DCA calculator

Pick an asset, the amount you would invest each time, how often (weekly or monthly) and a start date. On each scheduled date the calculator spends the amount at that period's closing price — buying more units when the price is low and fewer when it is high — and adds up everything you would own today.

It works from weekly closing prices: each purchase is priced at the close of the week it falls in. That is a small approximation of buying on an exact day, and over several years it hardly moves the result.

Investing $100 in Bitcoin every month from Oct 6, 2021 adds up to 61 purchases and $6,100 in total. At the latest weekly close (Oct 6, 2026) the 0.14170735 BTC bought along the way are worth $12,097 — +$5,997 (+98.31%) against the money put in.

Because each purchase was invested for a different length of time, the fair yearly figure is the money-weighted return (XIRR): +28.09% a year. Putting the whole $6,100 into Bitcoin on Oct 6, 2021 instead would be worth $9,405 today (+54.19%).

Along the way, the Bitcoin the plan held fell as much as 74.16% below an earlier high (between Nov 14, 2021 and Jan 1, 2023) — the kind of drop a regular plan has to sit through.

A fixed amount buys more units when the price is low, so the average price you pay per unit (the harmonic mean) is always at or below the simple average of the prices on your purchase dates. A simple, made-up example with four monthly purchases of 100:

You spend 400 for 10.5 units, an average cost of about 38.10, while the average price was 41.25. Back at 50, those 10.5 units are worth 525 — 31% up, even though the price only returned to where it started. The other side of the coin: in a market that rises steadily, every later purchase costs more and DCA trails a lump sum.

If you already have the money, investing it all at once has historically come out ahead more often, simply because the money spends more time in the market: a Vanguard study of the US, UK and Australian stock markets found the lump sum ahead in roughly two out of three periods. DCA's strength lies elsewhere. It removes the risk of putting everything in just before a big fall, and it matches how most people actually invest — a slice of every paycheck.

The lump-sum line in the results shows which approach won for your asset and dates. For a single purchase in the past, the what-if calculator answers “what if I had bought on that day?”.

What if you had invested everything at once? Try the what-if calculator →

• Total return compares today's value with everything you put in. It ignores how long the money was invested.
• Annualized (XIRR) is the yearly rate that grows each purchase, from its own date, into today's value — the same calculation as XIRR in Excel. It is the fair way to compare a regular plan with a savings account or with the lump sum, and it is shown for periods of a year or more.
• Max drawdown is the deepest fall in the value of what you held from an earlier high, leaving out new contributions — on your statement they would have topped the balance up and hidden part of the drop. It is the fall you had to sit through.
• Lowest point shows how far below the money put in your portfolio was at its worst moment.

• Weekly closing prices; each purchase is priced at the close of the week it falls in.
• Prices are in the asset's own currency: US dollars for US stocks, US indices and gold, euros for the DAX, CAC 40 and IBEX 35, Turkish lira for Borsa Istanbul. Crypto trades against USDT, a dollar-pegged stablecoin.
• Gold per gram in lira is derived from the ounce price and the USD/TRY rate (ounce ÷ 31.1035 × USD/TRY): a spot value without dealer spread or workmanship.
• Stocks and most indices are price-only — dividends are not reinvested, so a real index fund would have done somewhat better. The exception is the DAX, a performance index that already includes reinvested dividends.
• Fractional units are allowed. The fee is a percentage of each purchase; taxes, spreads and account fees are not included.
• If the price history starts after your chosen date, the backtest starts at the first available price.
• Past performance does not predict future returns. This is an illustration, not investment advice.