Annualized ROI Calculator
Your total return converted to a per-year rate from real dates, labeled CAGR-style with its assumptions printed, short-period warnings included, and total losses handled honestly instead of divided by.
Includes the original principal and all proceeds you want counted.
Fees and income
As reported by your ad platform. Attribution is a claim, not proven incrementality.
What is left from each revenue dollar after product, shipping and payment costs. Required for any profit number.
Included
Not included
Show the math
The assumptions are part of the number
Every annualized rate smuggles in three assumptions: that the money compounded steadily, that nothing was added or withdrawn along the way, and that the period is long enough for a yearly rate to mean anything. This calculator prints all three next to the result rather than burying them, warns when your period is short enough to turn noise into spectacle, and computes from actual dates so "about six months" does not quietly become 0.5 years. Enter the dates in the calculator above and the annualized panel appears beside, not instead of, your total return.
Annualized ROI FAQ
How is annualized ROI calculated?
From your dates: the total return ratio raised to the power of one year over the actual holding period, minus one. A 20% total return over two years annualizes to about 9.5%, not 10%, because compounding is geometric. Enter the start and end dates above; the calculator uses actual days with a 365.25-day year and shows the day count it used.
Why annualize at all?
Comparability. A 30% return over 4 years and an 8% return over 9 months cannot be compared as raw totals; annualized, they become about 6.8% versus 10.8% and the comparison flips. Annualizing puts every investment on the same per-year footing, which is the footing your alternatives (index funds, savings rates, your hurdle rate) are quoted on.
When is the annualized number misleading?
Three cases this calculator handles explicitly: very short periods, where a small gain annualizes into an absurd rate (you get a warning below 30 days); intermediate cash flows, which the CAGR formula assumes away, printed as an assumption every time (contributions and withdrawals need IRR-style math instead); and total losses, where -100% has no meaningful yearly compounding rate and the calculator says so instead of printing one.
Is annualized ROI the same as CAGR?
For a single beginning value and ending value, yes: the formula is identical and this page labels it CAGR-style to keep that honest. CAGR is usually quoted for multi-year growth of a metric; annualized ROI applies the same geometry to any investment period, including ones under a year, where the compounding assumption does the most work and deserves the most suspicion.
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