Why calculate average annual investment return?
See how much your investment really earns each year on average. Type the starting amount, the current amount, and how many years it took. You get the average yearly return and the total profit.
If you also added money along the way, enter the monthly contribution. We'll show an honest result that doesn't count your own deposits as "growth".
The chart compares your result to common options: stocks, bonds, and a high-yield savings account, so you immediately see whether your investment beats the alternatives.
A closely related metric, especially popular in India for mutual fund and SIP returns, is XIRR (Extended Internal Rate of Return). To be straight: XIRR and our calculator aren't identical. XIRR handles irregular cashflows (different deposit amounts on different dates), while this tool assumes one start, one end, and optional fixed monthly contributions. For a typical ETF or SIP portfolio with regular contributions the two numbers come out very close; for highly uneven cashflows, XIRR is more precise.
How to use it
- Enter the starting amount: what you put in at the beginning (e.g. $10,000).
- Enter the current amount: what it's worth now (e.g. $25,000).
- Set the time period in years (e.g. 7 years).
- Optional: if you regularly added more money, enter the monthly amount. You'll get a more honest result.
- Below the result you'll see a simple verdict: is this a great, good, or weak result compared to typical investments.
When this is useful
Five common scenarios:
- Checking how a fund or ETF performed. "I've held $50k in a fund for 5 years, now it's $72k. What's that per year?". This is where you find out.
- Rental property return. "I bought for $400k, selling for $700k after 8 years". Computes return on the whole investment, not just the rent.
- Comparing two investments over the same period. Which one grew faster? Could be a fund vs savings account, crypto vs stocks, real estate vs the market.
- Reviewing your own trading. Did actively buying and selling beat just holding the index? Most traders lose to the index. Here you can see which group you fall into.
- Business or startup growth. Works the same way. You just need the value at the start and the value today.
If you want to go further and see what inflation will do to that result over the next 10-20 years, use our inflation calculator. If you're planning regular future contributions instead of looking back at past performance, the savings calculator is a better fit.