What is the IRR of my investment?
Find the yearly return that ties together what you put in, when you put it in and what you got back, and the net present value at the return you require, for a rental, a business or an account you keep adding to.
What are you measuring?
Money in today, cash it pays you each year, and what it is worth or sells for at the end.
INTERNAL RATE OF RETURNABOVE YOUR REQUIRED RETURN
11.77%a year
Putting in $100,000 today and receiving $9,000 a year, growing 3.0% a year, for 10 years plus $130,000 at the end gives a yearly return of 11.77%. Discounted at your required 8.0%, that cash is worth $128,166 today against the $100,000 you pay, a net present value of $28,166, so it clears your hurdle.
Net present value
$28,166
Profit
$133,175
Money multiple
2.33×
Payback
10 years
UNDERSTAND YOUR RESULT
Net present value at different required returns
Net present value
At a required return of 0% the cash flows add up to $133,175. Each higher rate shrinks that value until it reaches zero at 11.77%, the IRR; above it the money coming back is worth less than the money that went in.
The cash flows, year by year
| Year | Money in | Money back | Net | Running total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $100,000 | — | −$100,000 | −$100,000 |
| Year 1 | — | $9,000 | $9,000 | −$91,000 |
| Year 2 | — | $9,270 | $9,270 | −$81,730 |
| Year 3 | — | $9,548 | $9,548 | −$72,182 |
| Year 4 | — | $9,835 | $9,835 | −$62,347 |
| Year 5 | — | $10,130 | $10,130 | −$52,218 |
| Year 6 | — | $10,433 | $10,433 | −$41,784 |
| Year 7 | — | $10,746 | $10,746 | −$31,038 |
| Year 8 | — | $11,069 | $11,069 | −$19,969 |
| Year 9 | — | $11,401 | $11,401 | −$8,568 |
| Year 10 | — | $141,743 | $141,743 | $133,175 |
Money in totals $100,000 and money back $233,175, a profit of $133,175 and a multiple of 2.33×. The running total gets back to zero in year 10. The IRR weighs each of these by when it happens, which the multiple does not.
What moves the needle
Each row re-runs the calculation with one change. Click to apply.How it's computed
FORMULA
Net present value = Σ (cash flow at time t) ÷ (1 + r)^t, money out negative and money in positive
IRR = the rate r at which the net present value is zero, found by bisection
Monthly cash flows are solved per month and quoted as a yearly rate: (1 + monthly rate)^12 − 1
Money multiple = money back ÷ money in; payback = the first year the running total is back at zero
- The money in falls at time 0 and each year’s cash at the end of that year, with the sale value or ending worth at the end of the last year. The yearly cash steps up or down once a year by the change entered.
- The IRR assumes cash received along the way can be reinvested at the IRR itself, which is generous when the IRR is high; the net present value at a required return does not make that assumption, which is why both are shown.
- Amounts are nominal, before tax, fees and inflation. The site’s 3% planning inflation is used only for the verdict on an account.
- Flows that change direction once (money out, then money in) have one IRR. If they change more than once the IRR can have several answers or none, and the page says so instead of picking one.
- The years are whole numbers up to 40, and the search covers yearly returns from a 99.9% loss to a gain of 1,000,000%.
WORKED EXAMPLE · SAMPLE NUMBERS
Cash flows: −$100,000 now, then $9,000 at the end of year 1, growing 3.0% a year, and $130,000 more at the end of year 10. At 11.77% the value of all of them today is zero; at your required 8.0% it is $28,166.
SOURCES
[1]IRR functionMicrosoft Support (the IRR of periodic cash flows needs at least one positive and one negative value)[2]Principles of Corporate Finance, Chapter 5: Net Present Value and Other Investment CriteriaRichard Brealey, Stewart Myers and Franklin Allen, McGraw-Hill
HSBuilt by Hussain Sehorewala · checked against worked examples · Sep 29, 2026
Keep this number honest as your life changes.
Put it on your Money Map and it re-runs as you change the seven numbers. It stays in this browser, and the calculator stays free.
Questions about this result
The internal rate of return is the single yearly rate that makes the present value of the money coming back equal to the present value of the money that went in. Put another way, it is the yearly return that turns your payments, on the dates you made them, into your receipts, on the dates you got them.
One above the return you could get elsewhere for similar risk. That is the required return in the calculator, and the net present value shows the gap in dollars: positive means the project beats your hurdle, negative means it does not.
The IRR is a rate; the NPV is an amount of money at a rate you choose. The NPV tells you how much value a project adds at your required return, and the IRR tells you the highest required return at which it still adds value. The chart shows both: the NPV at each rate, crossing zero at the IRR.
It assumes money you receive along the way is reinvested at the IRR itself, which is generous when the IRR is high, and it can have several answers or none when the cash flows change direction more than once. Comparing projects of different size or length by IRR alone can also pick the smaller one, so check the NPV too.
Use the account mode: enter the starting balance, what you add each month or year, and the ending balance. The result is a money-weighted return, which counts when each deposit went in. A fund’s published return is usually time-weighted, which ignores the timing of your deposits, so the two can differ.
XIRR takes exact dates and this page uses evenly spaced periods (years or months), so the two agree only when your dates fall on those periods. For irregular dates, a spreadsheet’s XIRR is the better tool.
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