Break-Even Calculator.
Your entry price is not it.
Commission on the way in and on the way out both have to be earned back before you make a penny. This works out the price that actually returns you to flat — and if you built the position in stages, get your blended average from the average down calculator first.
Break-Even Inputs
Enter your investment details and trading fees
Break-Even Analysis
Your minimum selling price to break even
Enter your investment details to calculate break-even price
How break-even is calculated
Three lines, and the one people leave out
Break-even is the exit price at which you get back exactly what you put in — no gain, no loss. It sounds like it should equal your purchase price, and it never does, because entering and leaving a position both cost money.
- Total cost = (purchase price × shares) + buy commission
- Break-even price = (total cost + sell commission) ÷ shares
- Fee impact = break-even price − purchase price
The line most calculators omit is the sell commission. It has not been paid yet, so it feels like it does not belong — but you cannot exit the position without paying it, which makes it as real a cost as the one you already paid. Leaving it out produces a break-even price you can hit and still lose money at.
Two costs sit outside this calculation and are worth knowing about. The bid-ask spread is paid on both legs and never appears on a contract note, so on an illiquid stock your true break-even is slightly higher than any calculator will tell you. And in markets with stamp duty or transaction taxes, those belong in the fee fields alongside the commission.
Worked examples
The same fee, two very different effects
1. A standard position
100 shares bought at $50, with $10 commission charged on each leg.
- Total cost = (100 × $50) + $10 = $5,010
- Break-even = ($5,010 + $10) ÷ 100 = $50.20
- Fee impact = 20 cents a share, or 0.4% above your entry
2. The same fee on a small position
10 shares bought at $50, same $10 each way.
- Total cost = (10 × $50) + $10 = $510
- Break-even = ($510 + $10) ÷ 10 = $52.00
- Fee impact = $2.00 a share, or 4% above your entry
Identical stock, identical fee structure, and one position needs a 0.4% move to break even while the other needs 4%. The commission did not change — the number of shares it was spread across did. This is the single most useful thing a break-even calculation tells you, and it is invisible if you only ever look at the dollar cost of the fee.
The recovery a loss demands
Gains and losses are not symmetrical
Once you are below your break-even, getting back to it requires a larger percentage move than the one that put you there, because the gain is calculated on a smaller base. Recovering a loss of L requires a gain of L ÷ (1 − L).
| Loss from break-even | Gain needed to recover |
|---|---|
| 10% | 11.1% |
| 25% | 33.3% |
| 40% | 66.7% |
| 50% | 100% |
| 70% | 233% |
| 90% | 900% |
Read down the right-hand column and the case for controlling losses makes itself. The difference between a 25% drawdown and a 50% one is not double the pain — it is the difference between needing a routine recovery and needing the position to double. It is also why sizing a position correctly at the start does more for your outcome than any exit decision made later. The position size calculator works backwards from the loss you can absorb.
Break-even after averaging down
The number moves, and so does your exposure
Averaging down is, in effect, a tool for moving your break-even price. Buy 100 shares at $100 and add 100 more at $60, and your average becomes $80 — so the price that returns you to flat drops from $100 to $80, and the recovery required falls from 67% to 33%.
That is a genuine improvement, and it comes with a cost the break-even number does not show. You now have $16,000 committed rather than $10,000, so while the required move got smaller, the amount riding on it got larger. If the stock keeps falling, the bigger position loses faster in absolute terms than the smaller one would have.
Recalculate here after every tranche, using your new blended average and the total commission from all purchases. A break-even figure computed against your original entry is stale the moment you add. Breakeven after averaging down walks through the full calculation, and when not to average down covers the cases where lowering your break-even is the wrong goal entirely.
Why small positions suffer most
A flat fee does not shrink with your order
| Position | $20 round trip | Move needed to break even |
|---|---|---|
| 500 shares @ $40 = $20,000 | $0.04 / share | 0.1% |
| 150 shares @ $40 = $6,000 | $0.13 / share | 0.33% |
| 30 shares @ $40 = $1,200 | $0.67 / share | 1.67% |
| 10 shares @ $40 = $400 | $2.00 / share | 5.0% |
A ten-share position at a commission broker starts 5% in the hole. That is a real argument against building a position through many small purchases when you pay per order — each tranche carries its own fee, and a plan that looked sensible on paper can spend several percent of the capital simply executing itself. If your broker charges per trade, fewer and larger tranches will usually beat more and smaller ones.
