ROI Calculator
Return on investment with optional annualized (CAGR) view.
Free ROI calculator: enter amount invested and amount returned for ROI %, with an optional annualized CAGR over the years held. Results are estimates for illustration only, not financial advice.
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About ROI Calculator
Return on investment is the question every investment eventually has to answer: for each dollar I put in, what did I get back? The basic math is simple, gain divided by cost, as a percentage, but honest ROI takes work, because “what I put in” is usually more than the purchase price. Fees, taxes, repairs, and your own time all belong in the invested amount, and leaving them out is how mediocre investments get remembered as great ones. This calculator keeps the inputs honest: total invested, total returned, and an optional holding period for annualizing.
The annualized view, the CAGR, is what makes comparisons fair. A 40% return sounds better than a 25% return until you learn the first took eight years and the second took two, annualized, the “worse” investment wins easily. Tick the holding-period option and the tool shows the steady yearly rate that would have produced your result, which is the number to use whenever you're comparing investments held for different lengths of time.
Two caveats keep the number honest. First, simple ROI ignores when the money moved, a dollar tied up for a decade isn't the same as a dollar tied up for a year, which is exactly what the CAGR option corrects for. Second, taxes and inflation aren't in the formula; a 30% pre-tax nominal return can look very different after both. Use this to rank opportunities and check your memory against the math. Results are estimates for illustration only and are not financial advice.
How to use ROI Calculator
- Enter the amount invested and the amount returned.
- Tick the box to annualize over a holding period.
- Read your ROI % and, optionally, the CAGR.
Why use this tool?
- Simple ROI % plus optional annualized CAGR
- Net gain shown in dollars
- Estimates for illustration only, not financial advice
Tips for best results
- Load the invested amount with everything: purchase price plus fees, taxes, repairs, and closing costs, partial costs produce flattering lies.
- Always annualize with CAGR when comparing investments held for different periods; raw ROI % rewards patience it didn't earn.
- A negative ROI is information, not failure, logging it honestly beats repeating the investment blindly.
- Don't compare ROI across asset classes without noting risk; a 12% return on a risky bet isn't the same achievement as 12% on a safe one.
- Mentally adjust for taxes and inflation before celebrating, nominal pre-tax ROI overstates what you actually keep.