Calculate your net profit or loss from a stock trade. Enter your buy price, sell price, number of shares, and any commissions to see your total return, profit percentage, and break-even price.
Stock profit is the simplest investment calculation: you sold for more than you paid, and the difference (after costs) is the gain. The arithmetic is straightforward, but the framing matters — the same dollar gain looks very different as an absolute number, a percentage return, and an after-tax outcome. Most casual investors track the dollar number; serious investors care about the percentage return and the after-tax result.
This calculator handles the basic gross profit calculation: (sell price − buy price) × shares − commissions. Since most major brokerages eliminated stock commissions in 2019 (Charles Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, Vanguard, etc.), the commission lines are often $0 for retail investors. They remain meaningful for some international brokers, options trades, and certain account types.
The output is the dollar profit, percentage return, and break-even price (the minimum sell price needed to cover the buy price plus commissions). For tax-aware analysis, separately compute long-term vs short-term holding (the boundary is one year and one day), and apply the appropriate capital gains rate to the gross profit to estimate after-tax proceeds. Most short-term gains are taxed at ordinary income rates (10–37%); most long-term gains at 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on income bracket.
Buy 100 shares at $50 = $5,000 invested Sell 12 months later at $75 = $7,500 proceeds Commissions: $0 each side (typical retail brokerage) Gross profit: $2,500 Return: 50% Break-even: $50 per share Long-term gain (held > 1 year). At 15% LTCG bracket: tax of $375, after-tax profit $2,125. At 0% LTCG bracket (low-income): no tax, full $2,500 after-tax.
Buy 200 shares at $40 = $8,000 invested Sell 6 months later at $50 = $10,000 proceeds Gross profit: $2,000 (25% return) Held less than 1 year → taxed as ordinary income. At 24% federal bracket: tax of $480. After-tax profit: $1,520 (after-tax return: 19%) If you had waited 7 more months for long-term treatment at 15% LTCG: tax of $300, after-tax profit $1,700. Holding period matters significantly for after-tax outcomes.
Buy 100 shares at $80 = $8,000 invested Sell at $55 = $5,500 proceeds Loss: $2,500 The loss offsets up to $2,500 of other capital gains in the same tax year. If you have $5,000 in other gains, the $2,500 loss reduces taxable gains to $2,500. At 15% LTCG: tax savings of $375. If you have no other capital gains, the loss offsets up to $3,000 of ordinary income (with the rest carried forward to future years). At 24% federal bracket: tax savings of $600. Watch out for the wash-sale rule: don't buy the same stock back within 30 days, or the loss is disallowed and added to the basis of the replacement shares.
Use this calculator any time you're evaluating a stock trade — before placing the order to confirm the math, after closing the position to record the result, or while planning tax-aware trading strategies. The break-even price is especially useful for setting stop-loss orders that protect against losses, and for understanding what the minimum acceptable sell price needs to be to "make the trade work."
It's also useful as a baseline tool. The gross return is what most casual investors track and discuss; the after-tax return is what actually shows up in your spendable wealth. Computing both — and noticing the gap — usually motivates more deliberate decisions about holding period, account type (taxable vs. Roth vs. Traditional), and trading frequency.
Pair this with the capital-gains-tax calculator (which handles the tax math in detail), the ROI calculator (general-purpose total-return measure), the CAGR calculator (for annualizing returns when held over multiple years), and the dividend calculator (to factor in income separate from price appreciation).
For traders who execute multiple buys at different prices and then partially sell, this single-lot calculator is too simple. Use tax-lot accounting tools provided by your brokerage (FIFO, LIFO, specific identification) to track cost basis accurately for each parcel of shares. The IRS expects you to report gains based on which specific shares were sold — random simplification can produce wrong tax results.
A note on dividends: this calculator handles price-only profit. If the stock paid dividends during your holding period, those are separate income (typically qualified dividends taxed at long-term capital gains rates if held for the required period). For total return analysis including dividends, add the dividends received to the proceeds calculation.
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Net Profit
$1,500.00
Return
30.00%
Total Commissions
$0.00
Break-Even Price
$100.00