# Forex profit calculator: profit, loss and pips > Free forex profit calculator. Find the profit or loss and the pips on a currency trade, buy or sell, in your account currency, with an example. Written by [Tactfolio research team](https://tactfolio.com/about/editorial-policy.md), published 2026-10-16, updated 2026-10-16. A forex profit calculator shows how much you would make or lose on a currency trade. You give it the pair, the trade size, the price where you open and close, and whether you buy or sell. It turns the price change into money in your account currency. - Profit = price change × units, turned into your account currency. - A buy gains when the price rises. A sell gains when the price falls. - 50 pips on 1 standard lot of EUR/USD is $500. - The result leaves out the spread, commissions and overnight fees. Your real result will be lower. ## How to use the forex profit calculator Pick the currency pair, your account currency, and whether you buy or sell. Type your trade size in lots, the opening price and the closing price. The calculator shows your profit or loss, the pips gained or lost, and the return on the margin you put up at your leverage. The prices start at round example numbers. They are not live prices, so type the prices your broker shows you. ## How do you calculate profit in forex? Forex profit is the price change, times the number of units, times the rate that turns the quote currency into your account currency. ```text price change = closing price - opening price (for a buy) price change = opening price - closing price (for a sell) profit = price change × units × rate to your account currency pips = price change ÷ pip size ``` **Units** is your trade size in lots times 100,000. The **pip size** is 0.0001, or 0.01 for pairs priced in yen. The rate to your account currency is 1 when your account currency is the second currency in the pair. The [pip calculator](https://tactfolio.com/trading-tools/pip-calculator.md) explains the other cases. ## A worked example Say you buy 1 standard lot of EUR/USD at 1.1000 and close at 1.1050. Your account is in US dollars. 1. The price change is 1.1050 - 1.1000 = 0.0050. 2. That is 0.0050 ÷ 0.0001 = 50 pips. 3. The profit is 0.0050 × 100,000 × 1 = $500. Now say you sell 0.5 lot of GBP/USD at 1.3000 and close at 1.2950. A sell gains when the price falls, so the change is 1.3000 - 1.2950 = 0.0050. That is 50 pips again. On 50,000 units the profit is $250. If the price had moved the other way in either trade, those numbers would be losses. ## What does the calculator leave out? The calculator shows the result of the price move only. Real trades also have costs. - **The spread** is the gap between the buy price and the sell price. You pay it when you open. - **Commissions** are fees some brokers charge on each trade. - **Overnight fees**, also called swap or rollover, are charged or paid when you hold a trade past the end of the day. Leverage makes losses bigger as well as gains. You can lose more than you put in. ## Common mistakes with forex profit - **Getting the direction wrong.** A sell makes money when the price falls. Flip the sign of the price change for a sell. - **Using the wrong pip size.** Pairs priced in yen use 0.01 as one pip. - **Judging a trade by the return on margin.** A 13.6% return on margin can come from a 0.45% price move. The same move the other way loses as much. - **Treating a past winner as a plan.** One good trade proves little. A rule needs testing over many years of prices. ## Try it on Tactfolio Tactfolio does not trade forex. This calculator is a free tool for learning. Want to see how a set of rules would have done over many years? The [Tactfolio strategy builder](https://tactfolio.com/builder) backtests rules on US stocks and ETFs. Before you trust any backtest, read [why past backtest results mislead](https://tactfolio.com/docs/concepts/why-past-results-mislead.md). To check your deposit and your risk, use the [margin calculator](https://tactfolio.com/trading-tools/margin-calculator.md) and the [leverage calculator](https://tactfolio.com/trading-tools/leverage-calculator.md). Every tool is on the [free trading calculators](https://tactfolio.com/trading-tools.md) page. ## Common questions ### How do you calculate profit in forex? Take the closing price minus the opening price for a buy, or the opposite for a sell. Multiply by the number of units. If the second currency in the pair is not your account currency, convert the result into your account currency. ### How much is 100 pips worth? On 1 standard lot of a pair priced in US dollars, like EUR/USD, one pip is worth $10. So 100 pips is worth $1,000. On a mini lot (0.1) it is $100. ### Does leverage change my profit? No. Profit depends on the trade size and the price move. Leverage only changes how much margin you put up. With less margin, the same profit or loss is a bigger share of your money. ### Does the calculator include the spread? No. It shows the result of the price move alone. Take off the spread, any commission and any overnight fees to get closer to your real result. ### Why does my broker show a different profit? Your broker takes off costs like the spread and fees. It may also convert the profit into your account currency at a slightly different rate. Small gaps are normal. ## Understand the numbers - [Leverage](https://tactfolio.com/learn/leverage-explained.md): What leverage is, how to work out a leverage ratio, and how 2:1 and 10:1 change gains and losses. - [CFD trading](https://tactfolio.com/learn/cfd-trading.md): A CFD is a leveraged bet on a price change without owning the asset. - [Stop-loss orders](https://tactfolio.com/learn/stop-loss.md): What a stop-loss order is, how it differs from stop-limit and trailing stop orders, and why a price gap can sell you far below your stop. ## Sources - [Foreign Currency (Forex) Fraud](https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/fraudadv_forex.html), U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, accessed 2026-10-16 - [17 CFR 5.9, Security deposits for retail forex transactions](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-17/chapter-I/part-5/section-5.9), Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, accessed 2026-10-16