ROI Calculator
Measure the return on a business spend — a campaign, a hire, a piece of equipment — and see it annualised.
Total cost, including setup and time if you can price it.
Revenue, savings or value attributable to the spend.
Add this to compare against returns over different periods.
Return on investment
+36.00%
A gain of ₹90,000.00 on ₹2,50,000.00 invested.
- Invested
- ₹2,50,000.00
- Returned
- ₹3,40,000.00
- Net gain
- ₹90,000.00
- ROI
- 36.00%
- Annualised returnCompound rate per year over 2 years
- 16.62%
How this is calculated
ROI = (Returned − Invested) ÷ Invested × 100. Annualised = (Returned ÷ Invested)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, which is what makes returns over different periods comparable.
What this tool does
ROI expresses what you got back as a percentage of what you put in. It is the standard way to compare a campaign against a hire against a piece of equipment, because it strips away the absolute sizes and leaves the efficiency.
A raw ROI figure hides time, though. Adding the holding period produces the annualised rate — the compound return per year — which is the only fair way to compare a return earned over three months with one earned over three years.
When you might need it
- Reviewing a campaign
- Spend against attributable revenue, in a form a manager can compare.
- Justifying a purchase
- Showing the return on equipment or software against its cost.
- Comparing two options
- Ranking initiatives of different sizes on efficiency rather than absolute return.
- Reporting on a completed project
- Closing the loop on what was spent and what came back.
Common workplace uses
- Marketing spend review
- Return on a campaign, channel or event.
- Software business case
- Licence cost against the time or headcount it saves.
- Training investment
- Course cost against measurable output change.
- Equipment purchase
- Capital cost against additional capacity or reduced waste.
How to use it
Enter the amount invested
The full cost. Include setup, licences and staff time if you can put a figure on it — leaving them out flatters the result.
Enter the value returned
Revenue, savings or value you can attribute to the spend. Be honest about attribution.
Optionally enter the period
In years. Adding it produces the annualised rate, which is what makes different durations comparable.
Read both figures
Total ROI answers "was it worth it". Annualised answers "how does it compare".
Practical tips
- A total ROI without a period is close to meaningless for comparison
- 40% over one year and 40% over five are very different investments. Always annualise before ranking anything.
- Attribution is the weak link
- The arithmetic is trivial; deciding which revenue belongs to which spend is not. State your assumption alongside the number.
- Include the hidden costs
- Staff time, onboarding and disruption are real costs. Leaving them out is the most common way ROI gets overstated.
- ROI ignores risk entirely
- A 30% return that was nearly certain and a 30% return that was a gamble score identically here. Judgement has to supply that context.
- Returned value, not profit
- Enter the total value that came back, not the gain. The tool works out the gain itself — entering the profit instead understates the investment base.