Calculate the return on any investment — see total ROI, annualised return, and profit or loss.
Formulae Used
ROI = ((Final Value − Initial Investment) / Initial Investment) × 100
Annualised ROI = ((Final / Initial)^(1/Years) − 1) × 100
Return on Investment (ROI) is the most basic and widely used measure of investment performance. It tells you how much money you gained or lost relative to what you initially invested, expressed as a percentage.
An ROI of 50% means you earned half of your original investment as profit. An ROI of -20% means you lost 20% of what you put in. It is a simple, universal metric that works for stocks, mutual funds, real estate, business ventures, or any situation where you deploy capital and receive a return.
The calculator takes three inputs — your initial investment, the final value of that investment, and the time period — and computes the total ROI, annualised ROI, and absolute profit or loss.
ROI = ((Final Value − Initial Investment) / Initial Investment) × 100
Annualised ROI = ((Final Value / Initial Investment)^(1/Years) − 1) × 100
Profit / Loss = Final Value − Initial Investment
The total ROI gives you the overall percentage return. The annualised ROI normalises that return to a per-year basis, making it easy to compare investments held for different durations. If you enter the time period in months, the calculator automatically converts it to years.
Suppose you invested ₹1,00,000 in a stock and sold it for ₹1,50,000 after 3 years.
Initial Investment: ₹1,00,000
Final Value: ₹1,50,000
Time Period: 3 years
ROI = ((1,50,000 − 1,00,000) / 1,00,000) × 100
Total ROI = 50%
Annualised ROI = ((1,50,000 / 1,00,000)^(1/3) − 1) × 100
Annualised ROI = 14.47%
Profit = ₹50,000
While the total return is 50%, the annualised return of 14.47% tells you exactly how much the investment grew each year on average. This is the number you use to compare against other investments.
ROI and CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) are closely related but measure different things. ROI is the total return over the entire holding period. CAGR is the annualised version — it tells you what constant yearly growth rate would produce the same total return.
The annualised ROI shown in this calculator is effectively the same as CAGR. The distinction matters because raw ROI can be misleading without time context:
Investment A: ROI of 100% over 5 years → Annualised = 14.87% per year
Investment B: ROI of 100% over 10 years → Annualised = 7.18% per year
Investment C: ROI of 50% over 2 years → Annualised = 22.47% per year
All three investments sound impressive as raw ROI, but when you annualise them, Investment C is clearly the best performer. This is why annualised ROI (CAGR) is the standard metric for comparing investments held over different time periods.
ROI is versatile and applicable across many scenarios:
While ROI is useful for quick comparisons, it has several limitations to keep in mind:
ROI is the starting point for evaluating any investment. It answers the most fundamental question: "Did I make or lose money, and by how much?" Always look at the annualised figure when comparing investments across different time periods. And remember — a high ROI is only meaningful if the risk taken to achieve it was reasonable and the numbers account for all costs.