Calculator
What is the profit or loss on my options trade?
Enter the strike price, premium, and contract count for a single call or put, and get breakeven, max profit, max loss, and total P&L at any expiration price you choose.
How it works
P&L at expiration is intrinsic value minus (or plus) premium
A call is worth its intrinsic value at expiration — underlying price minus strike, floored at zero. A put is the reverse: strike minus underlying price, floored at zero. Buyers pay the premium up front and keep whatever intrinsic value is left; sellers collect the premium up front and owe whatever intrinsic value the option finishes with. Multiply by 100 shares per contract, then by however many contracts you're trading.
- 01
Pick the position
Long call, long put, short call, or short put — whether you paid the premium (long) or collected it (short), and whether the option is a call or a put.
- 02
Enter strike, premium, and contracts
Strike is the price on the contract. Premium is what you paid or received per share, not per contract. Contracts defaults to 1 if you leave it blank.
- 03
Add an underlying price to see the live P&L
Type a hypothetical (or actual) price for the underlying at expiration to see total profit or loss at that price. Leave it blank to see just breakeven, max profit, and max loss.
- 04
Check the max loss before the trade, not after
A short call or short put carries open-ended or near-open-ended risk. Know the number this calculator shows before the position is open, not while it's moving against you.
Workbench
One leg at a time
This covers a single call or put — the four basic building blocks every multi-leg spread is made from. Breakeven and the max profit/loss caps update as soon as strike and premium are entered; add an expiration price for the live total. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
Single-leg P&L at expiration. Contracts default to 1.
Result
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Enter a strike and premium to see breakeven and max profit/loss.
Worked examples
Priya buys a call, price rallies
Long call, strike $100, premium $5, 2 contracts, expiration price $130.
Intrinsic value is $130 − $100 = $30. Subtract the $5 premium and that's $25 a share. Times 100 shares times 2 contracts: $5,000 profit. Simple — the hard part is holding to that number instead of panic-selling on the way there.
Arjun buys a put, price never drops
Long put, strike $50, premium $2, 1 contract, expiration price $60.
Price finished above strike, so the put is worth nothing at expiration — intrinsic value is $0. Loss is the full premium: $2 a share times 100 shares, $200. That's the entire downside on a long put: you can't lose more than what you paid.
Meera sells a call, price runs against her
Short call, strike $40, premium $3, 1 contract, expiration price $70.
She collected $3 a share upfront but owes the full $30 of intrinsic value ($70 − $40) at expiration. Net: $3 − $30 = −$27 a share, ×100 shares = a $2,700 loss on a $300 premium collected. This is why method step 4 exists — check max loss before the trade, not after.
Review
This is the payoff at expiration, not right now
The number this calculator shows is what the position is worth if held to expiration at the price you enter — it isn't today's mark-to-market value, which also depends on time left and implied volatility. An option can be a paper loss weeks before expiry and still finish profitable, or the reverse. And max loss on a short call is genuinely open-ended: there's no ceiling on how high the underlying can go, so treat that number as a floor on risk, not the worst case.
Related tools
Log the trade once it's actually open
This calculator is for sizing up a position before you take it. Traders Journal has the option-specific fields — call/put, strike, expiry, premium — built into the trade form, so once you're in, the real P&L tracks itself.
Open Traders JournalQuestions
How is options profit calculated?
At expiration, a call's value is max(0, underlying price − strike) and a put's value is max(0, strike − underlying price), both per share. A buyer's P&L is that value minus the premium paid; a seller's P&L is the premium collected minus that value. Multiply by 100 shares per contract and by the number of contracts for the total dollar figure.
What is the breakeven price on a call option?
Strike price plus premium paid (for a long call) or received (for a short call). Below that price at expiration, a long call loses money; above it, a short call does.
What is the breakeven price on a put option?
Strike price minus premium. Above that price at expiration, a long put loses money; below it, a short put does.
What is the maximum loss on a short call?
Open-ended. There's no cap on how high the underlying can rise before expiration, so a naked short call's loss grows without limit as the price climbs. This calculator shows that as "Unlimited" rather than a number.
Why does this only cover one leg at a time?
Every multi-leg strategy — spreads, straddles, iron condors — is built from these four positions. Understanding one leg's payoff is the base case; a spread's P&L is just the sum of its legs' individual payoffs at the same expiration price.