ROI Calculator
Calculate profit or loss and return on investment as a percentage, with clean currency formatting. Enter what you put in and what you got back to see whether something actually paid off.
ROI Calculator
Calculate return on investment (ROI) as a percentage and see absolute profit or loss in your chosen currency.
ROI (%) = (Return − Investment) ÷ Investment × 100. Does not include taxes or fees.
Positive ROI means profit; negative ROI indicates a loss. For full financial decisions, include costs, fees, and taxes.
What ROI does and does not tell you
ROI is simply (gain minus cost) divided by cost, expressed as a percentage. It is the fastest way to compare the efficiency of different investments or campaigns on a like-for-like basis. A 50% ROI means you made half your money back on top of your original outlay.
Its blind spot is time. ROI ignores how long the money was tied up, so a 30% return over one month is far better than 30% over five years, yet plain ROI shows them as equal. For long horizons, pair ROI with an annualized view.
Common uses
ROI is a decision-support number, useful across very different contexts.
- Marketing: compare the return of two campaigns to decide where to spend next.
- Investing: sanity-check whether a holding beat a simple benchmark.
- Business: evaluate whether a purchase or project earned more than it cost.
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FAQs
How is ROI calculated?▼
ROI = (final value - initial cost) / initial cost x 100. A result above zero is a profit, below zero a loss. The tool also shows the absolute profit or loss in currency terms.
Does ROI account for how long I held the investment?▼
No. Basic ROI ignores time, so it cannot tell you whether a return was fast or slow. For investments held over different periods, an annualized return gives a fairer comparison.
Can ROI be negative?▼
Yes. If you got back less than you put in, ROI is negative, representing a loss. A -20% ROI means you lost a fifth of your original investment.
Should I include fees and taxes in the cost?▼
For a true picture, yes. Include transaction fees, taxes, and any other costs in the initial cost and the final value so the ROI reflects what you actually kept.
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