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Calculate total return, annualized growth rate, and gain or loss from your investment results before comparing outcomes.
What this tool helps you answer
Use this to evaluate past investments, compare returns across assets, or set future return expectations.
Total return and CAGR tell different stories.
CAGR = (Final Value / Initial Value)^(1/Years) - 1Next step
Calculate total return, annualized growth rate, and gain or loss from your investment results before comparing outcomes.
Editorial review
This page combines the live tool, input guidance, worked examples, and operating limits so Investment Return Calculator stays useful even before users interact with the calculator.
Reviewed by Klartext Tools against the current Investment Return Calculator workflow on 2026-03-19.
Last updated:
Use with judgment
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Invested $10,000, now worth $16,500 after 5 years.
Shows 65% total return and 10.5% CAGR.
Purchased for $250,000, sold for $410,000 after 10 years.
Shows 64% total return but only 5.1% CAGR: time matters.
Enter initial and final values along with the holding period.
Enter the initial investment amount.
Enter the current or final value.
Enter the number of years held.
Optionally add any additional contributions made during the period.
Review total return, CAGR, and gain metrics.
Load an example to see how return metrics work.
Invested $10,000, now worth $16,500 after 5 years.
Sample inputs
Sample outcome: Shows 65% total return and 10.5% CAGR.
Purchased for $250,000, sold for $410,000 after 10 years.
Sample inputs
Sample outcome: Shows 64% total return but only 5.1% CAGR: time matters.
Total return tells you the headline gain, but CAGR is the metric that lets you compare investments with different holding periods on equal terms. A 50% total return over 2 years is very different from 50% over 10 years.
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