ROI calculator
Enter what you put in and what you got back to see the net gain, the return on investment as a percentage and, if you add a length, the annualized ROI. Every starting value is an example: change it to your own numbers. Nothing is sent or saved.
What ROI is
Return on investment, or ROI, compares what you gained with what it cost you. It is one number that works for a stock, a rental, a marketing campaign or a new machine for the shop, because it only asks two things: how much went in, and how much came back.
The ROI formula
ROI is the net gain divided by the cost, shown as a percentage:
- Net gain = total return minus total cost
- ROI = net gain / total cost x 100
Total cost is the amount invested plus any extra costs, such as fees or setup. Total return is the amount you got back, or the value today, plus any extra income along the way. A negative ROI means you lost money; minus 100% means you lost all of it.
Annualized ROI vs simple ROI
Simple ROI ignores time. A 25% return is good over one year and much less impressive over ten. Annualized ROI fixes that by asking what steady yearly rate would turn the cost into the return over the same period:
- Annualized ROI = (total return / total cost) to the power of (1 / years), minus 1
This is the same idea as a compound annual growth rate. It lets you compare two investments held for different lengths of time. Be careful with short periods: over a few months, annualizing stretches a small result into a large yearly figure.
A worked example
You invest 10,000 USD, pay 200 USD in fees, and three years later the investment is worth 12,500 USD. The total cost is 10,200 USD and the net gain is 2,300 USD. ROI is 2,300 / 10,200, or 22.55%. Annualized over three years, (12,500 / 10,200) to the power of one third, minus 1, is about 7.01% a year. Those are the starting values in the calculator above, so you can follow every line in its working.
What ROI leaves out
- Time, unless you annualize. Simple ROI treats one year and ten years the same.
- Risk. Two investments with the same ROI can carry very different chances of losing money.
- Cash flow. The formula assumes one amount in and one amount out. If you added or withdrew money along the way, the timing matters and a single ROI figure is an approximation.
- Taxes and inflation, unless you enter them as extra costs.
This page does arithmetic on the numbers you give it. It is not financial advice and it knows nothing about any market.
An ROI calculator on your own website
If your customers ask what they get back from your product or service, a calculator answers better than a paragraph. With Siter.io Apps you describe the calculator you want and it is built into your page, in your own fonts and colors: see calculators for your website.
Frequently asked.
How do you calculate ROI?
Subtract the total cost from the total return to get the net gain, then divide the net gain by the total cost and multiply by 100. With 10,200 in and 12,500 back, the net gain is 2,300 and the ROI is 22.55%.
What is the difference between ROI and annualized ROI?
ROI is the whole return over the whole period. Annualized ROI spreads it into a steady yearly rate, (total return / total cost) to the power of (1 / years), minus 1, so investments held for different lengths of time can be compared.
Can ROI be negative?
Yes. If you got back less than you put in, the net gain is below zero and so is the ROI. Minus 100% means the whole amount was lost.
Why does the calculator refuse an investment of 0?
ROI divides by the total cost, and dividing by zero has no answer. Enter an amount invested, or extra costs, above 0.
Is this financial advice, and does it save what I enter?
No to both. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type, with no market data in it. The sums run in this page and nothing is stored or sent; reload the page or press Reset and the examples come back.
More free tools
- Lorem ipsum Placeholder text by the paragraph, sentence or word, with the HTML tags if you want them.
- Cleaning cost calculator Estimate a clean from size, crew, hourly rate and extras. Per visit and per month.
- SVG to PNG Convert SVG files to PNG at any scale, in the browser. Batch and transparent background.
- HEX to RGB Paste a hex color, get RGB, HSL and CSS you can copy.
- RGB to HEX The other direction, with the same converter underneath.
- PNG to SVG Trace a bitmap into vector paths, in the browser. Honest about when it works.
Put an ROI calculator
on your own website
Describe it and Siter AI builds it as an App on your page, in your fonts and colors.