Crypto DCA Calculator

How the average cost is built

Each purchase buys (amount − fee) ÷ price coins, where the fee is the percentage your exchange charges on that buy. Adding those up gives the position, and dividing the total money spent by the total coins gives the average cost. Fees push the average cost up, which is why a high-fee venue needs a bigger price move to break even.

A useful check: the average cost of a series of equal purchases is below the arithmetic average of the prices, and the gap widens with volatility. The table of purchases shows the running average after each buy, so you can watch the average fall toward the cheaper prices as the schedule proceeds.

The calculator also runs the same total money as a single lump sum on the first purchase date, at the same fee rate, so you can see how much of the difference came from the schedule itself rather than from the price move — the two paths are otherwise kept exactly equal.

What DCA does and does not do

It removes the decision about whether today is a good day to buy, which is a behavioral benefit more than a mathematical one. It also reduces the risk of committing all your money just before a fall, at the cost of buying less of the way up.

It does not make a bad asset good, and it does not change where the price ends up. If the price only rises, buying early with a lump sum wins; if it falls and recovers, spreading the purchases usually wins. The comparison table shows both outcomes at several end prices.

The value and the return are printed against the price you enter, so the same schedule reads as a winner or a loser purely by moving that one number. Nothing about a future price is assumed: the tool prices the purchases you give it and lets the end price decide the rest.

What is modelled

The fee on each purchase, the coins bought, the running average cost, the value at the price you enter and the alternative of one purchase on the first date with the same total money. Every figure is computed locally from the amounts, prices and fees you type.

Not modelled: tax on sales (crypto is treated as property in the United States, so a sale realizes a gain or loss), staking rewards, network and withdrawal fees charged in coin rather than cash, and the exchange spread when the order is filled. These would each move the real result, so the page keeps them clearly outside the model.

Fees and the schedule

The fee on each purchase is part of the arithmetic: it adds to what you spend and takes coins off what you buy, so it raises the average cost that everything else depends on. A flat fee hurts small purchases more than a percentage fee does, because it is the same cost on a smaller amount.

The fee compounds in the opposite direction to the schedule: it is charged on every buy, so it moves the average cost more than the calendar does. On a small schedule a high venue fee can matter more than the price itself, which is the case the examples section shows with a 2% exchange fee.

That is why the fee rate sits next to the schedule rather than hidden from it: changing the fee changes the coins, the average and the comparison in one pass, and the examples show a schedule that is profitable at one fee level and only marginal at another.