DRIP Calculator
See how reinvested dividends compound over time
Put your holding in
Free. No sign-up. The answer updates as you type.
What you buy
$
One payment, made today, before any dividend has been paid. For example 10000.
$
It sets how many shares you start with. With fractions of a share allowed it does not change what the holding ends up worth.
What it pays, and how it moves
The whole year's dividend divided by the share price. Type 4 for 4%, which on a 50 share is 2.00 per share a year.
The yearly raise, applied once a year. Type 0 if you expect the dividend to stay flat, or a minus sign in front if you expect it to shrink.
Price movement only, before any dividend. Type a minus sign in front if you expect the price to fall.
Your plan
Whole years, from 1 to 50. Nothing is sold and nothing is spent along the way.
Check how your share pays. Each payment is the year's dividend split evenly.
Reinvesting leaves you $20,579 more after 20 years than taking the cash
Reinvest every dividend and the holding would be worth $61,826. Take the same dividends as cash and you would have $41,247: the shares, plus $14,714 of dividends set aside and earning nothing.
The numbers behind that
Worth after 20 years, dividends reinvested
The 200.00 shares you start with, worth $26,533, plus 266.03 shares bought with dividends, worth $35,293.
$61,826
Worth after 20 years, dividends taken as cash
The same 200.00 shares, worth $26,533, plus $14,714 of dividends paid to you and set aside. This calculator assumes that cash earns nothing.
$41,247
Price of one share after 20 years
Up from $50.00 today, at the 5% a year you typed.
$132.66
Dividend per share in year 20
$2.00 a share in year 1, which is 4.0% of the price today. In year 20 it is 4.6% of the price then.
$6.05
What changes the answer
Click a line to jump to the field you would change.
Every figure is before tax and before any dealing cost, in the money of the year it is paid.
What this calculator assumes
No tax is taken off: tax on dividends depends on where you live. No fee is taken off when a dividend buys shares: check what your broker charges. The dividend per share is fixed for each year and changes once a year; the share price moves smoothly at the rate you typed. Dividends taken as cash are set aside and earn nothing, so this compares reinvesting with holding the money, not with another investment. Fractions of a share are bought unless you switch on whole shares only.
What if the dividend does not grow the way you assumed
Everything below uses the same money, the same share price and the same holding period you entered. Only the dividend growth changes. Your own figure is the highlighted row.
| Dividend rises each year by | Worth if you reinvest | Worth if you take the cash | Reinvesting against the cash |
|---|---|---|---|
| -4% | $38,650 | $32,113 | $6,537 more |
| 0% | $44,009 | $34,533 | $9,476 more |
| 3% | $50,712 | $37,281 | $13,431 more |
| 6%yours | $61,826 | $41,247 | $20,579 more |
| 9% | $81,693 | $46,997 | $34,696 more |
| 12% | $121,021 | $55,354 | $65,667 more |
Read the spread, not the single row you typed. Between the lowest and the highest line here the reinvested result ranges from $38,650 to $121,021, on identical money and an identical holding period. That whole range comes from one assumption nobody can promise you.
Year by year, with every dividend buying more shares
| Year | Shares owned | Price per share | Dividends that year | Worth in total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 207.87 | $52.50 | $406 | $10,913 |
| 2 | 216.14 | $55.13 | $447 | $11,915 |
| 3 | 224.81 | $57.88 | $493 | $13,012 |
| 4 | 233.92 | $60.78 | $544 | $14,217 |
| 5 | 243.49 | $63.81 | $600 | $15,538 |
| 6 | 253.55 | $67.00 | $662 | $16,989 |
| 7 | 264.13 | $70.36 | $731 | $18,583 |
| 8 | 275.25 | $73.87 | $807 | $20,334 |
| 9 | 286.95 | $77.57 | $891 | $22,258 |
| 10 | 299.27 | $81.44 | $985 | $24,374 |
| 11 | 312.25 | $85.52 | $1,089 | $26,702 |
| 12 | 325.91 | $89.79 | $1,205 | $29,265 |
| 13 | 340.32 | $94.28 | $1,333 | $32,086 |
| 14 | 355.50 | $99.00 | $1,476 | $35,193 |
| 15 | 371.51 | $103.95 | $1,635 | $38,618 |
| 16 | 388.41 | $109.14 | $1,811 | $42,393 |
| 17 | 406.25 | $114.60 | $2,007 | $46,557 |
| 18 | 425.09 | $120.33 | $2,226 | $51,152 |
| 19 | 444.99 | $126.35 | $2,469 | $56,224 |
| 20 | 466.03 | $132.66 | $2,741 | $61,826 |
A dividend reinvestment plan puts every dividend straight back into more shares of the same investment. This calculator follows that one payment at a time rather than once a year: each payment is the year's dividend per share divided by the number of payments, it is paid on the shares you hold at that moment, and it buys more shares at the price on that day. The dividend per share then steps up once a year.
new shares = (shares x dividend per share / payments a year) / price
Step 1: Type the money you are putting in and what one share costs today. The calculator works out how many shares that buys and starts from there.
Step 2: Set the dividend as a percent of the price over a full year, then say how fast you expect the dividend and the share price to grow. Zero is a perfectly good answer to either.
Step 3: Choose how often the dividend is paid and how many years you hold. If your broker only buys whole shares, switch that on.
Step 4: Read the answer, the year-by-year table and the range of dividend growth rates underneath. Everything recalculates while you type, so there is no button to press and nothing left on screen from a set of numbers you have already changed.
