ROI Calculator

Use ROI Calculator

Shows the total return and, separately, the annual rate that produced it. The second number is the one worth comparing.

Amount investedValue nowYears held

Total return hides the timescaleDoubling your money is impressive in one year and unremarkable over twenty. The annualised figure is a compound growth rate, so it can be compared directly against a savings rate or another investment.

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About ROI Calculator

A headline return is close to meaningless without the time it took. Turning 5,000 into 8,200 is a 64% return, which sounds excellent until you learn it took nine years and therefore trailed a savings account. The same 64% in eighteen months would be remarkable. This page reports both figures side by side: the total return, and the annual compound rate that produced it. The second is the one you can hold against any other opportunity, because it puts every investment on the same timescale. Nothing you enter is transmitted or kept.

Using ROI Calculator

Enter what you put in, what it is worth now, and how long you have held it. The profit, the total return, and the annualised rate all recalculate as you type.
The total return is the plain arithmetic: profit divided by what you invested. It answers how much you made in proportion to what you risked, and ignores time entirely.
The annualised figure is a compound growth rate. It is the steady yearly rate which, compounded over the period, produces the same ending value. That makes a three-year holding and a fifteen-year holding directly comparable.
Losses are shown as negatives rather than hidden. An investment worth less than you paid produces a negative return and a negative annual rate, which is the honest reading.

Where roi calculator helps

Comparing two very different holdings

A property held twelve years and a fund held two can look incomparable until both are annualised, at which point the ranking is often the opposite of the headline figures.

Sanity-checking an advertised return

A promoted total return with no period attached is a warning sign. Enter the period yourself and see what the yearly rate actually works out to.

Judging a loss

An investment down 18% over six years is losing roughly 3% a year, which reads differently from the same 18% lost in six months.

Before you use the result

Fees and taxes are excluded, and both are real. Platform charges, transaction costs, and tax on gains all come out of the return, and over a long holding the drag compounds in exactly the same way the growth does.
The model assumes one amount in at the start and one value at the end. If you added money along the way, this calculation will overstate your performance, because it credits later deposits with growth they never earned. Measuring that properly needs a money-weighted return.
An annual rate cannot always be computed. It requires a positive amount invested, a positive current value, and a period longer than zero. Where any of those is missing the field says so rather than showing a misleading zero, because a total loss has no meaningful compound rate.
A steady annual rate is a summary, not a description of the journey. Two investments with the same annualised return can differ wildly in how volatile the path was, and volatility matters if you might need the money at a bad moment.

Questions about ROI Calculator

What is the difference between total and annualised return?

Total return is the whole gain as a percentage of what you invested, regardless of how long it took. Annualised return is the equivalent steady yearly rate. Only the second can be compared between investments held for different lengths of time.

Is the annualised figure the same as CAGR?

Yes. Compound annual growth rate is the standard name for the constant yearly rate which, compounded over the period, turns the starting value into the ending value.

Why does it sometimes refuse to annualise?

Because the maths would be undefined or misleading. It needs a positive starting amount, a positive current value, and a period above zero. A holding now worth nothing has no compound growth rate at all.

Does it handle money added over time?

No. It assumes a single amount invested at the start. Regular contributions need a money-weighted calculation, and using this one would flatter the result by crediting recent deposits with the whole period's growth.

Is this investment advice?

No. It is arithmetic on the numbers you supply, with no knowledge of your situation, the asset, fees, or tax. Past performance is not a guide to future results, and anything important deserves a qualified adviser.