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NPV Calculator

Net present value, IRR and payback from a list of cash flows.

Finance Calculators Free, no sign-up Runs in your browser

Your cost of capital.

First line is the investment, as a negative number. Then the returns.

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Net present value
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IRR
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Payback period
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Profitability index
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Undiscounted total
PeriodCash flowDiscount factorPresent valueCumulative
A positive NPV at your cost of capital means the project earns more than the money costs. An IRR above the discount rate says the same thing a different way. Both assume the cash flows happen when you said they would, which is usually the weakest part of the model.

About the NPV Calculator

NPV Calculator discounts a list of cash flows back to today and adds them up. A positive net present value means the money coming in is worth more than the money going out, after accounting for the fact that later money is worth less. That is the standard test for whether a project, a machine or an acquisition is worth doing.

The internal rate of return is the same information in a different form: the discount rate at which the NPV would be exactly zero. If the IRR is above your cost of capital the project clears the bar. It is computed here by bisection rather than by iteration from a guess, which means it cannot run away to a nonsensical answer, and it returns nothing at all when the flows have no sign change, because then there is no rate to find.

Payback period and the profitability index are shown alongside because no single measure is enough. NPV tells you the value created but not how long your money is at risk; payback tells you that but ignores everything after it; the profitability index scales value against investment, which is what matters when you can only fund one of several projects.

This is arithmetic, not financial advice. It tells you what the numbers do; it cannot tell you whether a decision is right for your circumstances. Fees, taxes and local rules vary, so check anything that matters against the actual offer and speak to someone qualified before committing.

Everything is worked out inside your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, logged or stored, which matters for the financial calculators in particular: the figures you put into them are nobody else's business.

Looking for something this does not cover? FreeToolStation.com is a second collection of the same kind of everyday tools, and it is worth a look if npv calculator is only part of what you are working on.

How to use the NPV Calculator

  1. Choose each flow is oneThe fields below change to match what you pick, so only the figures that matter to your case are asked for.
  2. Enter discount rate (% a period) and cash flows, one per lineDecimals are fine, and thousands separators are accepted and ignored.
  3. Read the net present value, irr and payback periodThe figures update as you type. The Calculate button is there if you would rather press something, but nothing waits for it.
  4. Copy or check the resultCopy the summary with the copy button, or open the table to check it row by row. The download button saves it as a file.

Features

  • Shows net present value, irr, payback period, profitability index and undiscounted total together, so you are not running it twice
  • A results table you can read across
  • Updates as you type, with no button to press and no page reload
  • Copy the result in one click
  • Download the detail as a .csv for a spreadsheet
  • Free, no sign-up, and it runs entirely in your browser

Who uses this tool

The npv calculator is used by writers, developers, students, marketers and anyone else who needs the job done once without installing software. Common cases include:

  • Appraising a capital purchase against the cost of borrowing
  • Comparing two projects with different timings
  • Working out the IRR a set of flows implies
  • Checking a business case somebody else has modelled

Frequently asked questions

What discount rate should I use?

Your cost of capital: the blended cost of the debt and equity funding the project, plus a premium if it is riskier than your normal work.

Why is there no IRR sometimes?

An IRR exists only where the flows change sign. All-positive or all-negative flows have no break-even rate, and the calculator says so rather than inventing one.

Should the first flow be negative?

Normally yes: it is the money you put in. The arithmetic does not require it, but payback and the profitability index only mean something if there is an outflow to pay back.

If the npv calculator is not quite what you need, these other free tools solve closely related problems, and there are 38 more in finance calculators.

IRR Calculator

Internal rate of return for any series of cash flows.

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ROI Calculator

Net gain, ROI and the annualised figure from what you put in and got out.

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CAGR Calculator

The smoothed yearly growth rate between a starting and an ending value.

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Checked and rebuilt on 2026-10-14. The method this calculator uses is described in the section above, and corrections go through the contact page.