Internal Rate of Return Calculator

About this calculator

The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is the discount rate at which an investment's Net Present Value (NPV) equals exactly zero — in other words, the annualized return the investment actually delivers once every future cash flow is discounted back to today. It is one of the most widely used metrics in corporate finance and investment analysis because it expresses profitability as a single percentage that can be compared directly against a hurdle rate or the cost of capital.

Financial analysts, private equity firms, and real estate investors use IRR to decide whether a project or deal clears the minimum acceptable return, and to rank competing investment opportunities with different cash flow timing. Because IRR assumes cash flows are reinvested at the IRR itself, it is often reported alongside NPV at a fixed discount rate — commonly the investor's cost of capital — as a sanity check.

This calculator finds the IRR for an investment with a uniform initial outlay and equal annual cash flows, and also reports total cash returned and the NPV at a 10% discount rate, giving you two complementary views of the same investment.