What Is a Good ROI? Benchmarks by Type & Time Period [2026]
What counts as a good return on investment: the ROI formula, benchmarks by investment type, and good ROI over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years.
A good ROI beats inflation and your next-best option. See the ROI formula, average ROI by investment type, what counts as good over 1, 3, 5 and 10 years, and ROI vs CAGR.
A free ROI and CAGR calculator is built into this page: enter cost, final value and years held to get both the total and annualized return.
A good ROI beats inflation and your next-best alternative, including paying down your own debt.
Roughly 7% per year after inflation matches the long-run average of a diversified stock index.
Always annualize: 30% total over 10 years is only about 2.7% per year.
ROI measures total gain; CAGR converts it into a comparable yearly rate.