This option profit calculator gives you the result of a long call or a long put at expiration: net profit, maximum loss, breakeven and return. Enter the strike, the premium paid, the number of contracts and the underlying price. Free, instant, no sign-up.
Result AT EXPIRATION, where value depends only on the underlying and the strike. The multiplier is 100 on US equity options.
At expiration a call is worth the price minus the strike, and zero if that is negative. A put is worth the strike minus the price, and zero if that is negative. That is all: at expiration there is no time value left to estimate.
Net result = (intrinsic value − premium) × multiplier × number of contracts. The multiplier is 100 on US equity options, which means a premium quoted at 3.50 actually costs 350 per contract.
A call's breakeven is the strike plus the premium, a put's is the strike minus the premium. Below it for a call, above it for a put, you lose money even if the option finishes in the money. It is the most common beginner mistake.
The full formula: result = (intrinsic value at expiration − premium paid) × multiplier × contracts. And the breakeven everyone forgets: strike + premium for a call, strike − premium for a put.
Want to understand what an option is before calculating its profit?
Read the options guide →This option profit calculator works at expiration, and that is a deliberate choice. On that date, the value of an option depends on two numbers only: the price of the underlying and the strike. There is no time value left, no implied volatility to estimate, and therefore no room for an approximation dressed up as a result.
Before expiration it is a different matter. Working out what a call is worth in three weeks means modelling implied volatility, and a wrong value shown to two decimals is more dangerous than no value at all. The options calculators that promise a valuation on any date give you a number, not a certainty. This one prefers to give you an exact number to a precise question.
What it returns: the net result in money, the return as a percentage of the premium committed, the breakeven, and the maximum loss. For a long call or a long put, that maximum loss is always the premium paid and never more. It is the property that makes buying options readable, and it is the one this calculator states plainly.
An option can finish in the money and still lose you money. That is mistake number one, and it comes from confusing the strike price with the breakeven. Here are both numbers side by side on a long call example: strike 100, premium 3.50.
| Price at expiration | Option value | Net result | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 95 | 0 | −350 | Premium lost in full |
| 100 | 0 | −350 | At the strike, nothing recovered |
| 102 | 200 | −150 | In the money, and losing |
| 103.50 | 350 | 0 | Exact breakeven |
| 110 | 1,000 | +650 | Winning |
| 120 | 2,000 | +1,650 | Winning |
Look at the 102 row: the option is worth something, it is in the money, and the position still loses 150. Until the price clears 103.50, meaning the strike plus the premium, the premium paid is not repaid. A call option calculator that only shows you the option's value, without subtracting the premium, lets you believe the opposite.
A long call and a long put are symmetrical: the only difference is which way round you subtract. This options calculator handles both, and the table below sums up what changes.
| Long call | Long put | |
|---|---|---|
| Value at expiration | price − strike, floored at 0 | strike − price, floored at 0 |
| Breakeven | strike + premium | strike − premium |
| Maximum loss | the premium paid | the premium paid |
| Maximum gain | theoretically unlimited | strike − premium, capped |
The last row is worth pausing on. A long call has a theoretically unlimited gain because nothing bounds how far an underlying can rise. A long put is capped: a share cannot fall below zero. That is why a long put calculator and a long call calculator never return the same shape of result, even with the same inputs.
A premium quoted at 3.50 does not cost 3.50. On US equity options one contract covers 100 shares, so the real premium is 350 per contract. That is the multiplier, and it is the second source of error behind breakeven, because it appears nowhere on the quote screen.
Three neighbouring questions come up often, and this tool deliberately does not answer them. Better to know before you type in your numbers.
On what it does do, however, the maths is exact rather than approximate. That is the trade-off this page accepts: a correct answer to a bounded question, rather than a fuzzy answer to every question.
On the underlying there are genuine differences, and they all come down to the multiplier. On US equities one contract covers 100 shares, which is the default any stock option profit calculator applies. On indices the multiplier depends on the product, and on futures each contract has its own. The field is editable so one tool covers all three.
The direction of the trade changes the formula, not the tool. Used as a long call option calculator, it subtracts the strike from the price at expiration; used as a put option calculator, it does the opposite. It is a long options calculator, built for buying calls and puts, never for selling them. In both cases the premium comes off before any result is shown, which is the step a home-made profit and loss calculator in a spreadsheet most often forgets.
An option calculator answers a one-off question: how much this trade earns at that price. It says nothing about the only thing that matters over time, which is whether your series of trades makes money. For that you need two other numbers: your win rate and your reward-to-risk ratio.
That is exactly what the win rate calculator returns, together with the threshold your rate has to beat for the series to be profitable. And if you are new to this market, the guide on what options are covers the vocabulary from the start.
For sizing on other markets, the position size calculator takes over, and the risk calculator checks that your plan survives a daily loss limit.
The call option profit formula fits on one line: price at expiration minus strike, minus the premium, multiplied by the multiplier and the number of contracts. For a put you swap the first two terms. Knowing how to calculate option profit by hand matters: it stops you confusing the return on premium, often spectacular, with the gain in dollars, which is much less so.
A spreadsheet does the same job provided you get the signs right, and an option profit calculator in Excel is a perfectly reasonable choice. What an online calculator adds is that it is free, needs no sign-up, and makes the breakeven immediately readable. For tracking options trades over time, though, what you need is not a calculator but a journal.
Result = (intrinsic value at expiration − premium paid) × multiplier × number of contracts. A call's intrinsic value is the price minus the strike, a put's is the strike minus the price, and zero if the result is negative. This option profit calculator runs all three steps and adds the breakeven.
It is the price at which your position stops losing. For a call it is the strike plus the premium, for a put the strike minus the premium. An option can finish in the money without reaching its breakeven: it is then worth something, but less than what you paid for it.
Because one US equity option contract covers 100 shares. A premium quoted at 3.50 therefore costs 350 per contract. The multiplier differs on indices and futures, which is why the field is editable. It affects the money amounts, never the breakeven or the percentage return.
No, and that is deliberate. Before expiration an option's value depends on implied volatility and time remaining, which require a model and assumptions. A wrong number shown to two decimals would be worse than no number. Here the maths is exact because the question is bounded to expiration.
Yes, fully free and no sign-up, like the other four calculators on this site. Tradoshi is a trading journal: these tools are open and require no account.
At expiration, yes: a broker's options calculator applies the same formula, intrinsic value minus the premium, times the multiplier. Before expiration the numbers differ, because the broker's tool also prices implied volatility and time remaining. If your platform only offers a basic calls calculator, check that it takes the premium off: otherwise it shows the option's value, not your profit.