ROI Calculator
This free ROI calculator finds net profit and return on investment from an initial investment and final value, plus an optional annualized ROI if you enter how long the investment was held. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
How to Use It
- Enter the initial investment and the final value.
- Optionally enter how long the investment was held, in years, to also see annualized ROI.
- Net profit and ROI update instantly, no submit button.
How It Works
ROI measures a return relative to what was put in, not just the raw dollar amount gained. A $500 profit means very different things on a $1,000 investment versus a $100,000 investment, and ROI expresses that difference as a single percentage anyone can compare across investments of any size. Annualized ROI goes a step further for investments held different lengths of time, spreading the total return evenly across each year so a 3 year investment and a 10 year investment can be compared on the same yearly basis instead of only as a lump total.
Formulas
net profit = final value − initial investment
ROI = (net profit ÷ initial investment) × 100
annualized ROI = ((final value ÷ initial investment)^(1 ÷ years) − 1) × 100
A worked example: turning a $1,000 initial investment into a $1,500 final value produces a $500 net profit and a 50% ROI. Held for 3 years, that same 50% total return works out to about 14.47% annualized, the steady yearly growth rate that would compound to the same result over those 3 years.
Everything runs client-side in your browser. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a negative ROI mean?
A negative ROI means the investment is worth less now than what was originally put in, a real loss, not a calculation error. An ROI of negative 20%, for example, means the final value is 20% below the initial investment.
Why can annualized ROI look so different from total ROI?
Total ROI describes the entire holding period as one number, no matter how long that period was, while annualized ROI spreads that same total return evenly across each year. A 50% total return over 3 years and a 50% total return over 10 years both show as "50% ROI", but the annualized figure reveals the first one grew much faster per year, about 14.5% annually versus about 4.1% annually for the second.
Why is the investment length field optional?
Total ROI only needs the initial investment and final value, so it can be calculated on its own. Annualized ROI additionally needs to know how long the money was invested, so that field is left optional and the annualized figure simply does not appear until a length is entered.
Can you give a real-world example?
Comparing a quick flip to a multi-year hold is a common one. Turning $1,000 into $1,500 in a single year and turning $1,000 into $1,500 over 5 years both show a 50% total ROI, but entering 1 year versus 5 years for the investment length reveals very different annualized returns, 50% a year for the quick flip versus about 8.4% a year for the multi-year hold.