📊 Crypto Profit Calculator
Before taxFigures are before any tax. In most countries disposing of crypto is a taxable event, including swapping one coin for another.
Work out the profit or loss on a crypto position once the fees on both sides are counted, and the price the position actually breaks even at. Fees are the part people leave out, and on a small position they decide whether a trade made money at all.
Why your break-even price is higher than the price you paid
Buy a coin at $42,000 and most people assume they are level again at $42,000. They are not. A fee was paid going in and another will be paid coming out, so the price has to recover both before the position is worth what was put into it. That gap is small in percentage terms and surprisingly easy to ignore, and it is the difference between a trade that made money and one that merely looked like it did.
Break-even price = total invested / (amount × (1 − sell fee))
Total invested is the cost of the coins plus the buy fee plus anything spent moving them. The denominator accounts for the fee that will be taken out of the sale.
What the fees do to the break-even
| Fee each way | Break-even | Move needed |
|---|---|---|
| 0.1% | $42,084 | +0.20% |
| 0.25% | $42,211 | +0.50% |
| 0.5% | $42,422 | +1.01% |
| 1.0% | $42,848 | +2.02% |
| 1.5% | $43,279 | +3.05% |
At 1.5% a side — which several popular consumer apps charge — the price has to rise about 3% before the first dollar of profit. If you trade in and out repeatedly, that cost is paid again every round trip, and a strategy that wins slightly more often than it loses can still lose money overall purely on friction.
The costs people leave out
- The spread. You buy above the mid price and sell below it. On a liquid coin that is a few hundredths of a percent; on a thin one it can exceed the commission.
- Network fees. Moving a coin between wallets costs a fixed amount regardless of size, which is trivial on a large position and brutal on a small one.
- Withdrawal fees. Many exchanges charge a flat fee to send money back to a bank.
- Conversion. If you funded in one currency and the exchange prices in another, there is a currency margin in there too — see the currency converter.
A fixed fee is what makes small positions uneconomic. A $5 network fee is 0.05% of a $10,000 position and 5% of a $100 one. Below a few hundred dollars, fixed costs usually dominate everything else in this calculation.
Profit is not the same as return
A $12,725 profit sounds like a single fact, but it answers nothing on its own until you know what was risked and for how long. On $21,105 invested that is a 60% return, which is excellent over a year and unremarkable over five. Annualising is what makes two positions comparable, and the ROI calculator does it properly.
The other half is what the money would have done elsewhere. A 60% gain in a period when a broad index rose 55% is a far less impressive result than the raw number suggests, and holding a volatile asset to beat the index by five points is a trade most people would not take if it were framed that way.
Tax is part of the arithmetic
In most countries disposing of crypto is a taxable event, and “disposing” usually includes swapping one coin for another, not just selling to cash. That means a chain of trades can create a tax liability even when no money has reached your bank. Rules on cost basis also differ — some jurisdictions require first-in-first-out, others an average cost — and the method changes the taxable gain on the same trades.
Nothing here calculates tax, and the profit figure above is pre-tax. Keep the transaction records your exchange provides, because reconstructing a cost basis afterwards from memory is miserable and usually expensive. This is an area where an accountant who has seen crypto before pays for themselves.
A worked example
You buy 0.5 BTC at $42,000 with a 0.5% fee: $21,000 of coins plus $105 of fee, so $21,105 invested. You sell at $68,000, which is $34,000 gross, less a 0.5% sell fee of $170, leaving $33,830. Profit is $12,725, a 60.29% return, and total fees were $275. Your break-even was $42,422 — $422 above what you paid, which is the number that would have mattered if the price had drifted sideways instead.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I calculate crypto profit?
Take what you received after selling and subtract everything you put in. That means the sale value minus the sell fee, less the purchase cost plus the buy fee and any network or withdrawal costs. The difference divided by the total invested is the return as a percentage.
What is a break-even price in crypto?
The sell price at which you get back exactly what you put in, after both fees. It is always above your buy price. At 0.5% each way it sits about 1% higher; at 1.5% each way, about 3% higher.
Why do fees matter so much?
Because they are charged on both sides and on the full value, not on the profit. At 1.5% a side the price must rise about 3% before you make anything, and every round trip pays it again, which is how an apparently profitable trading pattern ends up losing money.
Should I include the spread?
Ideally yes, though it is rarely itemised. The practical method is to compare the price you were actually filled at against the reference mid price and treat the difference as a cost. Exchanges advertising zero commission usually recover it in the spread instead.
Do I pay tax on crypto profit?
In most countries, yes, and often when you swap one coin for another rather than only when cashing out. Cost basis rules vary between jurisdictions, so the taxable gain on identical trades can differ. The figure here is before any tax.
What counts as the cost basis?
What you paid for the coins plus the fees to acquire them. If you bought the same coin several times at different prices, your jurisdiction's rule decides which purchase a sale is matched against, commonly first-in-first-out or an average cost.
Is a percentage return the best way to judge a trade?
It is better than a cash figure, but it still ignores how long the money was committed and what else it could have earned. Annualise the return so holding periods are comparable, and compare it against a broad index over the same period.
Sources
The formulas and reference figures on this page were checked against the primary sources below.