ROI Calculator
Calculate both simple ROI and annualized ROI for any investment, given an initial cost, ending value and holding period.
How to use the ROI Calculator
- Enter your inputs into the ROI Calculator above.
- Results update instantly as you type — no submit button needed.
- Adjust any value to see how the result changes in real time.
The ROI formulas
Simple ROI = (Gain / Cost) × 100 · · · Annualized ROI = ((End / Start)^(1/years) − 1) × 100
Simple ROI is the total percentage gain or loss. Annualized ROI converts it to a per-year figure (geometric mean), which is comparable across investments of different durations.
Worked example
$10,000 grows to $18,000 over 6 years: simple ROI = 80%; annualized = (1.8)^(1/6) − 1 ≈ 10.3% per year. A different investment with 50% total return over 3 years has higher annualized ROI: ~14.5%.
Frequently asked questions
Why use annualized ROI?
To compare investments with different time horizons fairly. A 50% return over 2 years and a 50% return over 10 years are very different — annualized ROI makes the comparison clean.
Does ROI account for risk?
No — ROI alone says nothing about volatility or downside. Two investments with the same ROI can have wildly different risk profiles. Pair with standard deviation or maximum drawdown.
Should I include fees and taxes?
Yes, to capture the actual net return. Public-market ROI before tax and fees can be misleading by 1–3 percentage points per year.