Options breakeven calculator with fees
Find the underlying price at expiry where a long call or put returns its full cost. The cost includes the premium and your broker fees.
Result
Breakeven at expiry
$102.513
The underlying must close above this price at expiry for the trade to make money after fees.
- Total cost
- $502.60
- Maximum loss
- $501.30
Arithmetic
- Shares controlled
2 × 100200 - Premium paid
$2.50 × 200$500.00 - Opening fees
$0.65 × 2 + $0.00$1.30 - Closing fees
$0.65 × 2 + $0.00$1.30 - Cost per share
$502.60 ÷ 200$2.513 - Breakeven
$100.00 + $2.513$102.513
Maximum loss assumes that the option expires worthless. Then you pay no closing fees.
What the breakeven price means
The breakeven price is the underlying price at expiry where the option is worth exactly what you paid for it. At that price, the trade has no profit and no loss after fees.
A long call makes money at expiry only when the underlying closes above its breakeven. A long put makes money at expiry only when the underlying closes below its breakeven.
How the calculation works
The calculator adds the premium and all fees to get the total cost. It divides that cost by the number of shares that the contracts control.
- Total cost = premium × shares + opening fees + closing fees
- Cost per share = total cost ÷ (contracts × shares per contract)
- Long call breakeven = strike + cost per share
- Long put breakeven = strike − cost per share
The result includes closing fees because it assumes that you sell or exercise the option at expiry. If you plan to exercise, use your broker's exercise fee as the closing fee.
Example: long call
Buy 2 calls with a $100.00 strike for $2.50 per share. The broker charges $0.65 per contract to open and to close.
| Premium paid | $500.00 |
|---|---|
| Opening and closing fees | $2.60 |
| Total cost | $502.60 |
| Cost per share | $2.513 |
| Breakeven at expiry | $102.513 |
Example: long put
Buy 1 put with a $50.00 strike for $1.20 per share. The broker charges $0.50 per contract plus $1.00 per order, on each side.
| Premium paid | $120.00 |
|---|---|
| Opening and closing fees | $3.00 |
| Total cost | $123.00 |
| Cost per share | $1.23 |
| Breakeven at expiry | $48.77 |
How much fees move the breakeven
In the call example, fees move the breakeven from $102.50 to $102.513. On a large premium, that change is small.
Fees matter more on a cheap option. Buy 1 call for $0.05 per share with the same fees. The premium is $5.00, and the fees add $1.30. So fees raise the total cost by 26%.
Breakeven before expiry
Before expiry, an option has time value in addition to its value at expiry. So you can sometimes sell it for its full cost while the underlying is still short of the expiry breakeven.
This calculator gives the expiry breakeven only. The price that returns your cost before expiry depends on the option's market price at that time.
Common questions
Does this breakeven include commissions?
Yes. It includes the opening and closing fees that you enter, per contract and per order.
Why does another calculator show a different breakeven?
The other tool may leave out fees. Set all fees to zero here to compare. Then check that both tools use the same number of shares per contract.
Should I include closing fees if the option expires?
An option that expires worthless needs no closing trade. But at the breakeven price the option still has value, so you sell or exercise it. That trade has a fee.
Where does the recorded price come from?
The optional lookup reads TradeRecount's archive of option minute bars. It shows the price of the last trade on that date. That is not a quote, and your fill price can be different. The archive does not cover every contract or every date.
Can a long put have no breakeven?
Yes. A put is worth at most its strike. If the cost per share is equal to or above the strike, no underlying price returns the full cost.
Limits of this result
- It applies at expiry only.
- It covers long positions only. Short and multi-leg positions need different arithmetic.
- It does not include taxes, bid–ask spreads, or slippage.
- It is arithmetic for your inputs. It is not investment advice.