Amazon Return Calculator

If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon on May 15, 1997 at $0.10 per share, by October, 2025 your investment would have been worth $2,264,979 (about 2,265× your initial investment in 28 years).

Amazon's stock experienced a huge boom and bust around the dot-com era. In the late 1990s, Amazon's share price surged as internet stocks soared, but it crashed by roughly 90% when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000–2001. However, Amazon survived and kept growing its revenues. By the mid-2000s, its stock began a steady recovery as the company proved its business model. Investors who held on (or bought at the lows) eventually saw Amazon's stock not only recover but reach new highs in the 2010s and beyond. The rebound illustrates Amazon's resilience and the long-term payoff of its focus on growth.

Yes, Amazon has split its stock four times in its history. Three splits occurred early on (a 2-for-1 split in 1998, a 3-for-1 in 1999, and another 2-for-1 in 1999) which greatly increased the share count for early investors. After a long gap, Amazon announced a 20-for-1 split in 2022 to make the stock more affordable. These splits mean someone who bought Amazon before 1999 and held would now own 240 shares for each original share (2×3×2×20). Stock splits themselves don't create profit, but they have made Amazon's high share price more accessible to new investors. Our ROI calculator's adjusted prices factor in all these splits, so Amazon's true growth is accurately reflected.

Amazon's ROI has vastly exceeded that of most traditional retail companies. Over the past 20+ years, Amazon transitioned from a fledgling online bookstore to a dominant retail marketplace and cloud services provider (AWS). Traditional retail giants like Walmart or Target have grown more slowly in comparison. For instance, while an established retailer might have seen solid returns and paid dividends, Amazon delivered an exponential increase in share price (albeit without dividends). This means Amazon's long-term investors enjoyed far higher percentage gains than those in brick-and-mortar retail stocks, albeit by taking on more risk during Amazon's unprofitable early years.

Amazon's stock performance has been fueled by the company's relentless expansion and innovation. Key drivers include the growth of e-commerce (Amazon captured a huge share of online shopping globally) and the success of Amazon Web Services (which became one of the world's leading cloud computing platforms). Additionally, Amazon continually entered new markets (like streaming with Prime Video, smart devices with Alexa, etc.), which opened up more revenue streams. Jeff Bezos's long-term vision of prioritizing growth and customer satisfaction often meant thin profits early on, but it paid off as Amazon eventually achieved massive scale and profitability. All these factors combined to drive Amazon's stock sharply upward over the long run.