Free Online Passive Income Calculator

What the passive income calculator shows

This passive income calculator shows how much income your investments pay you each month and each year at the yields you enter. You list each instrument, such as a savings account, a CD, a bond fund, a dividend stock fund or a rental property, with the amount invested and its annual yield. The calculator applies a tax rate and adds everything up into net monthly and net annual income.

The question it answers is the one most people ask about living off investments: how much income does a given amount of money produce, and how much money do I need for a given income? $300,000 at a 4% yield pays $12,000 a year, which is $1,000 a month before tax. The same $300,000 at 2% pays half that.

It is a snapshot, not a projection. It does not reinvest income, grow your capital or change yields over time, and it does not forecast whether a yield will last. Everything runs in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.

In this guide:

• How to fill in each field and read the headline, the figures, the chart and the table
• The formulas behind the numbers, including the weighted average yield
• How much money you need for $1,000 a month, and whether $500,000, $1 million or $2 million is enough to live off dividends
• Which yield to enter for savings, bonds, dividends and rent, with 2026 rate data
• How taxes on interest and dividends change the result, three worked examples and common mistakes

If you are new to investing, start with what investing is and types of investment assets.

How to use the passive income calculator

The calculator opens in US dollars with a 0% tax rate and one instrument of $10,000 at a 15% annual yield. The examples in this guide keep USD. The UAH / USD / EUR switch sits in the header of the Your numbers panel, or under More options on phones and tablets. Choosing a currency changes only the symbol and sets the tax rate back to 0%. Nothing is converted.

Each instrument is a group with three fields:

1. Instrument name. An optional label, such as "Treasury notes". Unnamed rows are shown as #1, #2 and so on.
2. Invested amount. The money in the instrument now.
3. Annual yield. The income it pays per year as a percentage of the invested amount.

Add instrument below the list adds an empty row, up to 100 rows. The trash icon in a row's header removes it when there is more than one. More options holds the rest:

4. Custom currency & tax per item. A checkbox, off by default. Off, one currency and one tax rate apply to the whole list. On, the currency switch leaves the panel header, and each instrument gets its own Currency above its amount and its own Tax rate below its yield.
5. Tax rate. The share of gross income lost to tax, in percent, for the whole list. Enter it after choosing the currency.

Values outside a range are pulled back to its limit. On phones, Invested amount has − and + buttons that step by 1,000 in USD and EUR and by 20,000 in UAH.

Reading the results

The headline is Net Monthly Income, the income after tax per month. Three figures sit below it:

• Net Annual Income is the income after tax per year.
• Total Invested is the sum of all invested amounts.
• Weighted Avg Yield is the average yield, weighted by amount, before tax.

When at least two instruments pay income after tax, a bar above the figures shows each one's share of net income, with a legend under it (on phones, in Details). The five largest are named and the rest are grouped as Other. The Chart tab draws the net monthly income as a horizontal bar split by instrument, so the Now bar is as long as the headline. It shows only instruments that pay income, in the colours blue, orange, violet, green, gold, then grey, by their order in the list, with the legend under the chart. The By instrument tab lists every instrument with Instrument, Invested, Yield, Gross / year, Net / year, Net / month and Share. If no instrument pays income, the table is shown alone, and if no instrument has money in it, a No instruments yet notice replaces the results. Money is shown in whole units and percentages with up to two decimals.

With the defaults the headline shows $125, with $1,500 a year, $10,000 invested and a 15% yield.

Pin to compare keeps the current list as a reference: the headline shows the change in monthly income, such as +$420 vs pinned in Example 2, the chart adds a Pinned bar in pale tints with a dashed outline, and a caption sums it up, such as "Pinned scenario: 4 instruments, $500,000 → $1,330/mo". A removed instrument shows in the chart as "name (Pinned)". Switching the currency of the whole list, Reset or a reload clears the pin. PDF exports the inputs, the four results and the table, without the pin. Share shares a link without your numbers, and Reset restores the defaults. On phones and tablets, the results sit in a bar at the bottom of the screen; Details opens the figures, the tabs and the buttons.

