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DCF calculator (discounted cash flow)

Value a company from its projected free cash flows: discount each year at the WACC, add a Gordon terminal value, then work down to equity value per share.

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Enter Projected free cash flow, one per year, Discount rate (WACC), Perpetual growth rate after the forecast, Net debt (debt minus cash), Shares outstanding and the DCF calculator (discounted cash flow) works out Present value of the forecast cash flows, Terminal value (Gordon growth), Present value of the terminal value, Share of the valuation coming from the terminal value, Enterprise value, Equity value, Value per share straight away. For instance, with Projected free cash flow, one per year = 12, 14, 16.5, 19, 21.5, Discount rate (WACC) = 9%, Perpetual growth rate after the forecast = 2%, Net debt (debt minus cash) = 40 and Shares outstanding = 25 it returns Present value of the forecast cash flows = $62.97, Terminal value (Gordon growth) = $313.29 and Present value of the terminal value = $203.61.

How to use it

  1. Enter your values: Projected free cash flow, one per year, Discount rate (WACC), Perpetual growth rate after the forecast, Net debt (debt minus cash), Shares outstanding.
  2. Read the result instantly: Present value of the forecast cash flows, Terminal value (Gordon growth), Present value of the terminal value, Share of the valuation coming from the terminal value, Enterprise value, Equity value, Value per share.

Frequently asked questions

How does the DCF calculator (discounted cash flow) work?

It takes Projected free cash flow, one per year, Discount rate (WACC), Perpetual growth rate after the forecast, Net debt (debt minus cash) and Shares outstanding and derives Present value of the forecast cash flows, Terminal value (Gordon growth), Present value of the terminal value, Share of the valuation coming from the terminal value, Enterprise value, Equity value and Value per share from them. The calculation is live as you type, so the result updates on every change.

Which values does the calculator ask for?

5 values: Projected free cash flow, one per year, Discount rate (WACC) (%), Perpetual growth rate after the forecast (%), Net debt (debt minus cash) and Shares outstanding. Nothing else is required — no account, no file upload.

What does a typical calculation look like?

With Projected free cash flow, one per year = 12, 14, 16.5, 19, 21.5, Discount rate (WACC) = 9%, Perpetual growth rate after the forecast = 2%, Net debt (debt minus cash) = 40 and Shares outstanding = 25, the calculator returns Present value of the forecast cash flows = $62.97, Terminal value (Gordon growth) = $313.29 and Present value of the terminal value = $203.61. Those figures come from running this exact tool, so you can reproduce them by entering the same values.

How much does the result change with different inputs?

It moves a lot. Using Projected free cash flow, one per year = 12, 14.7, 18.15, 21.85, 25.8, Discount rate (WACC) = 9.9%, Perpetual growth rate after the forecast = 2.2%, Net debt (debt minus cash) = 80 and Shares outstanding = 50 instead, Present value of the forecast cash flows goes from $62.97 to $67.83 — which is why it is worth testing a few scenarios rather than trusting a single figure.

Which units should I enter the values in?

Enter Discount rate (WACC) % and Perpetual growth rate after the forecast %.

What does it give for smaller values?

Scaled down to Projected free cash flow, one per year = 12, 14, 16.5, Discount rate (WACC) = 8.1%, Perpetual growth rate after the forecast = 1.8%, Net debt (debt minus cash) = 20 and Shares outstanding = 1, Present value of the forecast cash flows comes out at $36.14. The relationship is worth checking at both ends before you rely on a single result.

When would I actually use this?

Comparing two investments that pay at different times, deciding whether a project clears its cost of capital, and sanity-checking a valuation someone else produced.

What is the most common mistake?

Trusting a valuation without asking what share of it comes from the terminal value. Past 70%, the answer is an assumption about the distant future dressed up as a calculation.

How accurate is it, and what are the limits?

The terminal value needs a discount rate above the perpetual growth rate; at or below it, Gordon growth has no finite answer and the terminal value is reported as zero. A DCF is an estimate whose result moves sharply with the WACC and the growth assumption — check how much of the valuation the terminal value carries before trusting it.

What is the difference between the DCF calculator (discounted cash flow) and the Actual cash value calculator?

This one returns Present value of the forecast cash flows and Terminal value (Gordon growth); the Actual cash value calculator returns Actual cash value and Total depreciation. That is the whole difference — open the one whose figure you need.

Further reading

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ComparisonNPV vs IRR: What to Do When the Two Rules Rank the Same Projects DifferentlyIRR picks the $10,000 project returning 50 percent; NPV picks the $100,000 project returning 30 percent, worth $20,370 against $3,889. And a mine with a cleanup cost has two IRRs, 10 and 20 percent, so the rate answers nothing.ExplainerPresent Value vs Future Value: Why Money in Thirty Years Is Worth About an Eighth of Its FacePV = FV ÷ (1+r)^n. At 7 percent over 30 years the discount factor is 0.131, so a promise of $100,000 in thirty years is worth $13,137 today — and $41,199 if you assume 3 percent instead.GuideBuying Back Retirement Quarters or Points: From What Age It Stops PayingThe usual advice is that a buy-back gets worse with age, because the price rises. The French scale is written to be actuarially neutral, so that is not quite what is happening — and once you see what actually moves the answer, the decision changes. Computed on the current parameters.ExplainerWhat Is Slippage in Crypto? Price Impact, Tolerance and What It CostsPrice impact is arithmetic: on a constant-product pool it equals your trade size divided by the reserve plus your trade. Here is the formula, a table of trade size against impact, and why the setting called slippage tolerance changes none of it.ExplainerHow Staking Rewards Actually Work: Nominal Rate, Compounding, and What Eats ItAn advertised 8 percent becomes 8.33 percent once daily rewards compound — and then 7.46 percent after a 10 percent validator commission, and less again after unbonding time. Here is each step, with the arithmetic laid out.ExplainerDollar-Cost Averaging: What It Actually Buys YouSpending a fixed amount each period buys more units when the price is low, so your average cost is the harmonic mean of the prices while the average price is the arithmetic mean — always lower, by 4.10 percent on the path worked through here. Against a lump sum, a 200,000-path simulation puts DCA's standard deviation 41 percent lower and its expected terminal wealth $337 lower on $12,000.