Project your dividend income from an investment amount, share price and yield. Toggle DRIP reinvestment and a dividend growth rate to see how compounding payouts snowball over the years.
Tip: shares bought = investment amount ÷ share price. Leave growth rates at 0 for a flat projection.
A dividend is a slice of a company's profit paid out to shareholders, usually every quarter. For long-term investors, dividends are one of the most powerful and least appreciated sources of return: across many decades, reinvested dividends have accounted for a large share of the total return of broad stock indexes. This dividend calculator projects both the cash you collect and the way reinvested, growing dividends compound your wealth.
Your first-year dividend income is simply:
Annual Income = Investment Amount × Dividend Yield
So $20,000 invested in a stock yielding 4% pays $800 in the first year. Said another way, you own (amount ÷ price) shares, and each share pays (price × yield) in dividends. Both routes give the same answer — the calculator uses your investment amount and share price to derive the share count for you.
With a dividend reinvestment plan (DRIP) turned on, every payout is immediately used to buy more shares at the prevailing price. Those new shares pay their own dividends next period, which buy still more shares. This is compounding applied to income, and over 20–30 years it can dwarf the difference between taking dividends as cash. The calculator reinvests annually at the projected share price.
Worked example: $20,000 at a 4% yield buys 400 shares at $50, paying $800 in year 1. With 5% annual dividend growth, 3% annual price appreciation and DRIP on, after 20 years you reinvest roughly $44,000 of dividends and end with a portfolio worth around $90,000 — well above the ~$36,000 in shares you would hold without reinvesting.
Strong companies tend to raise their dividend every year. A 5% annual dividend growth rate means a stock paying $2.00 per share this year pays $2.10 next year, $2.205 the year after, and so on. Even if you spend every dividend as cash, your income climbs. Pair growth with DRIP and the snowball gets noticeably bigger, because each year you own more shares and each share pays more. To understand the mechanics first, read what are dividends and dividend reinvestment explained.
One reason dividend investors love growth: after years of rising payouts, your income measured against your original cost — your "yield on cost" — can climb well above the stock's headline current yield. A 4% starting yield growing 5% a year becomes an effective ~10% yield on your original cost in about 19 years. That is the long-game appeal of dividend growth investing, and you can practise the buy-and-hold-with-DRIP mindset in our dividend investing game.
Reality check: dividends are not guaranteed — companies can cut them, and a very high yield is often a warning sign rather than a gift. Share prices fluctuate, and this model assumes a constant yield, growth and appreciation that real markets will not deliver smoothly. For education only, not financial advice — see investor.gov.
Project broader portfolio growth with the compound interest calculator, or measure a past holding with the investment return calculator.
Annual dividend income equals your investment amount multiplied by the dividend yield. For example, $20,000 at a 4% yield pays $800 in the first year — equivalently, your number of shares times the dividend per share.
DRIP, a dividend reinvestment plan, automatically uses each payout to buy more shares. Those shares pay their own dividends, so income and share count compound. Over many years DRIP can add significantly to the final value versus taking dividends as cash.
Many companies raise their dividend a little each year. A dividend growth rate increases the per-share payout annually, so even without reinvesting your income rises over time. Combined with DRIP, growing dividends compound especially fast.
Yes. It runs in your browser with no account and nothing is stored. All figures are educational estimates that assume a constant yield and growth rate, and are not financial advice.