Options Profit & Loss Calculator
See the whole trade before you take it.
A free options profit calculator for long calls, long puts, covered calls, and vertical spreads. Enter your strikes and premiums and watch the payoff profile draw itself — updates live, no signup, nothing saved.
Each contract controls 100 shares.
This calculator shows profit/loss at expiration only and does not account for time decay, implied volatility changes, assignment risk, or transaction costs. For informational purposes only — not financial advice.
The URL updates as you type — anyone opening it sees this exact setup.
Max profit
Unlimited
Max loss
$500.00
Breakeven
$105.00
Figures are for 1 contract (100 shares) at expiration.
Payoff at expiration
Step by step
How to use this options profit calculator
Pick a strategy
Long call or put for directional bets, covered call for income on stock you own, vertical spread when you want both risk and reward defined up front.
Enter the strikes and premiums
Use the actual quotes you'd trade at — the bid/ask midpoint is a fair estimate. Every number updates the payoff diagram and the summary cards instantly.
Read the three numbers that matter
Breakeven tells you where the trade starts working, max profit what you can make, max loss what you can lose. If any of them surprises you, that's the calculator doing its job.
Size the position with your eyes open
Max loss per contract × number of contracts is your true exposure. Check it against your risk rules with the position size calculator before you place the order.
Reading the diagram
How to read an options payoff diagram
A payoff diagram answers one question: if the underlying ends at a given price on expiration day, how much does this position make or lose? The horizontal axis is the underlying's price; the vertical axis is your profit or loss. Wherever the line sits above zero, the trade wins; below zero, it loses. The point where the line crosses zero is the breakeven — the price the underlying must reach for the trade to be worth placing at all.
The shape of the line tells you the character of the trade. A long call's line is flat on the downside and climbs without limit on the upside: bounded risk, unbounded reward. A covered call is the mirror — the upside flattens at the strike while the downside keeps falling with the stock. Vertical spreads flatten on both sides, which is precisely their appeal: you know the worst case before you enter. Read the shape first, the numbers second.
One caution: even a perfectly defined-risk position can be misjudged. Sizing a spread based on how confident a trade feels rather than on its actual max loss is one of the most common ways overconfidence bias shows up in options trading — and once the position moves against you, loss aversion makes closing it at the planned point feel far worse than the math says it is.
The four strategies
What each position is for
Long Call
Buying a call gives you the right — not the obligation — to buy the underlying at the strike before expiration. Traders use it when they expect a meaningful rise and want leveraged exposure with a fixed worst case: the premium paid. The trade-off is that the underlying must move enough, fast enough, to cover the premium before time runs out.
Long Put
Buying a put is the bearish mirror: the right to sell at the strike. It's used to profit from a decline or to insure a stock position you already hold. Like the long call, the most you can lose is the premium — and like the long call, the clock is the enemy, because the move has to happen before expiration.
Covered Call
A covered call pairs stock you own with a call you sell against it. The premium you collect is yours immediately, which softens small declines and adds income in flat markets. In exchange, your upside is capped at the strike — if the stock rallies hard, your shares get called away. It's a yield strategy, not a protection strategy: the downside of the stock is still almost entirely yours.
Vertical Spread
A vertical spread buys one option and sells another of the same type at a different strike. A bull call spread (buy the lower strike, sell the higher) profits from a moderate rise; a bear put spread (buy the higher strike, sell the lower) profits from a moderate fall. Both maximum profit and maximum loss are fixed at entry, which makes verticals the standard tool for defined-risk directional trades.
Questions
Options P&L, answered
How do you calculate options profit and loss?
For a long call at expiration, P&L per share is the greater of (stock price − strike) or zero, minus the premium you paid — then multiply by 100 shares per contract. A long put mirrors this: the greater of (strike − stock price) or zero, minus premium. Multi-leg positions like covered calls and vertical spreads just add the P&L of each leg together at the same expiration price.
What is a breakeven price in options trading?
The breakeven is the underlying price at which the position neither makes nor loses money at expiration. For a long call it's the strike plus the premium paid; for a long put, the strike minus the premium. For a bull call spread it's the long strike plus the net premium paid. If the underlying finishes exactly at breakeven, you get back precisely what you put in — nothing more.
What's the difference between a covered call and a vertical spread?
A covered call combines stock you already own with a short call against it — you give up upside above the strike in exchange for immediate premium income, but you still carry nearly all of the stock's downside. A vertical spread involves no stock at all: you buy one option and sell another at a different strike, which caps both your maximum profit and your maximum loss. Covered calls are an income overlay on a stock position; verticals are defined-risk directional bets.
Does this calculator account for time decay (theta) or implied volatility?
No — and that matters. This calculator shows profit and loss at expiration only. Before expiration, an option's price also moves with time decay and changes in implied volatility, so your actual P&L if you close early will differ from what this diagram shows. Use this tool to understand the shape and risk boundaries of a position, not to predict day-to-day P&L.
Check your reasoning before you place this trade.
A clean payoff diagram doesn't fix biased reasoning. Run your thesis through the Bias Checker before you enter.
Check My ReasoningTrack how your options decisions actually turn out.
The Decision Journal logs your reasoning, confidence, and outcomes — so you can see whether your trade theses survive contact with reality.
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