Calculator Tools
Stock Profit Calculator
Calculate stock profit, loss, total return, and annualized return on a single trade. Models commissions, dividends, and capital gains tax in your browser.
Trade inputs
Enter a buy and sell price for the same lot of shares. Optional commissions, dividends, and capital gains tax model your real after-fee return.
Display formatting only, no FX conversion.
Holding durationUsed for annualized return
Capital gains tax (optional)
Tax is applied only when the pretax net is positive. Losses are not taxed. Use the rate that matches your jurisdiction.
What-if scenarios
Same shares, fees, dividends, and tax setting; only the sell price changes. Percentages are relative to the buy price of $50.00.
| Sell vs buy | Sell price | Net profit | Total return |
|---|---|---|---|
| -25% | $37.50 | -$1,250.00 | -25% |
| -10% | $45.00 | -$500.00 | -10% |
| Flat | $50.00 | $0.00 | 0% |
| +10% | $55.00 | $500.00 | +10% |
| +25% | $62.50 | $1,250.00 | +25% |
| +50% | $75.00 | $2,500.00 | +50% |
| +100% | $100.00 | $5,000.00 | +100% |
Worked examples
Tap any example to load it into the calculator. Each one is a common real-world trade scenario.
How the formula works
- Cost basis: shares times buy price, plus the buy commission. This is what the position cost you to open.
- Proceeds: shares times sell price, minus the sell commission. This is what you actually receive when you close.
- Net profit:proceeds minus cost basis, plus dividends, minus tax on the pretax gain. Equivalently: gross profit + dividends - fees - tax.
- Total return: net profit divided by cost basis, expressed as a percent. This is the standard retail brokerage view of how the position performed.
- Annualized return: (end value / cost basis) ^ (1 / years) - 1, also written as the compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Lets you compare trades of different durations on equal footing.
- Break-even sell price: the sell price at which the pretax net is zero after fees and dividends. Anything above it is profit; anything below is a loss.
Common questions
- Does this pull live prices? No. Enter the prices yourself. The tool runs entirely in your browser and never makes network calls for quotes.
- What about taxes outside the United States? Type the capital gains rate that applies to you and switch the tax toggle on. The tool applies that rate to the pretax net gain. It does not model wash sales, holding-period brackets, or jurisdiction-specific rules.
- Why is the annualized return so different from total return? Annualized return spreads the same total return over the number of years held. A 50% total return over 5 years annualizes to about 8.45%, not 10%, because gains compound.
- How does this differ from the Stock Average Calculator? Stock Average computes the weighted-average cost basis after several buys (averaging down or DCA). Stock Profit computes the gain or loss on a single buy and sell of one lot.
- What if the buy price is zero? Total return cannot be expressed as a percent of a zero cost basis. Enter the price you actually paid per share, even if the broker shows it as restricted stock or a gift.
How to use
- Enter the number of shares (fractional shares are allowed), the buy price per share, and the sell price per share.
- Optionally enter a flat buy commission, sell commission, and the total dividends received per share over the hold.
- If you want an after-tax view, toggle Tax on and enter the capital gains tax rate that applies to your jurisdiction.
- Enter the holding duration in years and months to get the annualized return (CAGR) in addition to the total return.
- Read the net profit headline, the row breakdown (gross profit, fees, dividends, tax, cost basis, proceeds, per-share profit, break-even sell price), and the what-if scenarios table to see the trade at alternative exits.
- Tap a preset to load a common trade scenario, or use Copy summary to paste the full breakdown into notes.
About this tool
Stock Profit Calculator answers the single question every retail investor types into search after a trade: 'I bought X shares at price A and sold them at price B, what did I actually make?' It models the entire after-fee picture, not just the napkin math. Enter the share count (fractional shares supported), the buy and sell prices, optional flat buy and sell commissions, optional dividends per share received during the hold, and an optional capital gains tax rate. The tool returns the gross profit (sell minus buy, before fees and tax), the total fees, the dividends received, the tax on gain (applied only to a positive pretax net, since losses are not taxed), the net profit, the per-share profit, the cost basis, the proceeds, the break-even sell price (the exact sell level needed to net zero after fees and dividends), the total return percent, and the annualized return percent. The annualized return uses the standard CAGR formula, (end value / cost basis) ^ (1 / years) minus 1, so trades held for different durations can be compared on equal footing. A 'what-if' scenarios table shows the net profit and total return at sell prices of -25 percent, -10 percent, flat, +10 percent, +25 percent, +50 percent, and +100 percent of the buy price, so you can see the shape of the trade across a wide range of exits. Six worked-example presets cover the most common shapes: a textbook 100-share round lot with zero fees, a 10-share trade with commissions and a small loss, a long-term ETF with dividends and 15 percent long-term capital gains tax, a fractional-share win, a short-term trade with a higher short-term capital gains rate, and a 10-year blue chip hold. Currency selection covers USD, EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, JPY, INR, and TRY for display formatting only; no FX rates are pulled and no quotes are fetched. Useful for retail investors closing a position, anyone trying to figure out the after-fee return on a finished trade, traders planning an exit, and learners working through the difference between total return, annualized return, gross profit, and net profit. This tool does not pull live market data and does not give investment advice. All math runs locally on your device.
Free to use. Works in your browser. No signup, no login.
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