How the calculation works

The calculator works instrument by instrument, then adds the results up. There is no time dimension: every figure is a yearly or monthly rate of income at the yield you enter today.

Income per instrument

Gross / year = A × y ÷ 100
Net / year   = Gross / year × (1 − t ÷ 100)
Net / month  = Net / year ÷ 12

• A is the Invested amount
• y is the Annual yield of the instrument, in percent
• t is the Tax rate that applies to it, in percent

A $100,000 bond fund yielding 4.5%, taxed at 24%, earns $4,500 gross and $3,420 net a year, or $285 a month.

Totals, weighted yield and share

Total Invested     = A1 + A2 + … + An
Net Annual Income  = sum of Net / year
Net Monthly Income = Net Annual Income ÷ 12
Weighted Avg Yield = (A1 × y1 + … + An × yn) ÷ Total Invested
Share of item i    = Net / year of i ÷ Net Annual Income × 100

Weighted Avg Yield uses the yields you enter, before tax, so a larger position pulls the average towards its own yield. Share uses the income after tax, so a heavily taxed instrument has a smaller share of income than its yield alone suggests.

Several currencies

With Custom currency & tax per item on, instruments are grouped by currency. Each currency gets its own headline line, with its own vs pinned change once you pin, and two figures: Net Annual Income, and Total Invested with the average yield in brackets. On phones the bar shows the first line and "+1 more"; Details lists the rest. Each currency also gets its own chart, but there is no share bar. With a pin, a currency you set to 0 or added since keeps its line, with the pinned run's missing amount counted as 0. Share figures add up to 100% within each currency. Amounts are never converted, so a list with $450,000 and €50,000 shows two separate totals, not one.

Assumptions behind the numbers

• Yields stay as entered. The calculator does not know whether a rate will be cut, a dividend raised or a bond repaid.
• No compounding. All income is treated as paid out. Reinvesting it is not modelled.
• The capital does not change. Price changes of stocks, bonds or property are not modelled; only the income is.
• One flat tax rate per instrument. Tax is a fixed percentage of gross income. Allowances, brackets and tax credits are not modelled.
• No fees and no inflation. Account charges, advisory fees and rising prices are left out.
• Monthly is an average. Net / month is Net / year divided by 12, whatever the real payment schedule.
• Rounded display. Each figure is rounded on its own, so the Net / month column can add up to a dollar more or less than the headline.

How much money do you need for $1,000 a month?

How much do I need to invest to make $1,000 a month in dividends? Turn the calculator's formula round:

Capital needed = monthly income × 12 ÷ (y ÷ 100 × (1 − t ÷ 100))

$1,000 a month is $12,000 a year. At a 4% yield with no tax, $12,000 ÷ 0.04 is $300,000. With a 15% tax rate only 85% of the income is left, so the capital rises to $12,000 ÷ 0.034, about $352,941. The table shows the amount to enter for $1,000 a month after tax. Each figure is rounded up to the next dollar, and in the calculator each gives Net Monthly Income $1,000:

The relationship is linear: $2,000 a month needs twice the capital and $500 a month half of it. Going from a 4% to a 2% yield doubles the money you need, and a 24% tax rate adds about a third to it, because 1 ÷ 0.76 is about 1.32.

The table also shows why very high yields are tempting. At 8% you need only $150,000. But a yield that high usually means either more risk to the capital, such as lower-rated bonds or companies paying out more than they can sustain, or a payout that includes part of your own money back. The article on risk and return explains why higher income rarely comes free.

Can you live off dividends of $500,000, $1 million or $2 million?

The three most common versions of the question differ only in the amount, and the calculator's answer is the amount times the yield. Here is the monthly income before tax, which the calculator shows as Net Monthly Income at a 0% tax rate:

With a 15% tax rate every figure falls by 15%: $1 million at 4% pays $2,833 a month instead of $3,333, and $2 million at 3% pays $4,250 instead of $5,000.

