Investment Return Calculator
Measure how an investment actually performed. Enter what you put in and what it's worth now to get simple ROI, annualized return (CAGR), your multiplier, inflation-adjusted return, and a head-to-head with a savings account.
Your Investment
Growth Over Time
Compounded path · initial → finalInvestment vs. Savings
Same capital, 4% APY baseline| Scenario | Final Value | Profit | Return | CAGR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your investment | $0 | $0 | 0% | 0% |
| Savings (4% APY) | $0 | $0 | 0% | 0% |
| Difference | $0 | $0 | 0% | 0% |
(Final / Initial)1/years − 1
How this investment return calculator works
Enter the amount you originally invested and what it's worth today (plus the time you held it), and this tool returns the numbers that actually describe performance: total profit, simple ROI, your money multiplier, annualized return (CAGR), and the inflation-adjusted figure. Add any dividends you received and fees you paid to get a true total return rather than just price appreciation.
ROI vs. CAGR: what's the difference?
ROI (Return on Investment) measures total gain as a percentage of what you put in. It answers "how much did I make relative to my cost?" A position that turns $10,000 into $18,000 has an 80% ROI — but that number says nothing about how long it took.
CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) annualizes that return, smoothing it into a steady yearly rate. The same $10,000 → $18,000 move over 5 years is a ~12.5% CAGR. CAGR lets you compare investments held for different lengths of time on equal footing.
- ROI = (Final − Initial) / Initial — best for a single holding period.
- CAGR = (Final / Initial)(1 / years) − 1 — best for comparing across time.
- ROI can look huge over a short window; CAGR reveals whether the pace is genuinely good.
Why annualized return matters
Total return flatters short-term winners and hides slow long-term compounding. A 200% gain sounds spectacular, but spread over 20 years it's roughly a 5.6% annualized return — below a typical stock-market average. Annualizing normalizes everything to a per-year basis so you can judge an investment against benchmarks like the S&P 500 (~10% historical) or a savings account, regardless of how long you held it. It's the single fairest number for apples-to-apples comparison.
Evaluating investment performance
A good return only means something next to a benchmark and a risk level. Use this calculator to:
- Beat your hurdle rate. If a "risk-free" savings account pays 4% APY, any riskier investment should clear that plus a margin for the risk you took.
- Account for costs. Enter management fees, advisory charges, and trading costs — they quietly drag down CAGR year after year.
- Include income. Dividends and distributions are real returns; add them to see total return, not just price gain.
- Check real return. Adjust for inflation. A 7% nominal return with 3% inflation is only about 3.9% real growth in purchasing power.
Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) vs. lump sum
This calculator models a lump sum — one amount in, one value out. In reality many people invest gradually through dollar-cost averaging (DCA), buying fixed amounts on a schedule. Historically, lump sum beats DAGR about two-thirds of the time in rising markets because money is put to work sooner and compounds longer. DCA's advantage is psychological: it reduces the regret of investing everything right before a drop and lowers timing risk.
If you DCA'd in, use your average cost basis (total invested divided by timing) as the "initial investment" to approximate your true return. The annualized figure is what ultimately tells you whether your strategy paid off.
Quick reference
- Multiplier shows how many times your money grew — 1.8x means $1 became $1.80.
- Inflation-adjusted return strips out rising prices to reveal real purchasing-power gain.
- Rule of 72: divide 72 by your CAGR to estimate doubling time (a 9% return doubles money in ~8 years).