IRR calculator.
Calculate a periodic internal rate of return from equally spaced cash flows, with a compounded annual equivalent.
Equally spaced cash flows
Money invested is negative. Money received is positive. Include an unsold holding's final estimated value as a positive closing flow. Use one currency throughout.
Paste cash flows
Keep a zero row for a period with no cash flow. Removing a row changes the timing of all later flows. Patterns with more than one net sign change are flagged rather than assigned a potentially ambiguous return.
Equally spaced periods; 1 periods per year for the annualized equivalent. First row is period zero. Annualization compounds the periodic IRR; it does not simply multiply it. No dated cash-flow timing is inferred.
View detailed breakdown
| Period | Net cash flow |
|---|---|
| 0 | -100,000 |
| 1 | 60,000 |
| 2 | 60,000 |
How this irr calculator works
IRR solves Σ cash flow at period t / (1 + r)^t = 0. The first cash flow is at period zero, and every subsequent row is one equally spaced period later. The annual equivalent is (1 + periodic rate) raised to periods per year, minus one. Zero-flow periods must remain in the sequence.
A worked example
Invest 1,000 at period zero and receive 1,100 one period later: periodic IRR is 10%. If each period is a month, its annualized equivalent is about 213.8428%, illustrating why a one-month return must not be labelled a one-year achieved gain.
What if my cash flows have more than one IRR?
After zero entries are ignored, patterns with multiple sign changes can have multiple roots or no root. This version deliberately flags those patterns rather than selecting a potentially misleading rate. Supported single-sign-change patterns are solved between −99.9999% and 100,000,000%; a range failure is reported explicitly.
References and further reading
Calculations run on your device. Review your results before exporting or sharing them.
Preserve every period in the sequence
The first row is period zero. Use a zero amount for a month or year with no cash flow; deleting that row moves later proceeds earlier and changes the answer. Pick the period spacing before reading the annualized equivalent.
A larger IRR does not tell you how much money was earned or how risky the project was. Read net gain alongside return, keep comparable timing and inspect assumptions. A pattern rejected for multiple sign changes should be analysed with a broader model, not edited to hide transactions.
Published by ToolMitra — methods and editorial approach.