ROI Calculator
Work out your return on investment in seconds. Enter what you put in and what you got back to see your ROI as a percentage, your net profit, and — crucially — your annualized return (CAGR), so you can fairly compare investments that ran for different lengths of time. Works in any currency, worldwide.
Enter the amount you invested and what it's now worth (or what you sold it for). Add the holding period to also get your annualized return. Optionally include fees and costs for a more accurate result.
* ROI shows your return as a percentage of what you invested; annualized ROI (CAGR) expresses it as a smoothed yearly rate so you can compare investments of different lengths fairly. These figures are nominal — they don't adjust for inflation, and they reflect only the numbers you enter. ROI also doesn't capture risk. For decisions about real investments, consider fees, taxes, and risk, and speak with a qualified financial adviser. This tool is for general information only and is not financial advice.
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What Is an ROI Calculator?
An ROI calculator measures the return on investment — how much you gained or lost relative to what you put in, as a percentage. It's the single most common way to judge whether an investment was worthwhile, whether that's stocks, real estate, a business, a marketing campaign, or a side project. This calculator gives you the total ROI, your net profit, and the annualized return (CAGR), so you can compare opportunities fairly even when they ran for different lengths of time.
How to Calculate ROI
Example: ($15,000 − $10,000) ÷ $10,000 × 100 = 50% ROI
So a $10,000 investment that grows to $15,000 gives a 50% ROI and a $5,000 net profit. A negative result simply means a loss — returning $8,000 on a $10,000 investment is a −20% ROI.
Why Annualized Return (CAGR) Matters
Raw ROI can be misleading because it ignores time. A 50% return over one year is excellent; the same 50% over ten years is mediocre. Annualized ROI — the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) — fixes this by expressing the return as a smoothed yearly rate:
Example: 50% total return over 5 years ≈ 8.4% per year
Always look at the annualized figure when comparing investments of different durations — it's the fair, like-for-like number.
Worked Example
You buy shares for $5,000 and sell them for $7,500 two years later. Your net profit is $2,500, so your total ROI is 2,500 ÷ 5,000 = 50%. Annualized, that's (7,500 ÷ 5,000)^(1/2) − 1 ≈ 22.5% per year — a strong result because it happened quickly.
What Is a Good ROI?
It depends entirely on the asset class and the risk involved. As rough benchmarks people often cite: the stock market has historically averaged around 7–10% per year, real estate is often targeted at 8–12%, and higher-risk business ventures may need 15–25%+ to justify the risk. The key is to compare your annualized ROI against a relevant alternative — if a savings account pays 4.5% with no risk, an investment returning 5% with high risk may not be worth it.
The Most Common ROI Mistake
By far the biggest error is ignoring costs. Transaction fees, taxes, maintenance, and other expenses can turn an impressive headline ROI into a modest real one — a property showing 30% ROI can drop to 12–18% once closing costs, repairs, and fees are included. That's why this calculator lets you add an "additional costs" figure, which it folds into your total invested amount for a truer return.
ROI vs CAGR vs Compound Interest
These are related but answer different questions. ROI looks backward: what return did I actually get? CAGR is ROI expressed as a yearly rate for fair comparison. Compound interest looks forward: how much will an amount grow in future at a given rate? To project future growth instead of measuring past performance, use our Compound Interest Calculator.