Bitcoin DCA Calculator: What If I Bought Bitcoin?

$1,000 bought on 1 January 2015 would have been worth $251,716 on 28 October 2026 (251.7x); the same amount bought on 1 January 2025 would have been worth $865.28 (−13.5%).

A purchase on 1 January uses the 31 December price (see Method). The table lists every start year.

Prices: Bitstamp BTC/USD at 00:00 UTC, one exchange. Fees, taxes and slippage are not included. One asset, chosen with hindsight. Values are for 28 October 2026. History, not a forecast. A purchase on 1 January uses the 31 December price. Per year is shown for periods of a year or more.

The same $1,000 ended between 0.87x and 6,103x the amount invested, depending on the start year: a 7,053-fold range from one asset and one method. Bitcoin is one asset that kept trading, and every start year was chosen with the result in view. Prices are from one exchange at 00:00 UTC, and fees, taxes and slippage are not included. History, not a forecast.

Buying $100 of bitcoin on the 1st of every month from 1 January 2018 put in $10,600 and held $53,006 on 28 October 2026 (+400.1%). The same plan from 1 January 2025 put in $2,200 and held $2,092 (−4.9%).

Prices: Bitstamp BTC/USD at 00:00 UTC, one exchange. Fees, taxes and slippage are not included. One asset, chosen with hindsight. Values are for 28 October 2026. History, not a forecast. Per year is shown for plans of two years or more. Each row compares the plan with one purchase of the same total on 1 January.

Putting the same total in on 1 January instead would have finished ahead in 11 of these 14 start years. These are one asset, chosen with hindsight; the plans end on the same date and overlap, so they are not 14 independent tests. Later starts have had less time. History, not a forecast.

This card compares two ways of using the same money: a monthly plan, and one purchase on the plan’s first day. It answers “what if I had the whole sum on day one?”, not “should I invest my income this way?”. The one-year row is a 12-month phase-in; the longer rows are what-ifs over longer periods.

For one-year plans, the monthly plan finished ahead of one purchase in 32.3% of 710 overlapping start dates, and ahead in 181 of the 211 where the price ended lower. These start dates overlap: the data hold about 14 separate one-year periods, all from one asset.

Prices: Bitstamp BTC/USD at 00:00 UTC, one exchange. Fees, taxes and slippage are not included. One asset, chosen with hindsight. Values are for 28 October 2026. History, not a forecast. The start dates overlap, so the rows are not independent tests; a share of start dates is not a probability.

A plan buys part of the sum later. When the price keeps rising, that part buys less bitcoin than one purchase on day one did, and the plan falls behind; when the price falls after the first day, the plan can finish ahead. Of the 499 overlapping one-year start dates where the price ended higher, the plan finished ahead in 48. The plan’s middle 80% was narrower than that of one purchase in 6 of the 6 plan lengths shown, and its worst start was higher in 4 of 6.

Both results describe the past of one asset that rose over this period, not the future. People investing from income cannot hold the sum on day one. Vanguard’s investor guidance on dollar-cost averaging against a lump sum covers the same trade-off (see Sources). Every row uses one exchange’s prices, without fees or taxes, and depends on the end date, 28 October 2026.

These tables repeat one plan from 1 January 2018 at three schedules, then a weekly plan on each weekday. The first spends about $300 a month as $10 a day, $70 a week or $300 a month; the second buys $100 a week, on a different weekday in each row. Every result is valued on 28 October 2026.

Prices: Bitstamp BTC/USD at 00:00 UTC, one exchange. Fees, taxes and slippage are not included. One asset, chosen with hindsight. Values are for 28 October 2026. History, not a forecast. All three plans start on 1 January 2018; other start dates give other results.

Prices: Bitstamp BTC/USD at 00:00 UTC, one exchange. Fees, taxes and slippage are not included. One asset, chosen with hindsight. Values are for 28 October 2026. History, not a forecast. To repeat a row, start a weekly plan on that weekday.

From 1 January 2018 the schedule made little difference. The multiple of the amount invested differed by 0.6% between the highest and the lowest schedule, by 0.6% between weekdays and by 2.7% between days 1 to 28 of the month. Fees mattered more here than the schedule: a flat $1 fee on a $5 daily purchase from 1 January 2018 removed 20% of the result. These figures rest on one price history. Other start dates give other spreads.

Dollar-cost averaging (DCA) means investing a fixed amount of money at regular intervals, whatever the price. In Bitcoin, that usually means buying the same dollar amount every day, week or month, so the same amount buys more bitcoin when the price is low and less when it is high. Bitcoin can be bought in small pieces: one bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis, and a satoshi is 0.00000001 BTC. “Stacking sats” is a common name for buying small amounts regularly.

The average price paid is the total invested divided by the bitcoin bought, so it sits closer to the prices at which more bitcoin was bought. A lump sum is the opposite: the whole amount goes in on one day, at one price. This page replays both on past prices; it does not say which is better.

Total invested

The sum of the purchase amounts you pay, fees included.

Bitcoin bought

For each purchase, (amount minus fees) divided by the price on that date, rounded to a whole satoshi; the total is the sum.

