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Impermanent loss calculator

What a 50/50 liquidity pool position is worth against simply holding the same two tokens, and how much trading-fee income it takes to make up the difference.

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Against simply holding, the pool is worth −5.72% (-$858). With 15% fee yield for 180 days the position ends +1.3% against holding.

If you had held
$15,000
the two tokens, unpooled
Pool position
$14,142
before fees
Fees earned
$1,046
15% a year for 180 days
Break-even fee yield
12.3%
a year, to offset the loss in this period

Loss against holding, by price ratio of the two tokens

The curve is the same whichever token moves; the dot is your inputs.

0%-10%-20%-30%-40%-50%0.1×0.25×0.5×1×2×4×10×

Impermanent loss by price change

Loss against holding, for one token moving against the other. The same figure applies in either direction.

One token vs the otherImpermanent lossPool vs hold, on $1,000
1.1× (+10%)−0.11%1049 vs 1050
1.25× (+25%)−0.62%1118 vs 1125
1.5× (+50%)−2.02%1225 vs 1250
2× (+100%)−5.72%1414 vs 1500
3× (+200%)−13.40%1732 vs 2000
4× (+300%)−20.00%2000 vs 2500
5× (+400%)−25.46%2236 vs 3000
10× (+900%)−42.50%3162 vs 5500
0.9× (-10%)−0.14%949 vs 950
0.8× (-20%)−0.62%894 vs 900
0.66× (-34%)−2.12%812 vs 830
0.5× (-50%)−5.72%707 vs 750
0.33× (-67%)−13.62%574 vs 665
0.25× (-75%)−20.00%500 vs 625
0.2× (-80%)−25.46%447 vs 600
0.1× (-90%)−42.50%316 vs 550

How the calculator works

You put in half your deposit in each token. If their prices change by factors a and b, simply holding is worth D ÷ 2 × (a + b), and the pool position D × √(a × b). The gap is the impermanent loss. Fee income is estimated as a yearly rate on the pool value over the days you enter; real fee income varies with trading volume.

The calculator ignores gas costs, the risk of the pool's smart contract, and token incentives. To see how two coins have moved against each other, compare their price histories or look at their correlation: coins that move together lose less.

Questions

What is impermanent loss?
The difference between what your tokens are worth in a liquidity pool and what they would be worth if you had just held them. A pool keeps rebalancing as prices move, selling the token that rises and buying the one that falls, so a price change in either direction leaves you with less than holding. It is called impermanent because it shrinks if the prices return to where they started.
How is impermanent loss calculated?
For a 50/50 constant-product pool such as Uniswap v2, with price ratio r between the two tokens, the loss against holding is 2√r ÷ (1 + r) − 1. If one token doubles against the other it is −5.7%; at 4× it is −20%; at 10× it is −42%.
Is impermanent loss the same if the price goes down?
Yes. It depends only on the ratio of the two prices, not the direction: a token halving against its partner has the same loss as one doubling. A price fall also reduces the dollar value of both, which is a separate loss that holding would have suffered too.
Do trading fees make up for it?
They can. A pool pays its liquidity providers a share of every trade, and the calculator shows the yearly fee yield that would exactly offset the loss over the days you enter. In a quiet, range-bound pair fees often win; in a sharp one-way move they often do not.
Does this work for concentrated liquidity or stablecoin pools?
No. This is the classic 50/50 constant-product formula. Concentrated-liquidity pools (Uniswap v3) lose more for the same move inside the range they cover, and stable-swap pools lose far less for pegged assets. Use this as a guide to the shape, not an exact figure for those.

Disclaimer: This calculator is educational and does not constitute financial advice. It models a 50/50 constant-product pool and ignores gas, smart-contract risk, concentrated liquidity and token incentives. Providing liquidity can lose money; never invest more than you can afford to lose.