What Is a Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP)?
A dividend reinvestment plan, usually shortened to DRIP, automatically puts the cash dividends an investment pays back into more shares of that same investment. Instead of the money landing in your account to be spent, it buys more shares. Some companies run these plans directly and some brokers offer a reinvestment setting on dividend-paying shares and funds. The dealing costs, whether fractions of a share are allowed and the price used all vary by broker and by country, so check your own terms before assuming any of it is free.
The appeal of a DRIP is that it needs no decision from you. The reinvestment happens automatically, and you add shares at whatever the price is on each payment day. Over a long holding period those extra shares pay dividends of their own.
How Reinvested Dividends Compound
Compounding is the heart of why DRIPs are so powerful. When a dividend is reinvested, it buys new shares. Those new shares then pay their own dividends in future years, which in turn buy still more shares. Your share count grows even if you never add any more of your own money, and a rising share count combined with a growing dividend per share produces income that accelerates over time rather than staying flat.
The effect is modest in the early years and dramatic over decades. In the first few years the extra shares from reinvested dividends are small, but as the base of shares grows, each year adds proportionally more. This is why the gap between reinvesting and taking cash, shown at the top of the result above, widens the longer you stay invested, and why long time horizons reward patience so heavily.
Why the Payment Schedule Changes the Answer
Two portfolios can hold the same share, earn the same yield and grow at the same rate, and still end up with different amounts of money, purely because one of them received its dividends earlier in the year. A dividend paid in March and reinvested in March spends nine more months buying shares that pay dividends of their own than the same money paid in December. On the example this page opens with, reinvesting every three months rather than once a year is worth about three percent more over twenty years. The gap is not dramatic, but it is real, and it is the reason the payment schedule is an input here rather than an assumption buried in the code.
The schedule only matters if you actually reinvest. If you take the dividends as cash, the same total arrives over the year whether it comes in one payment or twelve, and the projection ends in the same place. There is one more practical detail worth knowing: if your broker will not buy fractions of a share, a small dividend may not be enough to buy anything at all on the day it lands. This calculator does not quietly lose that money. Switch on the whole-shares option and the remainder is held and added to the next payment until there is enough to buy, and it shows you how much is sitting there waiting.
Are Reinvested Dividends Taxable?
This calculator cannot answer that for you: how a dividend is taxed, reinvested or not, depends on the country you live in and the account that holds the shares.
Some account types shelter dividends from tax. In the United Kingdom, for example, you do not pay tax on income or capital gains from investments held in an ISA. Tax treatment varies by country, by account and by your own circumstances, so this is general information and not tax advice. Check the rules that apply to you before relying on any projection, and note that this calculator takes no tax off any figure.
DRIP vs Taking Dividends as Cash
Reinvesting is not automatically the right choice for everyone. While you are building up a holding and do not need the income, reinvesting adds shares, and in this calculator it ends ahead of taking the cash whenever the share price holds or rises. There are sound reasons to take dividends as cash instead: you may need the income to cover living costs, particularly in retirement; you may want to move the money into other assets; or a holding may have grown to a size where you would rather not keep adding to it.
The comparison above puts numbers on the choice. Both results are always shown side by side, and the year by year table can follow either one. The right answer depends on your goals, your time horizon and whether you need the cash today. To explore the income side in more detail, pair this tool with our dividend calculator, and to understand the underlying mathematics of growth, see our compound interest calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions About the DRIP Calculator
A DRIP, or dividend reinvestment plan, automatically uses the cash dividends a share or fund pays to buy more of that same investment. Some plans charge no commission and some buy fractions of a share: check your own broker's terms. Because each reinvested dividend buys shares that go on to pay dividends themselves, the share count grows without you adding money.
Reinvesting a dividend does not by itself make it tax free. Some account types shelter dividends from tax: in the United Kingdom, for example, you do not pay tax on income or capital gains from investments held in an ISA. The rules depend on the country and the account, so check the ones that apply to you or ask a qualified tax adviser. This calculator takes no tax off any figure.
Reinvesting adds shares, and in this calculator it ends ahead of taking the cash unless the share price falls far enough that the shares the dividends bought lose more than those dividends earn. Taking dividends as cash can still be the right choice: you may need the income to live on, you may want to put the money into something else, or you may not want more of a holding that has become a large part of what you own. It depends on your goals, your time horizon and whether you need the cash now.
Say what the company actually does: every three months, twice a year, once a year or every month, depending on the company and the market. It matters only when you reinvest: money that arrives earlier in the year starts buying shares earlier, and those shares pay dividends too. If you take the dividends as cash, the yearly total is the same however it is split, and the projection lands on the same figure.
No. It tells you what happens if the dividend, the growth in that dividend and the share price behave exactly as you typed, every year, without interruption. Real companies cut dividends, suspend them, and occasionally stop paying altogether, and share prices fall as well as rise. Use the table of dividend growth rates below the answer to see how much of the result rests on that one assumption, and treat the whole thing as a way of comparing two choices rather than as a prediction of your balance.
See your shares inside your whole net worth
A free Worthmap account has a net worth tracker. You record what you own and what you owe, each asset in its own currency, and see the total in one base currency and how it changes over time.
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Educational use only. This tool provides estimates for informational purposes and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are based on inputs you provide and mathematical models, they do not guarantee future performance. Always consult a qualified financial adviser before making investment decisions.