How the profit is worked out
Each buy is costed on its own, the buys are pooled into one share count and one average cost, and then the sale is measured against everything that went in — shares, money and both fees.
- Cost of a buy = shares bought × price per share
- Money paid in = cost1 + cost2 + …
- Total shares = shares1 + shares2 + …
- Average cost per share = money paid in ÷ total shares
- Total cost = money paid in + buy fee
- Gross proceeds = total shares × sell price
- Net proceeds = gross proceeds − sell fee
- Net profit / loss = net proceeds − total cost
- Return = (net profit / loss ÷ total cost) × 100
- Break-even sell price = (total cost + sell fee) ÷ total shares
Average cost per share = (q1×p1 + q2×p2 + … + qn×pn) ÷ (q1 + q2 + … + qn)
where q is the number of shares bought and p is the price paid per share. It is the same weighted average used everywhere on this site: the shares do the weighting, so a big buy at one price moves the average more than a small one. If the sell fee is given as a percentage, the break-even line changes shape — the fee is taken on the proceeds, so the price has to clear the cost and the fee taken out of it:
Break-even sell price = total cost ÷ (total shares × (1 − fee rate))
Worked example: 100 shares at 50.00 and 50 shares at 60.00, a 5.00 buy fee, sold at 62.00 with a 7.00 sell fee. Money paid in is 5,000.00 + 3,000.00 = 8,000.00 for 150.0000 shares, so the average cost is 8,000.00 ÷ 150.0000 = 53.3333. Total cost is 8,000.00 + 5.00 = 8,005.00. Gross proceeds are 150.0000 × 62.00 = 9,300.00, net proceeds 9,300.00 − 7.00 = 9,293.00, and the net profit is 9,293.00 − 8,005.00 = 1,288.00, a return of 16.08%. The break-even sell price is (8,005.00 + 7.00) ÷ 150.0000 = 53.4133 — below the average cost of 53.3333 it would be a loss, and the gap between the two is what the two fees cost you per share. Type those rows in and the page returns every one of those figures.
Rounding: every figure on this page is rounded down, never up — the same rule as the rest of the site. Share counts and per-share prices are shown to four decimals, amounts and percentages to two, so the number you read is never larger than the one that was computed. Total shares is the sum of the buy rows exactly as they were typed, and the money paid in is the sum of the per-buy costs printed beside each row, so the column and the total agree with each other.
Why the page asks for every buy
A single price is rarely how a position gets built. You buy some, the price moves, you buy more — and after that no one of those prices is the number the sale should be measured against. What matters is the average of them, weighted by how many shares each buy actually got.
Plenty of profit calculators skip that step and simply ask you to bring an average cost with you, copied off your brokerage screen. This page does the step itself: give it the buys and it produces the average, then charges both fees against it. Nothing has to be copied from anywhere, and because the arithmetic is printed underneath, you can check the average against your own records before you trust the profit figure that comes out of it.
One thing worth watching: the average cost per share on this page is the money paid in divided by the shares, which is a before-fee figure, while the profit and the break-even are worked from the total cost, which has the buy fee in it. Both are printed side by side, and the difference between them is what the buy fee came to.
What is counted, and what is not
This page uses only the share counts, the prices, the fees and the sell price you type in. Nothing else goes into the arithmetic.
- Taxes are not counted. No capital gains tax, no withholding, no tax of any kind, and no holding-period rule. There is no field for one, so every figure here is a before-tax figure.
- No live prices. This page never fetches a quote and has no connection to a market data source, so it can never show you a price that is not real. Every price on the page — each buy's and the sale's — is yours to type.
- Fees are whatever you type, and nothing else. Each side takes a fee either as an amount of money or as a percentage; nothing is assumed on your behalf, and a fee left empty counts as zero. A brokerage platform fee, a per-trade charge, a spread — if you want it in, type it in.
- The whole position is sold. There is no field for a partial sale, for keeping some shares back, or for several sell prices.
- Dividends are not counted here. A dividend paid while you held the shares belongs to the dividend reinvestment calculator, which works out what reinvesting it does to your share count and your cost.
