Your figures
Result
How this calculator works
ROI compares what came back with what went in. Enter the amount invested and the final value — what you sold for, or the total returned including payouts — and the calculator returns the net gain and the ROI percentage. Add the holding period and it also annualises the return, spreading the growth evenly across the years so a three-year result can be compared with a one-year result without fooling yourself.
The simplicity is both the appeal and the danger. ROI treats a gain earned over a decade the same as the same gain earned in a month unless you annualise it, and it says nothing about the risk taken, the effort spent, or the other uses the money was denied. Two investments with identical ROI can be wildly different decisions; the percentage is the start of the conversation, not the end of it.
Good practice and limits
Include everything in both figures: fees, taxes you actually paid, and — for your own projects — a fair value for your hours, which freelancers routinely leave out and thereby invent profitable-looking work. An ROI that excludes your time measures the investment's return on money only, and quietly assumes your labour was free.