Net Present Value (NPV) Calculator

Find the net present value of an investment from its cash flows and your discount rate, with IRR and payback period.

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Money going out today, as a positive number.
Your required return or cost of capital.
Cash Flows (End of Each Year)
Leave later years blank. Use a minus sign for years with net outflows.
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Fractions and decimals both work.
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Net Present Value
NPV
IRR
Profitability index
Payback period
Discounted payback
Total cash returned
Decision at Your Rate

Projects

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ProjectInvestmentNPVIRRPaybackRemove

How to Calculate Net Present Value

NPV discounts each future cash flow back to today at your required rate of return and subtracts the investment. A positive NPV means the investment earns more than that rate; a negative NPV means it earns less.

NPV = −investment + Σ CFₜ ÷ (1 + r)t
IRR = the rate r that makes NPV = 0
Payback = years until cumulative cash flow turns positive (discounted payback uses discounted flows)

Worked Example

Tips

NPV is the most reliable test when comparing projects; IRR can be misleading when cash flows change sign more than once or projects differ in size. Payback ignores everything after the investment is recovered, so use it as a risk check rather than the decision rule. These match Excel's NPV (applied to years 1 onward, minus the investment) and IRR functions.