📊 Finance & Money

ROI Calculator

Calculate return on investment for any project, campaign, or investment. Simple ROI, annualised ROI, net profit, payback period — all in one place.

📊 ROI Calculator

Choose your calculation mode — simple, advanced with costs and revenue, or marketing ROI.

Initial Investment Cost

Final Value / Return

Investment Period

years

Total Investment Cost

All costs: purchase price, setup, ongoing costs

Total Revenue / Returns

All income generated from this investment

Additional Operating Costs

Maintenance, staffing, overhead etc.

Investment Period

years

Total Marketing Spend

Ad spend, agency fees, creative costs etc.

Revenue Generated

Revenue directly attributed to this campaign

Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)

Cost to produce/deliver what was sold

Campaign Duration

months

What Is an ROI Calculator?

This free ROI calculator measures the return on investment for any project, campaign, purchase, or financial decision. ROI — return on investment — is the single most universally used metric in business and investing. This ROI calculator gives you simple ROI percentage, annualised ROI, net profit, and payback period across three modes: simple ROI for quick calculations, advanced ROI for projects with multiple costs and revenues, and marketing ROI for advertising campaigns.

In fact, every business decision involves an implicit ROI calculation. This ROI calculator makes that calculation explicit and instant — whether you are evaluating a marketing campaign, a capital expenditure, a property investment, a stock purchase, or a business expansion.

How Does This ROI Calculator Work?

Simple ROI = (Final Value − Initial Cost) ÷ Initial Cost × 100
Net Profit = Final Value − Total Costs
Annualised ROI = (1 + ROI/100)^(1/Years) − 1 × 100
Payback Period = Initial Investment ÷ Annual Net Profit
Marketing ROI = (Gross Profit − Marketing Spend) ÷ Marketing Spend × 100

What Is a Good ROI?

Stock market investments: The long-run average for global stock indices is approximately 7–10% annualised ROI. An ROI above 10% p.a. is generally considered strong.
Real estate: Residential property typically delivers 6–12% total annual return (capital growth + rental yield) in major markets, though this varies significantly by location.
Marketing campaigns: A marketing ROI of 5:1 (500%) is considered strong. 2:1 (200%) breaks even when overhead is factored in. Below 200% is often unprofitable after all costs.
Business projects: ROI benchmarks vary by industry. A project ROI above the company’s cost of capital (typically 8–15%) creates shareholder value.

💡 Annualised ROI is more useful than simple ROI for comparing investments of different durations. A 50% ROI over 10 years sounds impressive but is only 4.1% per year — worse than a bank term deposit. This ROI calculator shows annualised ROI automatically so you can compare investments fairly.

Simple vs Advanced vs Marketing ROI

Simple ROI: Best for quick calculations when you know the initial cost and final value. Stocks, savings accounts, property sale profit. Enter cost and final value — the ROI calculator does the rest.
Advanced ROI: Best for business projects, capital expenditures, and investments with multiple cost and revenue components. Separates total investment cost from operating costs and total revenue for a complete picture.
Marketing ROI: Uses gross profit (revenue minus COGS) rather than raw revenue to calculate ROI on marketing spend — the industry-standard method for marketing ROI analysis. A campaign generating $100k revenue with $60k COGS has only $40k gross profit to evaluate against marketing spend.

Is This ROI Calculator Accurate?

This ROI calculator is mathematically accurate. However, ROI calculations are only as good as the inputs. The most common errors are: understating costs (forgetting overhead, opportunity cost, or time), overstating returns (using gross revenue instead of net profit), and ignoring risk. According to the Investopedia ROI definition, ROI does not account for time value of money or risk — for sophisticated capital allocation decisions, Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) complement this ROI calculator.

ROI Calculator — Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between ROI and annualised ROI in this ROI calculator?

Simple ROI shows the total percentage return over the entire investment period. Annualised ROI (also called CAGR — Compound Annual Growth Rate) shows the equivalent annual return. This ROI calculator shows both. For comparing investments of different durations, always use annualised ROI — a 100% total ROI over 20 years is only 3.5% per year, far less impressive than it sounds.

What is a 5:1 marketing ROI and how does this ROI calculator calculate it?

A 5:1 marketing ROI means for every $1 spent on marketing, $5 in gross profit is generated. In percentage terms this is 400% ROI — (gross profit − marketing spend) ÷ marketing spend × 100. The marketing mode of this ROI calculator uses gross profit (revenue − COGS) rather than raw revenue, which is the correct industry method. Using raw revenue overstates marketing ROI by ignoring the cost of the product sold.

Does this ROI calculator account for taxes?

No — this ROI calculator calculates pre-tax ROI unless you manually subtract tax from your return figures. For after-tax ROI, reduce your final value or revenue figures by the applicable tax rate before entering them into this ROI calculator. Tax treatment of investment returns varies significantly by country, investment type, and holding period.

Is this ROI calculator free?

Yes — this ROI calculator is completely free with no registration required. All calculations happen in your browser with no data sent to any server.