ROI Calculator — Return on Investment & Annualized Return
Calculate return on investment (ROI) for any trade or investment. Enter initial investment, final value, and costs to instantly see your ROI, annualized return, and profit multiple.
What you paid for the asset; fees go in their own field below
Current or exit value of the investment
Time the investment was held
Commissions, taxes, slippage, etc.
Return on Investment
+34.50%
Net Profit / Loss
+$3,450.00
Investment Multiple
1.35×
Annualized ROI
+34.50% / yr
Total Return (before costs)
$3,500.00
Cost Impact
0.50% of invested
Last reviewed · How we check our calculators
How it differs: this calculator measures the return on one investment or trade, with its annual rate. For the return on a record of bets, use the Betting ROI Calculator.
How to Use the ROI Calculator — Return on Investment
Enter your Initial Investment — what you paid for the asset itself. Then enter the Final Value — what the investment is worth today or what you sold it for. Put commissions, slippage and taxes in Fees & Additional Costs, not in the initial investment, so they are counted once. Income received while holding — dividends, crypto staking rewards, bond coupons, or rent — has no field of its own: add it to the final value.
Choose the Holding Period — from 1 week to 5 years, or Custom to type the exact number of days. It drives the annualized ROI figure, which converts your total return into a per-year rate using compound-interest math. This lets you compare a 6-month trade directly against a 3-year investment or the S&P 500 benchmark.
As you type, the tool shows ROI %, net profit or loss, the investment multiple (e.g. 2.5×), annualized return, the total return before costs, and the cost impact — your fees as a percentage of the amount invested.
This calculator works for stocks, crypto, real estate, forex trades, savings accounts, and any other investment where you have a starting value and an ending value.
The Formula
The calculator uses these core formulas:
- Net Profit = Final Value − Initial Investment − Fees & Costs
- ROI (%) = (Net Profit ÷ Initial Investment) × 100
- Annualized ROI (%) = ((1 + ROI ÷ 100)^(365 ÷ Holding Period Days) − 1) × 100
- Investment Multiple = Final Value ÷ Initial Investment
- Total Return (before costs) = Final Value − Initial Investment
- Cost Impact (%) = (Fees & Costs ÷ Initial Investment) × 100
To break even, the final value has to cover the initial investment plus all fees and costs. Income matters for income-generating assets: a stock that gains 5% in price but pays a 4% dividend has a multiple of 1.09× — not 1.05× — once the dividend is added to the final value. Leaving dividends out would significantly understate the true ROI of bonds, REITs, dividend stocks, or crypto staking positions.
The annualized ROI formula uses compound-interest math. A 20% gain over 6 months annualizes to approximately 44%, not 40%, because of compounding. When the holding period is 0, the annualized figure is set to 0 — use the simple ROI in that case.
Practical Examples
Example 1 — Stock Trade (6-Month Hold)
- Initial Investment: $10,000
- Final Value: $13,500
- Commissions: $20
- Holding Period: Custom, 180 days
Net Profit = $13,500 − $10,000 − $20 = $3,480
ROI = ($3,480 ÷ $10,000) × 100 = 34.8%
Annualized ROI = (1.348)^(365/180) − 1 ≈ 83.2% per year
Multiple = 13,500 ÷ 10,000 = 1.35×
Example 2 — Crypto Investment (2-Year Hold)
- Initial Investment: $5,000 (BTC at $25,000)
- Final Value: $17,500
- Additional Costs (tax): $1,250
- Holding Period: 2 years (730 days)
Net Profit = $17,500 − $5,000 − $1,250 = $11,250
ROI = ($11,250 ÷ $5,000) × 100 = 225%
Annualized ROI = (3.25)^(365/730) − 1 ≈ 80.3% per year
Total Return (before costs) = $17,500 − $5,000 = $12,500
Example 3 — Real Estate Project (Loss Scenario)
- Purchase Price: $300,000
- Sale Price: $270,000 (market downturn)
- Transaction Costs: $15,000
- Holding Period: Custom, 548 days
Net Profit = $270,000 − $300,000 − $15,000 = −$45,000
ROI = (−$45,000 ÷ $300,000) × 100 = −15%
Cost Impact = ($15,000 ÷ $300,000) × 100 = 5% of the amount invested. The negative ROI confirms a loss: to break even, the sale price had to cover the purchase price plus the transaction costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
ROI stands for Return on Investment. It is a percentage that expresses how much profit or loss an investment generated relative to its original cost. The formula is: ROI (%) = Net Profit ÷ Initial Investment × 100. A 35% ROI means you made 35 cents for every dollar invested after all costs. ROI is the universal language of investing because it normalizes scale — a $3,500 profit on a $10,000 trade has the same ROI as a $350,000 profit on a $1,000,000 property deal. Without ROI, absolute dollar figures obscure how efficiently your capital is working.
Annualized ROI (also called CAGR — Compound Annual Growth Rate) converts a total return over any time period into an equivalent annual rate. The formula is: Annualized ROI = (1 + ROI/100)^(365 / holding days) − 1, expressed as a percentage. For example, a 35% total gain held for 365 days gives 35% annualized. The same 35% gain held for only 180 days annualizes to approximately 83.8% — because if that pace continued, compounding would push the annual return much higher. Annualized ROI is the only fair way to compare investments held for different durations.
ROI (Return on Investment) assumes a single lump-sum investment at the start and a single exit at the end. It does not account for the timing of intermediate cash flows. IRR (Internal Rate of Return) is a more sophisticated metric that finds the discount rate at which the net present value of all cash flows (including periodic dividends, withdrawals, or additional contributions) equals zero. For simple buy-and-hold trades with no intermediate cash flows, ROI and IRR give identical results. For complex investments with multiple cash flow dates — such as rental property, a business project, or a bond with coupon payments — IRR is more accurate. This calculator approximates IRR when you add dividends to the final value, which is suitable for most trading and investment use cases.
The right benchmark depends on the asset class, time horizon, and risk profile. As reference points: the S&P 500 has historically returned approximately 7–10% annualized after inflation. Investment-grade bonds return roughly 3–5% annually. Real estate (excluding leverage) has averaged 4–8% annualized. For active stock traders and forex traders, a consistent 20–40% annualized ROI net of fees is considered strong. Crypto bull cycles have produced 3× to 10× returns, but with extreme volatility and drawdowns. The most useful benchmark is not a fixed number but whether your risk-adjusted return beats the best no-effort alternative available to you — typically a low-cost index fund.
Fees reduce ROI directly through two mechanisms: they reduce net profit (the numerator) and they increase the break-even threshold. On a $10,000 investment returning $13,500 with $50 in fees, the ROI drops from 35% to 34.5% — a small impact. But fees compound over time and across many trades. A trader making 100 round-trips per year paying $20 per trade loses $2,000 annually to commissions alone. That is equivalent to a 20% drag on a $10,000 account. High-frequency traders and leveraged crypto traders can lose the majority of their gross profit to fees. Always enter fees in the calculator to see their true impact, and use it to compare brokers or strategies by their net-of-fees ROI.
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