💹 ROI Calculator

Calculate Return on Investment — simple ROI, annualized (CAGR), or marketing ROI. Get an instant visual gauge, benchmark comparison, and what-if analysis.

Free No Account 3 Modes

E.g. you invested $10 000 and it's now worth $13 500.

E.g. you invested $10 000 and earned $3 500 profit.

Total amount you invested (initial cost).

What the investment is worth now (or what you received back).

Profit earned. Use a negative number for a loss.

Fees, taxes, or other costs to subtract from profit.

Time Period

How long you held the investment.

💡 Marketing ROI = (Revenue − Costs − Ad Spend) ÷ Ad Spend × 100

Direct cost of the products/services sold.

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Standard ROI

Investment cost and return value — instant ROI percentage

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Annualized (CAGR)

Add a time period for annual return rate and doubling time

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Marketing ROI

Ad spend vs revenue — ROAS, break-even, gross profit

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ROI Gauge

Visual speedometer showing where your ROI falls

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Benchmarks

Compare your return to savings, bonds, and S&P 500

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What-If

See how different returns change your ROI

📐 ROI Formulas

Standard ROI = (Net Profit ÷ Investment) × 100

Annualized = (FV ÷ PV)^(1÷years) − 1  (CAGR)

Marketing ROI = (Revenue − Costs − Spend) ÷ Spend × 100

ROAS = Revenue ÷ Ad Spend

The ROI, annualised return and doubling time formulas

Basic return on investment is net gain divided by cost: ROI = (final value - initial cost) / initial cost x 100. A result of 35 per cent means you finished with 1.35 times what you put in. The calculator can take either the final value or the net profit directly, converting between the two as needed.

Total ROI says nothing about how long the money was tied up, which is why annualised ROI matters. It applies the compound growth formula: annualised ROI = ((final value / initial cost) raised to the power of 1 / years, minus 1) x 100. This gives the constant yearly rate that would have produced the same result, making investments of different durations directly comparable.

Doubling time follows from that rate: years to double = ln(2) / ln(1 + r), where r is the annualised rate as a decimal. The familiar rule of 72 is an approximation of the same relationship.

Marketing ROI subtracts every cost from revenue: (revenue - ad spend - cost of goods sold - additional costs) / total cost x 100. Break-even revenue is the revenue at which that net profit reaches zero.

Worked example: 10,000 grown to 13,500 over three years

Enter an initial cost of 10,000, a final value of 13,500 and a period of 3 years.

Net profit is 13,500 - 10,000 = 3,500. Total ROI is 3,500 / 10,000 x 100 = 35 per cent over the full three years. For every unit invested you received 1.35 back.

Annualised ROI applies the compound formula: 13,500 / 10,000 = 1.35, and 1.35 raised to the power of one third is 1.1052. Subtracting 1 and multiplying by 100 gives 10.52 per cent a year. Note how different this is from naively dividing 35 by 3, which would suggest 11.67 per cent; the difference is compounding.

Doubling time at that rate is ln(2) / ln(1.1052) = 0.6931 / 0.1000 = 6.93 years.

In marketing mode, suppose a campaign generated 20,000 in revenue on 5,000 of ad spend with no other costs. Net profit is 15,000 and marketing ROI is 15,000 / 5,000 x 100 = 300 per cent. Adding 8,000 of cost of goods sold changes the picture sharply: net profit falls to 7,000 and ROI to 7,000 / 13,000 = 53.8 per cent.

Interpreting the result and its blind spots

Always compare investments on the annualised figure, never the total. A 35 per cent return over three years and a 35 per cent return over eight months are wildly different propositions, and only the annualised number makes that visible. The doubling time is a useful intuition check: a rate that doubles your money in seven years is strong, one that takes thirty is barely keeping pace with inflation.

ROI is silent on risk, and that is its biggest limitation. A speculative position and a government bond producing the same percentage are not equivalent, because one carries a real chance of losing the capital. ROI also ignores the timing of cash flows within the period, so for investments with contributions or withdrawals along the way, an internal rate of return is the more appropriate measure.

Include every cost you actually paid: platform fees, transaction charges, management fees and tax on gains all reduce the real return, and leaving them out flatters the result. Inflation is not deducted either, so a 10 per cent nominal return during 4 per cent inflation is closer to 6 per cent in real terms. These figures are general information, not financial advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

Subtract what you invested from what it is now worth, divide by what you invested, and multiply by 100. An investment of 10,000 now worth 13,500 gives (13,500 - 10,000) / 10,000 x 100 = 35 per cent. That is the total return for the whole period, not a yearly rate, so divide the time period out using the annualised figure.
It depends entirely on the timeframe and the risk taken, so judge it on the annualised figure rather than the total. Compare that annual rate against what a comparable low-risk alternative would have paid over the same period, and against inflation, since a nominal gain below the inflation rate is a real-terms loss.
ROAS is return on ad spend, calculated as revenue divided by spend, so 20,000 of revenue on 5,000 of spend is 4.0x. ROI subtracts the costs first, so the same campaign returns (20,000 - 5,000) / 5,000 = 300 per cent, and far less once cost of goods sold is included. ROAS looks better because it ignores what the product cost you.
Annualised ROI is the constant yearly rate that would produce the same final value, calculated as ((final / initial) ^ (1 / years) - 1) x 100. It differs from dividing total ROI by the number of years because returns compound. A 35 per cent total return over three years is 10.52 per cent a year, not 11.67 per cent.
No. The result is a nominal, pre-tax figure based purely on the amounts you enter. To approximate a real after-tax return, deduct any capital gains or income tax you will owe from the final value before entering it, and subtract the inflation rate over the period from the annualised percentage. This is general information, not financial advice.