Fund fee calculator
Compare a cheap and an expensive fund with the same contributions. See what you end up with after the years, what the fees cost you in money and how much more the expensive fund would have to earn to be worth it.
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Fund A leaves you this much more after 30 years
$148,268
- Fund A
- $633,852
- return after the fee 6.79 % a year
- the fees cost $26,997 (6 % of the return)
- of which paid $13,572
- Fund B
- $485,583
- return after the fee 5.39 % a year
- the fees cost $175,265 (37 % of the return)
- of which paid $85,259
- Total contributed
- $190,000
- Without any fees
- $660,849
For Fund B to end level with Fund A, it would have to earn 1.41 percentage points a year more before costs.
Not a forecast: real returns will differ, and past returns do not guarantee future results.
Value of the investment by year
- Fund A
- Fund B
- Total contributed
- Fund A: fees in total
- Fund B: fees in total
Year 30
- Fund A$633,852
- Fund B$485,583
- Total contributed$190,000
- Fund A: fees in total$13,572
- Fund B: fees in total$85,259
Dashed in the fund’s colour: the fees the fund took, added up from the start (yearly and entry). What they cost you with the lost growth is in the results panel.
Value of both funds and the fees paid at the end of every year
| Year | Total contributed | Fund A | Fund B | Difference (A − B) | Fees A | Fees B |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $16,000 | $16,863 | $16,686 | $177 | $26 | $198 |
| 2 | $22,000 | $24,192 | $23,734 | $458 | $67 | $500 |
| 3 | $28,000 | $32,018 | $31,161 | $857 | $123 | $912 |
| 4 | $34,000 | $40,375 | $38,989 | $1,386 | $195 | $1,439 |
| 5 | $40,000 | $49,299 | $47,240 | $2,060 | $284 | $2,088 |
| 6 | $46,000 | $58,829 | $55,935 | $2,894 | $392 | $2,866 |
| 7 | $52,000 | $69,006 | $65,100 | $3,906 | $520 | $3,779 |
| 8 | $58,000 | $79,873 | $74,759 | $5,114 | $669 | $4,834 |
| 9 | $64,000 | $91,477 | $84,939 | $6,538 | $840 | $6,040 |
| 10 | $70,000 | $103,869 | $95,668 | $8,201 | $1,036 | $7,404 |
| 11 | $76,000 | $117,102 | $106,977 | $10,126 | $1,257 | $8,935 |
| 12 | $82,000 | $131,233 | $118,895 | $12,338 | $1,505 | $10,642 |
| 13 | $88,000 | $146,323 | $131,456 | $14,867 | $1,783 | $12,535 |
| 14 | $94,000 | $162,437 | $144,695 | $17,742 | $2,093 | $14,623 |
| 15 | $100,000 | $179,644 | $158,649 | $20,996 | $2,435 | $16,917 |
| 16 | $106,000 | $198,019 | $173,355 | $24,665 | $2,814 | $19,428 |
| 17 | $112,000 | $217,641 | $188,854 | $28,787 | $3,230 | $22,168 |
| 18 | $118,000 | $238,595 | $205,190 | $33,405 | $3,688 | $25,149 |
| 19 | $124,000 | $260,970 | $222,407 | $38,564 | $4,188 | $28,385 |
| 20 | $130,000 | $284,864 | $240,553 | $44,312 | $4,735 | $31,888 |
| 21 | $136,000 | $310,380 | $259,677 | $50,702 | $5,332 | $35,674 |
| 22 | $142,000 | $337,626 | $279,834 | $57,792 | $5,982 | $39,757 |
| 23 | $148,000 | $366,722 | $301,078 | $65,644 | $6,688 | $44,154 |
| 24 | $154,000 | $397,792 | $323,468 | $74,324 | $7,455 | $48,882 |
| 25 | $160,000 | $430,971 | $347,066 | $83,905 | $8,286 | $53,958 |
| 26 | $166,000 | $466,401 | $371,937 | $94,464 | $9,186 | $59,401 |
| 27 | $172,000 | $504,235 | $398,150 | $106,085 | $10,159 | $65,232 |
| 28 | $178,000 | $544,637 | $425,777 | $118,860 | $11,211 | $71,470 |
| 29 | $184,000 | $587,781 | $454,895 | $132,886 | $12,347 | $78,138 |
| 30 | $190,000 | $633,852 | $485,583 | $148,268 | $13,572 | $85,259 |
An estimate for information only, not financial, tax or technical advice. How it is calculated and where the data come from
How fund fees affect your return
A fund’s yearly fee (expense ratio, ongoing charges) is charged on the whole value of the investment, not on the return. With a return of 7%, a fee of 1.5% takes more than a fifth of what the investment earns in a year. And what the fund takes no longer grows, so the gap widens with the years.
