Stock Profit Calculator

What is a stock profit calculator?

A stock profit calculator works out how much money you made or lost on a share trade and expresses that result both in dollars and as a percentage return. You enter your buy price, sell price, the number of shares, and any trading fees, and the tool instantly returns your total cost, your sale proceeds, your profit or loss, and your return on investment (ROI).

It answers the two questions every investor asks after a trade: how much did I actually make? and was it a good return relative to what I put in? Profit alone can be misleading — a $500 gain is excellent on a $1,000 position but trivial on a $100,000 one — so the calculator pairs the dollar figure with a percentage. This tool is part of our finance calculators collection and runs entirely in your browser.

How is stock profit calculated?

The calculator uses four plain-arithmetic steps. First it builds your total cost, then your proceeds, then the profit or loss, and finally the ROI:

• Total cost = buy price × shares + buy fee
• Proceeds = sell price × shares − sell fee
• Profit / loss = proceeds − cost
• ROI = profit ÷ cost × 100

Combined into one line, the core method is:

profit = (sell price × shares − sell fee) − (buy price × shares + buy fee)

Define the terms and units:

• Buy price and sell price are per-share prices in your currency (dollars in these examples).
• Shares is the number of shares traded — usually a whole number, but the math works for fractional shares too.
• Buy fee and sell fee are flat commissions or charges in the same currency. Use 0 if your broker is commission-free.
• Profit is positive for a gain and negative for a loss; ROI is that profit as a percentage of your total cost.

Note that fees cut both ways: the buy fee is added to your cost, and the sell fee is subtracted from your proceeds, so a round-trip trade is charged twice. ROI is always measured against cost (including the buy fee), which is the total amount of money you committed.

Examples

Example 1 — a clean winning trade, no fees

Buy 100 shares at $50, sell at $75, with no fees:

• Cost = 50 × 100 + 0 = $5,000
• Proceeds = 75 × 100 − 0 = $7,500
• Profit = 7,500 − 5,000 = +$2,500
• ROI = 2,500 ÷ 5,000 × 100 = +50%

You turned $5,000 into $7,500 for a 50% return.

Example 2 — the same trade with $10 fees each way

Identical prices and shares, but now a $10 buy fee and a $10 sell fee:

• Cost = 50 × 100 + 10 = $5,010
• Proceeds = 75 × 100 − 10 = $7,490
• Profit = 7,490 − 5,010 = +$2,480
• ROI = 2,480 ÷ 5,010 × 100 ≈ +49.5%

The $20 of total fees shaved $20 off your profit and trimmed ROI from 50% to about 49.5% — small here, but it adds up over many trades.

Example 3 — a losing trade

Buy 50 shares at $120, sell at $90, no fees:

• Cost = 120 × 50 = $6,000
• Proceeds = 90 × 50 = $4,500
• Profit = 4,500 − 6,000 = −$1,500
• ROI = −1,500 ÷ 6,000 × 100 = −25%

A negative result is simply a loss: you lost $1,500, or 25% of what you invested.

Example 4 — a low-priced stock with small fees

Buy 200 shares at $10, sell at $12, with a $5 buy fee and $5 sell fee:

• Cost = 10 × 200 + 5 = $2,005
• Proceeds = 12 × 200 − 5 = $2,395
• Profit = 2,395 − 2,005 = +$390
• ROI = 390 ÷ 2,005 × 100 ≈ +19.45%

Even on a $2 move per share, 200 shares produced a solid $390 gain.

Profit and ROI at different sell prices

The table below holds the buy side fixed — 10 shares bought at $100 (cost $1,000), no fees — and varies only the sell price, matching the tool’s output exactly:

Sell price	Proceeds	Profit / loss	ROI
$90	$900	−$100	−10%
$100	$1,000	$0	0%
$110	$1,100	+$100	+10%
$125	$1,250	+$250	+25%
$150	$1,500	+$500	+50%

The break-even point is the buy price ($100) when there are no fees; below it you lose money, above it you gain. With fees, break-even sits slightly higher because you must also recover both commissions.

Common uses

• Reviewing a closed trade — confirm the exact dollar gain or loss and ROI after you sell.
• Planning a sell target — test what sell price you need for a given profit or percentage return.
• Comparing two trades — use ROI to judge which position performed better regardless of size.
• Accounting for commissions — see how much flat fees eat into a small or frequently traded position.
• Position sizing — work backward from a target profit to the number of shares required at a given price move.

Tips and common mistakes

• Always include both fees. It’s easy to add the buy fee and forget the sell fee; the round trip is charged twice and both reduce your net result.
• Don’t confuse profit with ROI. A large dollar profit can still be a poor percentage return if the position was big — judge performance with ROI.
• Keep prices per share, not totals. Enter $50, not $5,000, in the buy-price field; the calculator multiplies by the share count for you.
• Match the currency. Buy price, sell price and both fees must be in the same currency for the result to make sense.
• Remember it’s pre-tax. The ROI here ignores capital-gains tax, so your take-home return will usually be lower.

Limitations and accuracy notes

This calculator measures the capital gain or loss from price movement only. It does not include dividends received, capital-gains or transaction taxes, currency conversion, margin interest, or the holding period — so it shows a simple, point-to-point return rather than an annualised one. Percentage results are rounded for display, so a hand calculation may differ by a fraction of a percent. Treat the output as a quick, pre-tax estimate, not tax or investment advice.

To annualise that return over time or compare growth, use the compound interest calculator; for broader money planning, see the loan calculator, SIP calculator and dividend calculator in our finance tools.