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Free option profit calculator

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.

The method

How to calculate options profit

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1. Work out the intrinsic value

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.

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2. Subtract the premium you paid

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.

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3. Place your breakeven

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.

What this option calculator computes, and what it refuses to compute

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.

Breakeven, the mistake that costs beginners the most

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 expirationOption valueNet resultVerdict
950−350Premium lost in full
1000−350At the strike, nothing recovered
102200−150In the money, and losing
103.503500Exact breakeven
1101,000+650Winning
1202,000+1,650Winning

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.

Call or put, the same formula in both directions

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 callLong put
Value at expirationprice − strike, floored at 0strike − price, floored at 0
Breakevenstrike + premiumstrike premium
Maximum lossthe premium paidthe premium paid
Maximum gaintheoretically unlimitedstrike − 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.

The multiplier, the factor of 100 everyone forgets

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.

  • US equities: multiplier 100, the default setting of this options contract calculator.
  • Indices: the multiplier depends on the contract, often 100 but sometimes 50 or 10. It is written in the product specifications, never on the option chain.
  • Futures: each contract has its own, unrelated to 100. Type it into the field provided.
  • Effect on the maths: it multiplies the cost AND the payoff, so it changes neither the breakeven nor the percentage return. It only changes the money amounts.

What this calculator is not, and where to look instead

Three things come up often in searches and this tool deliberately does not do them. Naming them saves you the time.

  • It is not an options probability calculator. Estimating the odds that an option finishes in the money needs a volatility model and a distribution assumption. The free reference on that ground is the chicago board of exchange options calculator, published by the CBOE itself.
  • It is only an options value calculator at expiration. On that date the value is exact and depends on two numbers. Before it, value depends on implied volatility, and no page can hand you that without an assumption.
  • It is not a multi-leg strategy tool. A spread, a straddle or an iron condor are built from several options: work them out leg by leg and add the results.

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.

Stocks, indices, futures, and the ten names of this tool

Options vocabulary is a real obstacle. Whether you look for a call option calculator, an options call calculator, a long call option calculator or simply a calls calculator, it is the same arithmetic: intrinsic value, minus the premium, times the multiplier. The same holds on the downside between a put option calculator, a long put calculator and a long options calculator.

On the underlying, though, there are genuine differences, and they all come down to the multiplier. A stock option profit calculator works on 100 shares per contract, which is why a stock options profit calculator and this page return the same numbers on US equities. On indices the multiplier depends on the product. On futures each contract has its own. The field is editable so one tool covers all three.

And if you came here for an abbreviation, options profit calc or option profit calc, you are in the right place: it is the same calculation. To calculate option profit you need three numbers and not one more, the strike, the premium and the price at expiration. Whether you searched for a call option profit calculator or typed the words the other way round as option calculator profit, that is the arithmetic you were looking for.

Calculating one profit is not knowing whether the strategy holds

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.

Frequently asked questions

How to calculate options profit?

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.

What is the breakeven of an option?

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.

Why multiply by 100?

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.

Does this calculator work before expiration?

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.

Is this option calculator free?

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.

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