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Work out the return on an investment, a rental property or a marketing campaign. Get ROI as a percentage, annualized ROI, cash-on-cash return, cap rate and ROAS where they apply, or project what an investment could grow to over time. Everything runs in your browser, with no sign-up.
How to use the ROI calculator
- Investment ROI – enter what you put in and what it is worth now (or what you received). Add the number of years to see annualized ROI as well.
- Marketing ROI – enter what you spent on a campaign, the revenue it brought in, and your gross margin, to see ROI and ROAS side by side.
- Rental property – enter the price, your total cash invested, rent, vacancy, running costs and mortgage payment to see cash-on-cash return, cap rate and cash flow. If you do not know your monthly mortgage payment, the amortization schedule calculator will work it out.
- Future value – enter a starting amount, an expected yearly return, a number of years and an optional monthly contribution to project what an investment could grow to.
Use "Copy summary" to paste your inputs and results into an email or proposal, or "Print / save as PDF" for a clean printout of the mode you are on.
ROI formulas
- ROI (%) = (final value − amount invested) ÷ amount invested × 100
- Net profit = final value − amount invested
- Annualized ROI (%) = ((final value ÷ amount invested) ^ (1 ÷ years) − 1) × 100
- Simple average per year = ROI ÷ years
- Marketing ROI (%) = (revenue × gross margin − marketing spend) ÷ marketing spend × 100
- ROAS = revenue ÷ ad spend
- Net operating income (NOI) = yearly rent after vacancy − yearly operating expenses (the mortgage is not included)
- Cap rate (%) = NOI ÷ purchase price × 100
- Annual cash flow = NOI − yearly mortgage payments
- Cash-on-cash return (%) = annual cash flow ÷ total cash invested × 100
- Future value = start × (1 + i)^n + monthly contribution × ((1 + i)^n − 1) ÷ i, where i = (1 + annual return)^(1/12) − 1 and n = number of months
Worked examples
These numbers are illustrations, not predictions. The examples use dollars, but the maths is the same in any currency.
- Investment ROI. You invest $10,000 and it grows to $15,000 over 3 years. Net profit is $5,000 and ROI is 50%. Annualized ROI is (1.5)^(1/3) − 1 ≈ 14.47% a year. Dividing 50% by 3 gives 16.67%, which is higher because it ignores compounding.
- Marketing ROI. You spend $5,000 on ads and they bring in $20,000 of revenue at a 40% gross margin. Gross profit is $8,000, so net profit after the spend is $3,000 and ROI is 60%. ROAS is 4.0x, which sounds much stronger than a 60% return, because ROAS ignores your margin.
- Rental property. A $250,000 property with $60,000 cash invested, $2,200 monthly rent, 5% vacancy, $700 monthly operating expenses and a $1,100 monthly mortgage. Rent after vacancy is $25,080 a year and operating expenses are $8,400, so NOI is $16,680 and the cap rate is 6.67%. After $13,200 of mortgage payments, cash flow is $3,480 a year ($290 a month), a cash-on-cash return of 5.80%.
- Future value. You start with $10,000, add $200 a month and assume 7% a year for 10 years. You would put in $34,000 in total and end with about $53,881.86, a gain of about $19,881.86. The $10,000 on its own, with no monthly contributions, would reach about $19,671.51 under the same assumption. The 7% is an assumption you choose, not a forecast.
What is a good ROI?
There is no single number that counts as a good ROI. It depends on how long the money was tied up, how much risk you took, what else you could have done with it, and what you are trying to achieve. A 20% ROI earned in a month and a 20% ROI earned over ten years are very different results, which is why annualized ROI is the better figure for comparison. A fair test is to compare your annualized ROI with what a lower-risk alternative would have paid over the same period, and ask whether the extra return was worth the extra risk and effort.
Who this ROI calculator is useful for
- Individual investors checking how a stock, fund or other holding has performed, or comparing two investments held for different lengths of time.
- Rental and short-term rental owners screening a property or checking how an existing one is performing against the cash they put in.
- Small business owners and marketers judging whether a campaign, tool or channel earned back what it cost.
- Freelancers and agencies estimating whether new equipment, software or training will pay for itself, or putting a simple ROI figure into a client proposal.
- Project and operations teams doing a first-pass check on a project, an event or an automation, using total cost as the amount invested and total benefit as the amount returned.
When ROI is not the right tool
- When timing matters and the cash flows are uneven. ROI treats everything as one amount in and one amount out. If money goes in and out at different times, a measure such as IRR is more suitable.
- When comparing investments without annualizing. A plain ROI figure says nothing about how long it took, so use annualized ROI when the holding periods differ.
- When risk differs a lot. Two investments can show the same ROI while carrying very different risk of losing money.