An entry fee is paid once on every contribution. Over a long time it therefore often costs less than a higher yearly fee, which comes off the whole amount year after year.
You find a fund’s costs in its documents. In the EU every fund offered to retail investors must have a key information document (KID), whose section on costs shows them as a percentage and in money. Add the fees of your broker or platform.
An expensive fund pays off only if it earns more by more than it costs. The calculator shows how many percentage points a year that would have to be.
Frequently asked questions
What is an expense ratio?
The fund’s total yearly costs as a percentage of the value of your investment (total expense ratio, TER). The fund takes them from its assets as it goes, so you never pay them separately, but they lower your value.
Is a 1% yearly fee a lot?
It depends on what you get for it, but over a long time it shows: the fee comes off the whole amount every year. Enter your own contributions and years and the calculator shows what it costs you in money against a cheaper fund.
Is an expensive actively managed fund worth it?
Only if it earns more than the cheaper fund after costs over the long run. The calculator shows how many percentage points a year more it would have to earn before costs. A fund’s past returns do not guarantee that.
Does the calculator include taxes and inflation?
No. Both would lower both funds, but the gap between them comes mainly from the fees. What inflation does to the value of money you can work out in the inflation calculator.
Related articles
How it is calculated and where the data come from
How the result is calculated
- The yearly fee comes off the whole value of the investment every year, not only off the return: the return after the fee is (1 + return) × (1 − fee) − 1.
- The entry fee comes off every contribution, the initial one too, before the money is invested.
- Contributions arrive at the end of every month and the investment grows at the same yearly rate as in the compound interest calculator, so the results compare.
- The cost of the fees is the gap to the same investment without any fees, including the growth the fees took away. The share of the return is that amount divided by the return without fees.
- The required lead is the return before costs the fund that ends lower would need to end level with the other one. It is found by halving an interval step by step.
Assumptions and limits
- Both funds earn the same before costs. Real funds hold different assets and earn differently; but an expensive fund does not earn more by itself, and past returns do not guarantee future ones.
- The return is the same every year. Real returns go up and down, and the fee is paid in the years of a fall too.
- No taxes, no inflation, no platform fees for the account or trades, no exit fees and no currency costs, unless you include them in the fees you enter.
- Enter the total yearly costs the fund states. In the EU the key information document (KID) shows them in its section on costs, as a percentage and in money.
The return of 7% a year before costs and the fees of 0.2% and 1.5% are our example. The default contributions are round numbers for the currency, not statistics.
Data sources and the period they hold for
Every number a calculator starts with or computes from comes from one of the sources below. Series names are given as the publisher names them. Each row shows the period the data refer to and, where we record it, the day we downloaded them. Official data can be months old when they are published, so check the current figure before you decide.
- Official
- Published by a central bank, a statistical office, the European Union or another public body.
- Research or industry data
- A dataset of a university, an index provider, an industry association or a data vendor.
- Reported
- A figure of an official body that we know only from the press and did not check in the primary source. Treat it as approximate.
- Example
- A round number of ours, not a statistic. Replace it with your own.
Fund costs
| Source | Period | Type |
|---|---|---|
European UnionRegulation (EU) No 1286/2014 (PRIIPs), Article 8(3)(f): the key information document shows one-off and recurring costs in money and as a percentage | currentdownloaded 2026-10-07 | Official |
ExampleA return of 7 % a year before costs for 30 years; funds with yearly fees of 0.2 % and 1.5 %, no entry fee | 2026 | Example |
Methodology text last reviewed 2026-10-06. Data last downloaded 2026-10-07. How we work with data and sources