total ROI — say, 50% — but have very different annualized returns if one took one year and the other took ten: the one-year investment implies a far higher annual rate of return.
How Fees Affect ROI
Transaction costs, management fees, platform fees, and other expenses all reduce the amount of gain you actually keep. Because these costs are often charged as a small percentage or flat amount repeated over time, they can compound into a meaningful drag on long-term returns even when each individual fee looks small. Comparing ROI before and after fees, as this calculator does, makes that drag visible.
How Taxes Affect Investment Returns
Taxes on investment gains vary widely depending on your jurisdiction, the type of investment, how long you held it, your income, and the specific tax rules that apply to your situation. Because of this variation, this calculator only applies a simple estimated tax rate that you supply — it is not a substitute for guidance from a qualified tax professional.
What Is a Good ROI?
There is no single ROI figure that is universally “good,” because an appropriate return depends on the level of risk taken, the length of the holding period, the type of asset, inflation over that period, fees, taxes, and what alternative investments were available at the time. A return that looks strong in isolation may look less impressive once compared against these factors — which is part of why this calculator separates total ROI, annualized ROI, and after-fee, after-tax figures rather than reducing everything to one number.
ROI Examples
A $10,000 investment that grows to $12,000 has a total ROI of 20%. The same $10,000 investment falling to $8,000 has a total ROI of -20% — a loss, calculated the same way as a gain. A 50% total ROI earned in a single year implies a much higher annualized return than the same 50% total ROI earned over ten years, since the ten-year case spreads that growth out much more slowly per year.
ROI Calculator FAQs
What is ROI?
ROI, or Return on Investment, measures the gain or loss an investment produces as a percentage of the amount originally invested.
How do you calculate ROI?
Subtract the total investment cost from the final value to get the net gain, then divide that by the investment cost and multiply by 100.
What is the ROI formula?
ROI = (Net Gain ÷ Investment Cost) × 100, where Net Gain = Final Value − Total Investment Cost.
How do I calculate investment return?
Enter your initial investment, final value, and holding period into the calculator above to see both total ROI and annualized ROI.
What is a good ROI?
There’s no universal answer — an appropriate ROI depends on the risk involved, the holding period, the asset type, inflation, fees, taxes, and the alternatives available at the time.
What is the difference between ROI and annualized ROI?
Total ROI measures the overall return across the whole holding period. Annualized ROI converts that into an equivalent yearly rate, which makes it possible to compare investments held for different lengths of time.
Can ROI be negative?
Yes. A negative ROI simply means the investment’s final value was lower than what was invested, resulting in a loss rather than a gain.
Does ROI include fees?
Basic ROI does not account for fees unless you include them. This calculator lets you compare ROI before and after fees separately.
How do fees affect investment returns?
Fees reduce the amount of gain you actually keep, and because they’re often charged repeatedly over time, even small fees can meaningfully reduce long-term returns.
Does ROI include taxes?
Basic ROI does not include taxes unless you enter an estimated tax rate. Actual tax treatment depends on your jurisdiction, investment type, and personal circumstances.
How is ROI calculated for multiple investments?
Total amounts invested and total final values across all investments are combined, and overall ROI is calculated from those combined totals.
How do recurring contributions affect ROI?
Recurring contributions increase the total amount invested, and because later contributions have less time to grow, this calculator uses a cash-flow-based (IRR-style) method to calculate an accurate annualized return when contributions are present.
What is the difference between ROI and profit?
Profit is the dollar amount gained (Final Value − Cost). ROI expresses that same gain as a percentage of the cost, which makes it possible to compare investments of different sizes.
Is ROI the same as investment return?
They’re closely related — “return” is often used as a general term, while ROI specifically refers to the percentage gain or loss relative to cost.