- When taxes, inflation and fees matter. This calculator does not model them unless you include them in your costs, so the result is before tax and not adjusted for inflation.
- When the benefit is hard to put a number on. Marketing results are often shared between channels, and some benefits, such as brand awareness or staff morale, do not appear as revenue, so a marketing ROI can over- or understate the true effect.
- When you need to know how many sales cover your costs. That is a break-even question; use the break-even calculator instead.
This calculator gives estimates for general information only. It is not financial, tax or investment advice.
ROI compared with related measures
| Measure | What it tells you | Best used for |
|---|---|---|
| ROI | Total gain as a percentage of what you put in | A quick overall check of one investment or project |
| Annualized ROI | The equivalent yearly compound return | Comparing investments held for different lengths of time |
| ROAS | Revenue earned per unit of ad spend | Judging ad efficiency, before margin is taken into account |
| Cap rate | Yearly NOI as a percentage of the purchase price | Comparing properties as if each were bought with cash |
| Cash-on-cash return | Yearly cash flow as a percentage of the cash you put in | Judging a financed rental property |
ROI is simply a percentage change from what you paid to what you got back. If you need to work out other percentages, the percentage calculator covers percentage change and more. To find the gross margin to use in the marketing tab, the profit margin calculator works it out from your cost and selling price.
Frequently asked questions
How do you calculate ROI?
Subtract the amount invested from the final value to get the net profit, divide that by the amount invested, and multiply by 100. For example, $10,000 that grows to $15,000 has a net profit of $5,000, so ROI = 5,000 ÷ 10,000 × 100 = 50%.
What is the difference between ROI and annualized ROI?
ROI is the total return over the whole holding period. Annualized ROI converts that total into the equivalent yearly compound rate, so a 50% ROI over 3 years becomes about 14.47% a year. Use annualized ROI when you want to compare investments held for different lengths of time.
Can ROI be negative?
Yes. If the final value is lower than the amount invested, the net profit is negative and so is the ROI. A final value of zero is a −100% ROI, meaning the whole amount was lost.
How do I calculate marketing ROI, and how is it different from ROAS?
Marketing ROI is (revenue × gross margin − marketing spend) ÷ marketing spend. ROAS is revenue ÷ ad spend. ROAS ignores your margin, so a 4x ROAS on a product with a thin margin can still lose money once the costs of making and delivering it are counted.
How do I calculate ROI on a rental property, Airbnb or short-term rental?
Use the Rental property tab. Enter your total cash invested, your average monthly income, a vacancy figure that reflects how often it sits empty, your monthly running costs (including platform fees and cleaning for a short-term rental) and your mortgage payment. You get cap rate, cash flow and cash-on-cash return. It does not model seasonal swings month by month, so use an average that reflects the whole year.
What is the difference between cap rate and cash-on-cash return?
Cap rate divides a property's net operating income by its purchase price and ignores financing, so it describes the property itself. Cash-on-cash return divides your yearly cash flow, after the mortgage, by the cash you actually invested, so it shows what your own money earned.
What is a good ROI?
It depends on the time period, the risk, and what else you could have done with the money. Compare annualized ROI with a lower-risk alternative over the same period rather than looking for one universal target.
Can I use this for stocks, a Roth IRA, a CD or the S&P 500?
For a stock or fund, enter your total cost (including fees) as the amount invested and the current value, or sale proceeds plus any dividends, as the final value. A Roth IRA is an account type, not an investment in itself, so its return depends on what you hold inside it, and no rate is guaranteed. A CD's return is set by its stated rate. For an index such as the S&P 500, look up its historical returns from a reputable source, remember that past performance does not guarantee future results, and try several different rates in the Future value tab to see how sensitive the outcome is.
Can I use it for solar panels, events, automation projects or a house flip?
Yes, as a first-pass check. Enter the total cost as the amount invested and the total benefit over the period as the final value: energy savings for solar panels, revenue or value gained for an event, time or cost saved for an automation, and the sale price for a flip (with all purchase, renovation, holding and selling costs counted as the amount invested). It keeps things simple, so it will not capture things like equipment wearing out or savings that change over time.
Does this calculate CAC, LTV or cohort analysis?
No. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is total acquisition spend divided by the number of new customers, and customer lifetime value (LTV) estimates the profit a customer brings over their time with you. Those need customer-level data and are separate measures from ROI. This tool is for the straightforward ROI questions above.
Does this offer an API, white-labeling, CRM integrations, an Excel template, a mobile app or a WordPress plugin?
No. This is a free calculator that runs in your browser. You can use "Copy summary" to paste results into a proposal or spreadsheet, or "Print / save as PDF" to keep a copy. We do not compare or recommend paid products here, because we have not verified them.
Is my information stored or sent anywhere?
No. All calculations happen in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded or saved.