Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP) Calculator

Where Reinvested Dividends Actually Go

A Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRIP) automatically uses each dividend payment to buy more shares instead of paying it out as cash, and over a long enough horizon that mechanism does most of the compounding heavy lifting in a dividend-paying position. This calculator simulates that process year by year — growing the share count from reinvested dividends while the share price and dividend per share themselves grow — rather than applying a single blended growth rate that hides how much of the return actually came from reinvestment.

The Formula

Each year:
  Dividends = Shares × Dividend per Share
  New Shares = Shares + (Dividends ÷ Price)
  Price grows by the annual price growth rate
  Dividend per Share grows by the annual dividend growth rate

The simulation compounds annually: each year's dividend buys additional shares at that year's price, and both price and dividend-per-share step up by their respective growth rates before the next year's dividend is calculated.

Where This Matters

Long-horizon retirement accounts — DRIP is most powerful over decades, where the compounding of an ever-growing share count meaningfully outpaces simply taking dividends as cash.
Dividend growth investing — separating price growth from dividend growth in the inputs shows how much of the total return comes from a rising payout versus a rising share price.
Comparing reinvestment to cash payout — running the same inputs with and without reinvestment (by comparing final value to total dividends received) quantifies exactly what automatic reinvestment adds.

Worked Example

$10,000 initial investment, $60 share price, 3% yield, 6% annual price growth, 4% annual dividend growth, over 10 years
Metric	Value
Starting shares	166.67
Ending shares	218.77
Ending share price	$107.45
Total dividends reinvested	$4,136.98
Final portfolio value	$23,506.99
Total return	$13,506.99

The share count grows from 166.67 to 218.77 purely from reinvested dividends, on top of the price appreciation applied to those additional shares.

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your initial investment amount.
Enter the current share price.
Enter the current dividend yield as a percentage.
Enter the expected annual price growth rate and annual dividend growth rate.
Enter the number of years to project.
Select Calculate to see ending shares, ending price, total dividends reinvested, and final portfolio value.

Related Calculations

Start from the Dividend Yield Calculator to find your starting yield input, or compare to a lump-sum approach with the Future Value Calculator.