Dividend & DRIP Calculator
See how dividends add up — and what changes when you reinvest them. Enter an investment, a yield, an optional growth rate and a time horizon, then flip reinvestment on or off to watch compounding do its work.
Projection over 20 years
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How to use the calculator
- Enter your initial investment and the annual dividend yield.
- Optionally add a dividend growth rate — leave it at 0 for a flat dividend.
- Set the number of years you want to project over.
- Toggle reinvest dividends (DRIP) on to compound the payouts, or off to take the cash.
Reinvesting versus taking the cash
With DRIP switched off, each payout lands in your account as cash and your position stays the same size. The calculator sums those payouts so you can see the income stream, while the balance holds near your original stake. This is how a lot of people use dividends in practice — as spendable income rather than fuel for growth.
Switch DRIP on and every dividend buys more of the position. Next year's payout is then calculated on a bigger base, so the payouts snowball. Add a dividend growth rate and the yield ticks up each year as well, stacking a second source of compounding on top. Over a long horizon the two together can turn a modest yield into a meaningfully larger ending balance — which is exactly what the growth bars on the right are showing.
One honest caveat runs through all of it: this is a smooth model of a messy reality. It assumes the yield and growth you typed hold steady for the whole period, with no cuts, no tax and no change in the share price. Real portfolios don't behave that cleanly. Use the tool to build intuition for how compounding works, and treat the final number as an illustration of your assumptions — never a promise of what a real holding will deliver.
Frequently asked questions
How does a dividend reinvestment (DRIP) calculator work?
It runs your inputs year by year. Each year the dividend equals your balance multiplied by the current yield. With reinvestment on, that dividend is added back to the balance, so the next year's payout is calculated on a larger base — the payouts compound. If you also set a dividend growth rate, the yield is nudged up each year on top of that. The result is total dividends received, the final balance, and yield-on-cost.
What is yield on cost?
Yield on cost is the annual dividend income you're now receiving measured against what you originally invested, not against today's market value. If you put in 10,000 and the position now throws off 700 a year, your yield on cost is 7% — even if the current yield on the share price is lower. It rises over time when dividends grow or when reinvestment builds your share count, which is why long-term holders often show a yield on cost well above the headline yield.
Does reinvesting dividends really make a difference?
Over long horizons it can be the larger part of the return. Reinvested dividends buy more shares, those shares pay their own dividends, and the effect compounds. This calculator lets you toggle reinvestment on and off with the same inputs so you can see the gap for yourself. The size of that gap depends entirely on the yield, the growth rate and the number of years you type in.
Are these dividend projections a prediction of future returns?
No. They are arithmetic on the assumptions you enter — a fixed yield, a fixed growth rate, no cuts, no taxes, no price changes. Real dividends get raised, frozen, cut or suspended, prices move independently, and tax reduces what you keep. Treat the output as a way to understand how compounding behaves under your assumptions, not as a forecast of what any stock or fund will pay.
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Educational tool only — not financial advice. Projections are arithmetic on the assumptions you enter, not predictions. Dividends can be cut or suspended and share prices fall. Nothing here promises a return. Also see our trading blog.