Last updated: July 2026
Evaluate Your Investments
Whether you are buying stocks, flipping a house, or running Facebook ads, you need to know if your money is working for you. Calculating the ROI gives you a standardized percentage so you can compare different investments apples-to-apples.
Track Marketing Campaigns
Marketing teams live and die by ROI. If you spend $500 on an ad campaign and it generates $1,200 in sales, use this calculator to instantly find your campaign's Return on Investment and justify your ad spend.
Worked Example
Using the calculator's default numbers — $1,000 invested, $1,250 returned:
- Net Profit = $1,250 − $1,000 = $250
- ROI = $250 ÷ $1,000 × 100 = 25%
This tool provides a general financial calculation and is not personalized financial advice. Consult a financial advisor for investment decisions.
Frequently Asked Questions
ROI stands for Return on Investment. It is a universal financial metric used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment.
ROI is calculated by subtracting the initial cost from the final return (to find the Net Profit), and then dividing that Net Profit by the initial cost. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage.
Yes! If you invest $1,000 and only get $800 back, you lost $200. That represents a -20% ROI.
It depends heavily on the asset class and time period. Stock market investors often use the long-run S&P 500 average (historically around 10% annually) as a rough benchmark, while marketing and business investments are often judged against a much higher bar since they carry more risk. There's no single universal number.
No, this basic ROI formula doesn't factor in time. A 20% ROI over 1 month is very different from a 20% ROI over 5 years. If you need to compare investments held for different periods, look at annualized ROI instead.
No. ROI compares profit to what you invested (cost basis), while profit margin compares profit to revenue. They answer different questions — ROI is about investment efficiency, margin is about pricing and sales efficiency.
For an accurate real-world ROI, yes — include any transaction costs, fees, or taxes in your 'Amount Invested' figure and any costs deducted from your proceeds in your 'Amount Returned' figure, since these directly affect your actual return.