Stock Profit Calculator
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.
Inputs
Results
Net Profit
$1,500.00
Return
30.00%
Total Commissions
$0.00
Break-Even Price
$100.00
Trade Breakdown
Formula
How to use this calculator
- Enter the buy price per share — what you paid for the stock, not the current market price.
- Enter the sell price per share — the price at which you sold (or plan to sell).
- Enter the number of shares involved in the trade.
- Enter the buy commission. For most retail investors at major U.S. brokers (Schwab, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Robinhood, Vanguard), this is $0 for U.S. stock trades. Options, international stocks, mutual funds, and some account types still have fees.
- Enter the sell commission. Same logic — typically $0 for U.S. stock retail trades, may apply for other instruments.
- Review the gross profit (the dollar gain or loss), percentage return, and break-even price. The break-even is the minimum sell price to avoid losing money on the trade.
- For an after-tax view, estimate your applicable capital gains rate (0%, 15%, or 20% for long-term; your marginal rate for short-term) and multiply by the profit. The capital-gains-tax calculator handles this in more detail.
- For multi-trade analysis (multiple buys at different prices, partial sells), this calculator assumes single buy and single sell. Multiple-lot analysis requires tracking each "lot" separately for accurate cost basis.
Worked examples
Standard winning trade — long-term gain
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.
Short-term trade — ordinary income tax bite
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.
Loss-taking trade — tax loss harvesting
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.
When to use this calculator
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.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Confusing percentage return with annualized return. A 30% return over 6 months is not the same as 30% per year — it's actually about 69% annualized. For comparing investments over different holding periods, use CAGR or annualized return, not raw percentage gain.
- Forgetting commissions on options and international trades. Most major U.S. brokers eliminated stock commissions, but options trades still cost $0.50–$0.70 per contract, and international stocks often have fees of $5–$50 per trade.
- Ignoring the difference between short-term and long-term capital gains. Tax cost differs by 10–20% in many cases. Selling one day before the 1-year mark instead of one day after can cost hundreds or thousands in extra tax.
- Triggering wash-sale rule. Selling at a loss and rebuying within 30 days (either before or after the sale) disallows the loss. The disallowed amount is added to the new shares' cost basis, deferring (but not erasing) the loss.
- Using gross profit to compare investments without accounting for taxes. Trading in a taxable account at a high marginal rate produces dramatically lower after-tax returns than the same trades in a Roth IRA (no tax) or Traditional IRA (tax deferred). Account type matters as much as the trade itself.
- Treating per-share commission as flat per-trade cost. Some discount brokers charge per-share fees (often used in dark-pool trading platforms). Always check whether you're seeing per-trade or per-share commission in the input.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & further reading
- Topic 409 — Capital Gains and Losses — U.S. Internal Revenue Service
- Saving and Investing — A Roadmap to Your Financial Security — U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
- Wash Sales — IRS Publication 550 — U.S. Internal Revenue Service