Two things break-even is not
One number it quietly ignores, one decision it should never drive
It ignores dividends you have already banked
Every dividend paid to you is cash you keep regardless of what the share price does next, so it lowers your effective break-even. Hold 200 shares bought at $50 and collect $1.20 a share in dividends over two years, and you have taken $240 off the table — your real break-even is $49.00 rather than $50.20. A pure price-based calculation cannot see this, which means a long-held income position is usually closer to flat than the screen suggests. If you reinvest the dividends instead, they buy shares at new prices and change your average cost rather than reducing it directly, which is a different calculation again.
It is not a reason to sell
The most expensive use of a break-even price is as an exit trigger. “I will sell when it gets back to what I paid” feels disciplined and is the opposite: the market has no knowledge of your entry price, and a stock returning to it tells you nothing whatsoever about what the business is worth today. Investors routinely hold declining positions for years waiting for a number that exists only in their own account history, then sell the moment it arrives — frequently just as the thesis starts working.
Break-even is a measurement, not a plan. It tells you where you stand and what the round trip cost you. The decision about whether to hold belongs to a separate question — whether you would buy this position today at this price with fresh money — and the decision about where to exit belongs to the target price calculator, which sets an exit from valuation or risk-reward rather than from what you happened to pay.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my break-even price on a stock?▾
Break-even price = (total cost including buy fees + sell fee) / number of shares. Buy 100 shares at $50 with a $10 commission and your total cost is $5,010; add a $10 sell fee and you need ($5,010 + $10) / 100 = $50.20 to get out flat. The sell fee belongs in the calculation even though you have not paid it yet, because you cannot exit without paying it.
Why is my break-even price higher than what I paid?▾
Because buying and selling both cost money. Commission on the entry is already sunk into your basis, and commission on the exit has to be earned back before you see a cent. Add the bid-ask spread you cross on the way out and the gap widens further. Your entry price is what the stock cost; your break-even is what the round trip cost.
How much does a stock have to rise to recover a loss?▾
More than it fell, and the gap widens fast. Recovering a loss of L requires a gain of L / (1 - L). Down 25% you need 33.3%; down 50% you need 100%; down 70% you need 233%. This asymmetry is why avoiding large drawdowns matters more than capturing large gains, and why position sizing does more work than exit timing.
How does averaging down affect my break-even price?▾
It lowers it, which is the entire point of the strategy. Buy 100 shares at $100 and 100 more at $60 and your average becomes $80 - so break-even falls from $100 to $80, and the required recovery falls from 67% to 33%. What has not improved is your exposure: you now have $16,000 riding on the outcome instead of $10,000.
Does break-even include tax?▾
This calculator stops at commission, because there is no tax owed at break-even - by definition you have no gain to be taxed on. Tax becomes relevant one step further out, when you are working out the price that delivers a target profit after tax rather than the price that returns you to flat. The capital gains calculator handles that case.
What is my break-even if I bought in several tranches?▾
Use your blended average cost as the purchase price, not the price of your first buy, and add up the commission from every tranche rather than a single trade's worth. A plan of four purchases at $9.95 each carries $39.80 of entry cost, and on a small position that alone can move break-even by a meaningful amount per share.
Should I sell as soon as I hit break-even?▾
Getting back to flat is an accounting event, not an investment thesis. The stock does not know your cost basis, and the fact that a position has returned to what you paid says nothing about what it is worth now. If it is a good holding, break-even is not a reason to sell; if it is not, break-even was not the reason to hold.
Why does break-even matter more on small positions?▾
Because a flat commission does not shrink with your order. A $20 round trip on a $20,000 position moves break-even by four cents a share; the same $20 on a $400 position moves it by $2 a share, meaning the stock must rise 5% before you make anything. This is the strongest argument against building a position in many small tranches at a per-order broker.
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Disclaimer: This calculator is for educational purposes only and is not financial or tax advice. It accounts for the commissions you enter but cannot see the bid-ask spread you cross or any transaction taxes in your market. Consult a qualified adviser before making investment decisions.