Whether that is enough depends on what you spend. Put your monthly expenses next to the after-tax figure, then ask three questions:

• Will the income keep up with prices? Fixed bond coupons and CD rates do not rise with inflation. Dividends from companies that grow can, but they can also be cut. The inflation impact calculator shows what a fixed income is worth after ten or twenty years.
• Do you have other income? A pension, Social Security or part-time work reduces how much the portfolio has to pay.
• Will you touch the capital? Living on income alone leaves the capital invested. Spending part of it each year allows a higher budget from the same money, which is the idea behind withdrawal rates. The FIRE calculator models that approach with a safe withdrawal rate instead of yields.

A cash reserve matters as much as the yield. Income from investments can drop exactly when costs go up, and an emergency fund keeps you from selling investments at a bad moment.

Which yield to enter: interest, coupons, dividends and rent

The calculator's result is only as good as the yield you enter. Each type of income has its own way of quoting a yield, and some quoted figures are not income at all.

A few rules keep the input honest:

• Use the price you paid or could sell at. A bond with a 5% coupon bought at 95% of its face value pays 5 ÷ 95, about 5.26% on the money you invested. Bonds are explained in what bonds are, and the bond yield calculator works out current yield and yield to maturity.
• Do not enter total return. A fund that returned 10% last year may have paid only 1.5% as dividends. The rest was price growth, which the calculator does not count as income.
• Use net rent, not gross rent. A flat worth $200,000 that rents for $14,400 a year has a gross yield of 7.2%. After $6,400 of property tax, insurance, repairs and empty months, the net yield is 4%.
• Check the yield's history. A dividend yield is calculated from past payments. If a company has just cut its dividend, or its price has fallen sharply, the quoted yield can be far above what it will pay next year.

How stock dividends work, and why companies pay them, is covered in the basics article on stocks.

What savings accounts and Treasuries paid in 2026

Market rates change every day, but two US government sources give a fair picture of what safe income paid this autumn. The FDIC publishes national average deposit rates each month in its National Rates and Rate Caps (September 21, 2026). The US Treasury publishes daily par yield curve rates (October 16, 2026). Entered in the calculator on $100,000, with no tax:

The FDIC figures are deposit-weighted averages of the rates paid by all insured banks and credit unions with available data. They show what the average dollar in a bank account earns, not the best rate you could find. The gap between them and Treasury yields is the main lesson: the same $100,000 earned $31 a month at the average savings rate and $355 a month in three-month Treasury bills.

The Treasury figures are market yields for newly priced securities; a bond you already hold pays its own coupon, so enter its current yield instead. Both sources update often, so check the current figures before you enter them.

Taxes on passive income

Tax is the input that changes the result most after the yield. The calculator applies one flat rate to gross income, either to the whole list or, with Custom currency & tax per item, to each instrument. Your job is to choose the rate that fits each type of income.

For US federal income tax, the IRS treats the main types of investment income differently:

The sources are IRS Topic 403, Interest received (reviewed October 7, 2026), Topic 404, Dividends (October 8, 2026), Topic 409, Capital gains and losses and Topic 559, Net investment income tax (both September 24, 2026). The net investment income tax is 3.8% of the smaller of your net investment income and the amount by which your modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly. Which rate applies to your qualified dividends depends on your taxable income, and your Form 1099-DIV shows which of your dividends are qualified.

In practice:

• One rate for everything. Leave Custom currency & tax per item unticked and enter your marginal rate on investment income.
• A rate per instrument. Tick it and give, say, Treasury interest your federal rate, qualified dividends 15% and a municipal bond fund 0%.
• Tax-advantaged accounts. Income inside an IRA or 401(k) is not taxed each year, so enter 0% for it and remember that withdrawals may be taxed later.

The calculator opens at 0% in every currency, so it shows income before tax until you enter a rate. In Ukraine, investment income such as deposit interest is taxed at 23%: 18% personal income tax plus the 5% military levy (Tax Code of Ukraine, article 167.5.1 and subsection 10 of section XX, version of September 17, 2026). Rules differ by country, so check your own or ask a tax professional.