Average price paid

Total invested divided by the bitcoin bought. It is not the average of the daily prices. Example: $100 at $50,000 and $100 at $25,000 buy 0.002 + 0.004 = 0.006 BTC; the average price paid is $200 / 0.006 = $33,333, while the average of the two prices is $37,500.

Value

The bitcoin held times the price on the value date (times one minus the selling fee, if you entered one).

Profit (gain or loss on paper)

The value minus the total invested, before taxes and slippage. It is a paper figure until you sell. The calculator shows it as “Gain or loss on paper”.

Return (ROI)

The gain or loss divided by the total invested.

Annualized return (XIRR)

The yearly rate that makes the dated purchases and the final value balance, using actual dates and a 365-day year: the sum over purchases of amount / (1 + r)^(days since the first purchase / 365) equals the value / (1 + r)^(days to the value date / 365). For one purchase it is the compound annual growth rate (CAGR): (value / invested)^(365 / days) minus 1. Shown for single purchases of 365 days or more and for recurring plans of 730 days or more.

Lowest point

The worst value of (value on a day divided by the amount invested up to that day) minus 1 over all days of the plan.

Buying $100 of bitcoin every month from 1 Jan 2020 to 1 Oct 2026 (82 purchases, $8,200 in total) would have been worth $23,262 on 28 Oct 2026: +$15,062 (+183.7%), an average price paid of $28,482.

• It replays the past. The numbers are what past prices would have produced; nothing here looks ahead.
• It rests on one asset that kept trading. Bitcoin was chosen, and the start date picked, with the result in view; assets that failed are not in this data.
• It rests on few independent periods. Start dates overlap: the 14.6 years of data hold about 14 separate one-year periods and about 3 separate four-year periods.
• The start date is a choice that moves the result. The same plan started a year earlier or later can end anywhere in the ranges shown above.
• Fees, taxes and slippage are not in the numbers unless you enter a fee. Slippage is the gap between the price you expect and the price you get. A flat $1 fee on a $5 daily purchase since 1 January 2018 removes 20% of the result in our data; 1% per purchase removes 1%.
• A gain on paper is not money in hand. The value is the bitcoin held at that day’s price; a plan can sit at or below the amount invested for years.
• The price convention can move a single purchase. A purchase on a date uses the previous day’s close, so it differs from a same-day price by that day’s price change (see how it works).
• One exchange, one currency. Bitstamp BTC/USD only; no spreads and no other venues.

1. Choose how you buy: once, or every day, week, 2 weeks or month, and enter the amount in US dollars.
2. Pick the start date and, if you like, the date to value on. Prices start on 23 March 2012.
3. For each purchase date the calculator takes the Bitstamp price at 00:00 UTC and works out the bitcoin bought, to the satoshi (1 BTC = 100,000,000 satoshis).
4. It adds up the bitcoin and values it at the price on the value date, which is the latest price date unless you pick another.
5. It shows the total invested, the value, the gain or loss on paper, the average price paid, the annualized return, the lowest point and the time spent at or below the amount invested.
6. For recurring plans it compares the result with one purchase of the same money on the first day and runs the same plan from other start dates.

What it shows

• One-time or recurring bitcoin purchases: daily, weekly, every 2 weeks or monthly
• Value, gain or loss on paper, average price paid and annualized return
• Lowest point and time at or below the amount invested
• Comparison with one purchase of the same money
• The same plan from other start dates

Where the prices come from

Prices are Bitstamp’s BTC/USD price at 00:00 UTC on each date, which is the closing price of the previous day. A purchase “on 1 January” therefore uses the 31 December close. Using the closing price of the same day instead changes the bitcoin bought by a median of about 0.5% to 0.7% in our history for plans of one to four years, and by up to several percent in single cases. For a single purchase the difference is that day’s price change: a median of about 1.5%, more than 5% on about 12.9% of days, and up to 48.5% on the largest day. Other exchanges and other times of day give slightly different prices.

The source is Bitstamp’s daily BTC/USD history, from 23 March 2012 to 7 October 2026, with the days after that from CoinGecko’s daily prices up to 28 October 2026. Nothing earlier than 23 March 2012 is shown, and nothing is estimated. The data hold 5,333 days, 14.6 years. Three days (7 January 2015, 8 January 2015 and 9 January 2015) repeat the previous price: no price is stored for those dates, so the calculator carries the previous price forward.

Each purchase is rounded to whole satoshis; the total is the sum of those purchases. Annualized return (XIRR) weighs each purchase by how long it was held, using actual dates and a 365-day year. It is shown for single purchases held a year or more and for plans of two years or more.

People who buy Bitcoin regularly usually choose an amount and a schedule, then repeat it. Some place every order by hand; others use the recurring-buy feature of an exchange or broker. Costs differ between platforms, so people compare the fee and the spread of every purchase. They also decide where the bitcoin is held, and they keep a record of each purchase, because tax reporting usually needs one. Some people use exchange-traded products instead of holding bitcoin directly; those have their own costs and are not modeled here. This calculator places no orders and is not connected to any platform: it only replays what such a plan would have been worth at past prices.

• Bitcoin Rainbow Chart: where Bitcoin’s price has sat against a fitted long-term curve, drawn from the same Bitstamp history.
• Altcoin Season Index: a reading of how many of the largest altcoins have recently beaten Bitcoin.
• Dashboard: the crypto market in one daily read.