A percentage without a timeframe is meaningless
“I made 50% on that” tells you almost nothing on its own. Over one year it is an exceptional result. Over ten years it is 4.1% annually — worse than leaving the money in a decent savings account.
That is why this calculator asks for a holding period. Total ROI answers “how much did I make?”; the annualised figure answers “was it worth it?”, and only the second lets you compare a quick flip against a long hold on equal terms.
Entering the numbers
Enter the amount you invested and the final value it reached. The calculator shows your total return on investment as a percentage and your net profit in currency. Add an optional holding period in years to also see the annualized return, which puts investments of different lengths on a comparable footing.
Making the numbers honest
The quality of an ROI figure depends on what you feed it. To avoid flattering yourself, fold buying costs and fees into the amount invested, and use the money you actually walked away with — after tax — as the final value. Done that way, ROI becomes a reliable yardstick for comparing opportunities rather than a number that only looks good on paper. All calculations run in your browser and nothing is stored.
What ROI leaves out
Return on investment is a ratio, and ratios discard scale. A 200% return on $50 is $100; a 12% return on $500,000 is $60,000. The first number looks better and the second pays the mortgage. When comparing opportunities, read the percentage alongside the absolute profit rather than instead of it.
It also says nothing about risk or about what you gave up elsewhere. A high return earned by concentrating everything in one position is not equivalent to the same return earned across a diversified holding, even though ROI scores them identically.