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See how reinvesting dividends snowballs your shares, income and portfolio. Use any yield, dividend growth, payout frequency and tax rate — or start from a real stock with live data. Includes the DRIP rate and how long it takes to double your shares.
Each month your contribution buys shares at the current price, which grows at the rate you choose. On every payment date the dividend — your shares × the dividend per share for that period, after tax — either buys more shares (DRIP) or is kept as cash. The dividend per share rises once a year by the dividend growth rate. The calculator compares both paths and shows the difference reinvesting makes.
Yield on cost is the year's dividend income divided by all the money you put in — it climbs as dividends grow and reinvested shares pile up.
The DRIP rate is the yearly growth of your share count from reinvested dividends alone. With a 3.5% yield, quarterly payments and a share price rising 5% a year, reinvesting adds 3.44% more shares in the first year and doubles the share count in about 19 years without any new money. Higher yields and slower price growth raise the DRIP rate; taxes on dividends lower it.
Example: $10,000 plus $500 a month for 20 years, 3.5% yield growing 6% a year, price +5% a year, no tax.
Live yields and payout history for each ticker — open its calculator to model your own numbers.
A DRIP (dividend reinvestment plan) calculator projects how an investment grows when every dividend is used to buy more shares instead of being paid out as cash. Enter your starting amount, monthly contribution, dividend yield, expected dividend and price growth, payout frequency and tax rate, and it shows your future portfolio value, yearly dividend income and how many extra shares the dividends buy.
When a stock or fund you own pays a dividend, a DRIP automatically uses the cash to buy more shares — usually including fractional shares and with no commission. The new shares earn dividends too, so the next payment is a little larger. Over many years this compounding makes the share count, and the income, grow faster than with cash payouts.
The DRIP rate is how fast reinvested dividends grow your number of shares. At a constant share price it is roughly the dividend yield after tax: a 4% yield adds about 4% more shares a year. In the default example on this page the DRIP rate is 3.44% in the first year, and reinvesting alone doubles the share count in about 19 years. A rising share price lowers the DRIP rate (each dividend buys fewer shares) but raises the value of what you own.
If you don't need the income now, reinvesting usually ends with a larger portfolio because the dividends compound. In the default example, the portfolio reaches $379.1K with DRIP versus $309.0K with dividends taken as cash. If you live on the income, or the yield is extremely high and unlikely to last, taking cash can make more sense.
Yes, in a regular taxable brokerage account: reinvested dividends are taxed in the year they are paid, exactly like cash dividends, and each reinvestment adds to your cost basis. Inside a Traditional IRA or 401(k) the tax is deferred until withdrawal, and in a Roth IRA qualified withdrawals are tax-free. Use the tax setting in the calculator to see the difference.
Most US stocks pay quarterly. Many REITs, bond funds, covered-call ETFs and money market funds pay monthly, and some foreign companies pay twice a year. More frequent payments compound slightly faster, which you can test with the payout frequency setting.
Most US brokers let you switch on dividend reinvestment for free — for your whole account or for individual positions — in the account or position settings. Some companies also run their own direct DRIP programs through a transfer agent.
Not financial advice. Projections use the assumptions you enter; real dividends and prices change, and dividends can be cut. Full disclaimer →