Return on Investment Calculator

Investment Amounts

Amount Invested

Please enter a valid positive number.

Amount Returned

Please enter a valid positive number.

Investment Time Method

Use Dates

Pick a start and end date — exact day count

Use Length

Type the number of years directly

Date Range

From Date

To Date

End date must be after start date.

Result

📊

Enter values and click Calculate ROI

What This ROI Calculator Does

The ROI Calculator takes three inputs — the amount you invested, the amount you received back, and the time period — and returns four numbers: dollar gain or loss, total ROI as a percentage, annualized ROI (the equivalent average yearly return), and the investment length in years.

Time can be entered two ways: pick a start and end date, or type the length in years directly. Date mode uses a precise day count divided by 365.25, so a five-year period entered as dates and as "5" yield essentially the same result.

The donut chart breaks down the result visually — for a profit it shows the invested portion alongside the gain; for a loss it shows what's left next to what was lost. Everything runs in your browser; nothing about your figures is sent anywhere.

The Two Formulas, Plainly

ROI = (Returned − Invested) ÷ Invested × 100. If you put in $1,000 and got $1,500 back, that's a $500 gain on $1,000, or 50% ROI. This number tells you nothing about how long it took — which is why it can be misleading on its own.

Annualized ROI = (Returned ÷ Invested)^{(1 ÷ years)} − 1, expressed as a percentage. This is the compound rate of return per year. Same $1,000 → $1,500 over 1 year is a 50% annualized return; spread over 5 years, it's about 8.45% annualized. Same total ROI, very different investments.

For comparing one investment to another, always use annualized ROI.

Step-by-Step

Enter Amount Invested

The total you put in — purchase price plus any one-time fees you want included.

Enter Amount Returned

What you walked away with — sale price minus exit fees, plus any income (dividends, rent) received along the way.

Choose Dates or Length

Dates give an exact day count; Length lets you type fractional years (e.g. 2.5) directly.

Click Calculate ROI

Read both ROI and Annualized ROI — the second is the one that matters for comparison.

A Worked Example

You bought $5,000 of an index fund on 12 March 2021 and sold it on 12 March 2026 for $7,800.

Amount Invested: $5,000 · Amount Returned: $7,800 · Length: 5 years.

Gain: $2,800. ROI: (7,800 − 5,000) ÷ 5,000 × 100 = 56%. Annualized ROI: (7,800 ÷ 5,000)^(1/5) − 1 = ≈9.3%.

That 9.3% annualized is the number you'd compare to other investments. Headline 56% sounds dramatic until you remember it took five years — a comparable bond yielding 5% per year would have grown to about $6,381 over the same period.

What ROI Doesn't Tell You

ROI is a starting point, not the full picture. Three things it ignores:

Inflation. A nominal 5% annualized return during a year of 6% inflation is a real loss. To get real ROI, subtract the average annual inflation rate from the annualized ROI.

Taxes and fees. Capital gains tax, transaction fees, and management fees all eat into actual return. Subtract them from "Amount Returned" before entering it, or treat the calculator's output as a pre-tax estimate.

Risk. A 10% return on a stable index is not the same investment as 10% on a speculative bet that could just as easily have gone to zero. ROI says nothing about how likely the outcome was — only what happened.

Features

📈

Total + Annualized ROI

Both figures, side by side.

📅

Dates or Years

Pick whichever is easier to enter.

🍩

Visual Breakdown

Donut chart of invested vs. gain or loss.

➖

Handles Losses

Negative ROI flagged clearly in red.

🧮

Formula Shown

The exact calculation, so you can audit it.

🆓

Free Forever

No signup, no limit on calculations.

🔒 Why Trust This Tool?

ToolsVenue's ROI Calculator runs entirely in your browser — your numbers never touch a server. Privacy policy →

🕐 Last reviewed: May 2026 — ToolsVenue editorial team

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