Free stock profit calculator. Calculate your total profit or loss from buying and selling stocks, including commissions, taxes, and percentage return.
The Stock Profit Calculator is a simple, entry-level tool that shows your total profit or loss from buying and selling shares of stock. Enter your purchase price, sale price, number of shares, and any commissions or fees, and instantly see your net gain or loss in both dollar and percentage terms.
Whether you just closed your first trade or manage hundreds of positions, understanding your exact profit after all costs is essential. Many investors focus only on the share price difference and forget to account for brokerage commissions, SEC fees, and potential tax obligations that reduce the actual take-home profit.
This calculator handles all the math in one place, giving you a clear picture of what you actually earned or lost on any stock trade. It is the perfect starting point for new investors learning to track and evaluate their trading performance. Consistent tracking of actual profits and losses is the foundation of improving your investment discipline over time.
Knowing your exact net profit helps you evaluate trading performance honestly. By including commissions and tax estimates, you see the real bottom line rather than a misleading gross figure. This clarity helps you improve your strategy, set better price targets, and manage position sizes more effectively. Over time, this data reveals patterns in your trading that can guide future strategy.
Gross Profit = (Sell Price – Buy Price) × Shares Net Profit = Gross Profit – Total Commissions Tax Liability = max(0, Net Profit) × Tax Rate After-Tax Profit = Net Profit – Tax Liability Percentage Return = Net Profit / (Buy Price × Shares + Commissions) × 100
Result: Net Profit: $1,480 (29.2% return)
You bought 100 shares at $50 ($5,000) and sold at $65 ($6,500). Gross profit = $1,500. After $20 in commissions, net profit = $1,480. At a 15% capital gains tax rate, tax = $222. After-tax profit = $1,258. The percentage return on investment (before tax) is $1,480 / $5,020 = 29.5%.
Every investor should track the profit or loss on every trade. This discipline forces you to confront losing trades, celebrate winning ones, and understand your overall performance pattern. Over time, this data reveals whether your strategy is working or needs adjustment. Start with this calculator for individual trades and build up to a full portfolio tracker.
Commissions have dropped dramatically thanks to zero-commission brokers, but other costs remain. Bid-ask spreads, market impact on larger orders, and SEC fees all chip away at profits. For active traders making frequent small trades, these costs can add up to a meaningful drag on returns even at commission-free brokers.
Dollar profit alone does not tell the full story. A $500 profit on a $50,000 position is 1%, while the same profit on a $2,000 position is 25%. Always evaluate trades on a percentage basis, and consider the time held. Annualizing returns helps you compare trades of different durations. Use the annualized return calculator alongside this one for a complete performance picture.
Stock profit equals the sell price minus the buy price, multiplied by the number of shares, minus any commissions and fees. For example, buying 50 shares at $20 and selling at $25 with $10 in total commissions gives a profit of (25–20) × 50 – 10 = $240.
The calculator includes an optional tax rate field. Enter your expected capital gains tax rate to see the after-tax profit. Short-term capital gains (assets held under one year) are typically taxed at your ordinary income rate, while long-term gains enjoy lower rates of 0%, 15%, or 20%.
This calculator focuses on the buy-sell trade profit. If you received dividends while holding the stock, add them to your total return separately. Dividends are taxed differently from capital gains and should be tracked as a separate income component.
If you bought shares at different prices, use the cost basis calculator to determine your average cost per share. Then enter that average as your buy price here. Methods like FIFO (first in, first out) or average cost affect which cost basis you use.
Yes. The SEC fee is a small charge on stock sales that your broker may pass on to you. Include it along with brokerage commissions in the total commissions field. While typically small (a few cents per $1,000), it does reduce your net profit.
It depends on the holding period and risk involved. The S&P 500 returns about 10% per year on average. Any individual trade returning more than the market for the equivalent holding period is above average. Day traders may target 1–3% per trade, while long-term investors look for multi-year compounding.
If the sell price is below the buy price, the calculator shows a negative profit (loss). You can use capital losses to offset capital gains on your tax return, and up to $3,000 per year in excess losses can offset ordinary income. Remaining losses carry forward to future years.
The number of shares affects the dollar profit but not the percentage return (when calculated per share). A 10% gain is 10% whether you hold 10 shares or 10,000 shares. The dollars change, but the relative performance remains the same.