What is a ROI Calculator?
Return on Investment (ROI) is the most basic profitability measure: how much you gained or lost relative to what you put in, expressed as a percentage. It works for any asset — stocks, property, a business, gold — as long as you know what you started with and what it's worth (or was sold for) now.
This calculator shows both the total ROI over the whole period and, if you provide a holding period, the annualised return — which is what actually makes it comparable to other investments.
How ROI is calculated
The annualised figure restates the same gain as a compounded yearly rate using the CAGR formula, which is the number worth comparing across investments of different durations — a 50% ROI over 1 year is a very different result to a 50% ROI over 10.
Worked example: the same 50% ROI, four very different outcomes
₹1,00,000 growing to ₹1,50,000 is a 50% total ROI, full stop — that number alone doesn’t depend on how long it took. But the annualised return tells a very different story depending on the timeframe: over 1 year, that’s a 50% annualised return; over 3 years, about 14.47% a year; over 5 years, about 8.45% a year; over 10 years, about 4.14% a year.
A 50% return sounds identical in each case until you ask "over how long?" — which is exactly why the annualised figure, not the headline ROI percentage, is the number worth comparing between two different opportunities.
ROI shows up outside investing too
The same formula applies well beyond mutual funds and stocks — a shopkeeper measuring return on inventory spend, a homeowner comparing a renovation’s cost against the resulting increase in resale value, or a business assessing whether a marketing spend paid for itself, all use the identical (final − initial) ÷ initial calculation. What changes across these contexts is simply what counts as "initial" and "final" value — the maths itself doesn’t care whether the underlying asset is a mutual fund or a delivery van.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between ROI and CAGR?
ROI is the total, un-annualised gain over the whole period. CAGR (shown here as "annualised return") restates that same gain as a smoothed yearly rate — use ROI to see the total picture and CAGR to compare across different time periods.
Does ROI account for additional cash flows during the period?
No — this simple version assumes one initial amount and one final value. If you added or withdrew money at various points, use the XIRR Calculator instead.
Should I use pre-tax or post-tax values?
Either works as long as you’re consistent — use post-tax figures if you want your real, in-hand return.
What counts as a "good" ROI?
It depends entirely on the asset and the risk taken to get there — a 12% annualised ROI on equity carries very different risk than a 12% ROI promised on an unregulated scheme. Compare ROI against a relevant benchmark or alternative (a fixed deposit rate, an index fund’s return over the same period) rather than judging it as a standalone number.
Can ROI be negative?
Yes — if the final value is lower than the initial value, both the total and annualised ROI will be negative, correctly showing a loss.
Should I include costs like brokerage or maintenance in the initial value?
For an accurate real-world ROI, yes — include all costs to acquire the asset (brokerage, stamp duty, renovation cost for property, etc.) in your initial value, and all costs to exit (brokerage, exit load) as a reduction to your final value.
Is ROI the same as "return" quoted in a fund fact sheet?
Fund fact sheets almost always quote an annualised figure (effectively CAGR), not total ROI — if you’re comparing this calculator’s output against a fact sheet, use the annualised figure here, not the total ROI percentage, for a like-for-like comparison.