- Not counted: stock splits and other corporate actions, currency conversion, interest on borrowed money, and any charge you have not typed in. There is no field for any of them.
- Fractional shares are counted in full. 50 shares at 60.00 is 50.0000 shares, and a buy of 0.5000 shares stays 0.5000. If your broker only handles whole shares, your own figure will differ from this one.
- Not built: several tickers at once, importing a statement, saving your history, signing in, or placing an order. There is no account here and nothing is stored.
The result describes the sale you entered — these buys, these fees, this price. It is not a view on whether that sale was the right thing to do, and this page takes no position on it.
Frequently asked questions
Is a stock profit calculator the same thing as a stock return calculator or a stock gain calculator?
In everyday use, yes — all three names are used for the same job: money in, money out, and the difference between them. This page does that job and prints both forms of the answer: the profit as an amount of money and the return as a percentage of what you paid in, fees included on both sides.
What does this stock profit calculator work out, exactly?
From the figures you type: your total shares, the money you paid in, your average cost per share, and your total cost including the buy fee. With a sell price it adds the gross proceeds, the net proceeds after the sell fee, the net profit or loss in money and as a percentage. It also gives the break-even sell price — the price at which the sale covers everything, both fees counted.
Why do I have to enter every buy instead of one average cost?
Because the buys are what produce the average, and entering them is what lets you check it. Type each purchase — shares and price — and the page pools them into one average cost, then charges the fee on the way in and the fee on the way out against it. You do not have to go and copy an average off your brokerage screen first, and if the average looks wrong you can see which buy is pulling it. If you already have an average cost and simply want to use it, put it in as one row: your total shares at that price.
Do I enter the fee as an amount of money or as a percentage?
Either. Each fee box has a switch next to it: Amount for a flat charge in money, Percent for a rate. A percentage buy fee is taken on the money you paid in; a percentage sell fee is taken on the gross proceeds of the sale. Leave either box empty and that fee counts as zero.
What is the break-even sell price for?
It is the sell price at which the sale covers everything you put in — the shares, the buy fee and the sell fee — so the profit is exactly zero. Below it you lose money, above it you make money. Because both fees are in it, the number is higher than a break-even worked out on the average cost alone, and the gap between the two is what the fees cost you per share.
Can it look up what I paid, or the price I sold at?
No. There is no price lookup on this page and no connection to any market data source, by design — a fetched price can be wrong, delayed, or for the wrong ticker, and this page would rather show nothing than show a number it did not get from you. Type the prices yourself.
Does it count taxes?
No. There is no tax field anywhere on this page, so every figure it returns is before tax. What a sale leaves you with after tax depends on your own circumstances and on how long you held the shares, and none of that is asked for here.
Can I work out selling only part of my position?
Not on this page. It sells the whole position at one price with one fee. For a partial sale, enter only the buys and the share count that the sale covers — but note that this page does not choose which shares were sold, so the average it uses is the average of everything you typed.
How many buys can I enter?
As many as you need. The page starts with two buys — one buy on its own just returns the price you typed — then use + Add buy for each extra one and the × on a row to remove it. There is no cap.
How is this different from the other calculators on this site?
They stop at the cost; this page carries on to the sale. The stock average calculator pools buys into an average cost, the average down calculator shows what one more purchase does to it, the DCA calculator takes the money you invest each period instead of the share counts, and the dividend reinvestment calculator handles dividends put back into shares. This is the one that adds the fees on both sides, the sale, and the break-even price.
Does this page tell me whether I should sell?
No, and nothing here should be read that way. The page does the arithmetic on the sale you describe; it does not compare holding against selling, rank the two, or tell you what to do with your money. It answers one question only: given these buys, these fees and this sell price, what did I net?
Does it work on my phone, and do I need an account?
Yes to the first, and no to the second. The fields stack to a single column on a narrow screen and the results stay inside the width of the page. There is no sign-up, no pop-up and nothing to install: the whole calculation runs in your browser, and your numbers are not sent anywhere.