Weighted average yield and your income mix

Most people who live off investments hold more than one kind: cash for safety, bonds for steady income and stocks for growth. The calculator's Weighted Avg Yield figure sums up the mix in one number:

Weighted Avg Yield = (A1 × y1 + A2 × y2 + … + An × yn) ÷ (A1 + A2 + … + An)
Yield after tax    = Net Annual Income ÷ Total Invested × 100

The second line is not shown. It is a calculation you can do from two figures, and it is often the more useful one. Take three instruments with Custom currency & tax per item on: A is $100,000 at 6% taxed at 30%, B is $100,000 at 2% with no tax, and C is $50,000 at 4% taxed at 15%. The calculator shows:

Weighted Avg Yield is 4% and Net Annual Income $7,900 on $250,000, so the yield after tax is 3.16%. The difference between the two figures is what tax costs the mix. Note that A holds 40% of the money but brings in 53.16% of the income.

The Share column and the share bar show where the income comes from. If one instrument provides most of your income, a dividend cut or a rate drop on that one instrument changes your budget. Spreading income across several kinds of assets is a form of diversification, explained in risk and return.

Yield is not the whole return

The calculator measures income only. An investment's total return also includes what happens to its price:

Total return ≈ income yield + change in price

That matters in both directions:

• High yield, falling price. A bond fund yielding 6% whose price falls 4% in a year returned about 2%. The calculator shows the 6% income and nothing about the loss.
• Low yield, rising price. A stock index fund with a low dividend yield may have returned far more through growth.
• Fixed income, rising prices. A fixed coupon keeps its nominal value, but inflation erodes what it buys. Inflation and why money loses value explains the effect.

So a passive income plan usually balances two goals: enough income today and enough growth to keep that income rising. The calculator answers the first. For the second, the compound interest calculator projects how a balance grows when income is reinvested, and the deposit vs investment calculator compares a fixed rate with a market return.

Passive income at a glance

This grid shows Net Monthly Income from every $100,000 invested, by annual yield and tax rate. Scale it to your own capital: $350,000 earns 3.5 times the figure.

Read down a column to see what a higher yield is worth, and across a row to see what tax takes. At 4% and a 25% tax rate, each $100,000 pays $250 a month, so $1,000 a month needs $400,000.

Worked examples

Each example uses USD and shows what the calculator returns.

Common mistakes with passive income calculations

• Leaving the tax rate at 0%. The calculator opens with no tax, and every currency switch sets the rate back to 0%. Choose the currency first, then enter your own rate.
• Entering total return as yield. Last year's total return includes price changes. Only interest, coupons, dividends and net rent are income.
• Using gross rent. Property tax, insurance, repairs, management and empty months come out of the rent before it is income.
• Reading Weighted Avg Yield as the yield after tax. It is calculated before tax. Divide Net Annual Income by Total Invested for the yield you keep.
• Expecting conversion between currencies. With several currencies, each one is totalled on its own. Adding the totals without converting them gives a meaningless number.
• Treating Net Monthly Income as a payment schedule. It is the yearly income divided by 12. Quarterly dividends and twice-yearly coupons arrive in larger, less frequent payments.
• Chasing the highest yield. A yield far above similar investments often signals risk to the capital or a payout that will not last.
• Forgetting inflation. A fixed income buys less each year. Plan for income that grows, or for spending part of the capital later.

Limitations and next steps

The passive income calculator answers one question clearly: at the yields and tax rates you enter, how much income does your money pay each month and each year? It cannot tell you whether those yields will last, what your investments will be worth, how inflation will change what the income buys, or how a real tax return with brackets, allowances and credits will turn out.

Use it to size your income, then look at the parts it leaves out:

• The compound interest calculator shows how a balance grows if you reinvest the income first.
• The FIRE calculator shows when your savings could cover your expenses with a withdrawal rate.
• The inflation impact calculator shows what a fixed income will buy in the future.
• The bond yield calculator works out current yield and yield to maturity for a single bond.

For background, read what bonds are and what investing is. For decisions about specific investments, accounts or taxes, consider a qualified adviser or tax professional who explains their fees in writing.