A DRIP automatically buys more shares with your dividends — so next year's dividends are paid on more shares. This calculator simulates that compounding year by year.
| Year | Start Balance | Start Shares | Share Price | Div / Share | Div Yield | Yield on Cost | Annual Div | Total Divs | End Shares | End Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000 | 100 | $100.00 | $4.00 | 4.00% | 3.57% | $400.00 | $400.00 | 116 | $12,180 |
| 2 | $12,180 | 116 | $105.00 | $4.41 | 4.20% | 4.13% | $511.56 | $911.56 | 132.3 | $14,586 |
| 3 | $14,586 | 132.3 | $110.25 | $4.86 | 4.41% | 4.73% | $643.25 | $1,554.81 | 149.02 | $17,251 |
| 4 | $17,251 | 149.02 | $115.76 | $5.36 | 4.63% | 5.40% | $798.80 | $2,353.61 | 166.29 | $20,212 |
| 5 | $20,212 | 166.29 | $121.55 | $5.91 | 4.86% | 6.14% | $982.72 | $3,336.33 | 184.24 | $23,515 |
| 6 | $23,515 | 184.24 | $127.63 | $6.52 | 5.11% | 6.98% | $1,200.45 | $4,536.78 | 203.05 | $27,211 |
| 7 | $27,211 | 203.05 | $134.01 | $7.18 | 5.36% | 7.93% | $1,458.60 | $5,995.38 | 222.89 | $31,363 |
| 8 | $31,363 | 222.89 | $140.71 | $7.92 | 5.63% | 9.01% | $1,765.23 | $7,760.61 | 243.96 | $36,045 |
| 9 | $36,045 | 243.96 | $147.75 | $8.73 | 5.91% | 10.24% | $2,130.17 | $9,890.78 | 266.5 | $41,343 |
| 10 | $41,343 | 266.5 | $155.13 | $9.63 | 6.21% | 11.66% | $2,565.49 | $12,456 | 290.78 | $47,364 |
| 11 | $47,364 | 290.78 | $162.89 | $10.61 | 6.52% | 13.30% | $3,086.06 | $15,542 | 317.09 | $54,233 |
| 12 | $54,233 | 317.09 | $171.03 | $11.70 | 6.84% | 15.21% | $3,710.27 | $19,253 | 345.8 | $62,100 |
| 13 | $62,100 | 345.8 | $179.59 | $12.90 | 7.18% | 17.43% | $4,460.93 | $23,714 | 377.32 | $71,149 |
| 14 | $71,149 | 377.32 | $188.56 | $14.22 | 7.54% | 20.02% | $5,366.51 | $29,080 | 412.14 | $81,602 |
| 15 | $81,602 | 412.14 | $197.99 | $15.68 | 7.92% | 23.08% | $6,462.63 | $35,543 | 450.85 | $93,727 |
DRIP compounding: dividends buy more shares, which pay more dividends next year. Dividend growth plus regular contributions beat a high starting yield.
Estimates only, not financial advice. Dividend yields and growth rates are assumptions, not guarantees of future results. Always consult a qualified financial professional before investing.
A DRIP (Dividend Reinvestment Plan) automatically uses each dividend payment to buy more shares of the same stock or ETF, instead of sending you cash. This DRIP calculator simulates that loop year by year: it takes your starting investment, share price, dividend yield, dividend growth rate and an optional monthly contribution, then projects your share count, portfolio value and annual dividend income into the future.
The mechanic that makes it powerful is compounding. Each reinvested dividend buys a few more shares; those extra shares pay dividends next year, which buy still more shares. Over a decade or two the share count — and therefore the income — curves upward, even if the share price goes nowhere. If you are new to the concept, see how dividend reinvestment (DRIP) works step by step.
A dividend reinvestment calculator takes the same inputs a DRIP calculator does — starting investment, share price, dividend yield, dividend growth, price growth, monthly contributions and a time horizon — and projects the result of automatically reinvesting every payment. The key output is how much faster your position grows compared with taking the cash: reinvested shares earn dividends of their own, so both your share count and your annual dividend income rise year after year.
Use it when you want to compare the reinvestment path against cashing out, or when you are deciding how much to contribute monthly to reach a target income by retirement.
“Dividend drip” is just another name for DRIP — the same dividend reinvestment loop, drip by drip. The math that makes it powerful is compounding. If dividends are reinvested at a growth rate g, the shares you own after n years grow roughly like (1 + g)^n, and the income on those shares grows with it.
Even a modest 4% starting yield plus a few percent of dividend growth turns a single lump sum into a much larger income stream over a decade. The calculator above runs this loop year by year with your actual numbers — try raising the dividend growth rate or the years to see the compound effect yourself.
Take a $10,000 position at a 4% yield with 5% dividend growth and a $100 monthly contribution, reinvesting every payment. In year one you earn roughly $400 in dividends and buy extra shares with it. By year 15 you own far more shares than your contributions alone would have bought, and your annual dividend income from those reinvested shares keeps rising even if the stock price stalls. Use the calculator above to test your own assumptions — the two inputs that move the result most are dividend growth rate and time horizon.
Three generic runs at the calculator's own defaults (4% yield, 5% dividend growth, 5% price growth) with only the savings plan changed — the same math you see above, so you can sanity-check your own inputs against a known reference.
$1,000 lump sum, no monthly additions, 20 years, DRIP on
A thousand dollars is enough to see the mechanism: after two decades, reinvested dividends account for a large share of the final value.
$10,000 lump sum, no additions, 20 years, DRIP on
Ten times the money, the same percentages — notice the income at end grows to several times the starting $400-a-year payout.
$0 to start, $500 added every month for 20 years, DRIP on
The slow-and-steady plan: compare the final value against the $120,000 contributed to see what reinvestment added on top.
Every number above is precomputed at build time with this page's assumptions using our open-source math engine — see the methodology page for the exact formulas and how to verify them yourself.
Reinvesting wins when you do not need the income today, you believe in the long-term business, and taxes on reinvested dividends are manageable (in many tax-advantaged accounts, dividends reinvested inside the wrapper generate no immediate tax). Taking cash wins when you rely on the income to live on, when the holding looks overvalued and you would rather deploy the cash elsewhere, or when reinvesting would over-concentrate you in a single stock.
There is no universally right answer — the DRIP calculator just shows you the reinvestment path clearly so you can compare it against cash-in-hand.
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