USD1 DCA calculator

Dollar-cost averaging spreads your entry price over time, so you never put everything in at a top, at the cost of giving up some upside when prices only rise. In this backtest $100 weekly since Jan 1, 2026 returned -0.5% against -0.5% for a lump sum on day one. Whether it suits you depends on your income, horizon and risk tolerance; this page is educational, not advice.

Historically a lump sum wins more often in rising markets because the money is exposed longer, while DCA wins when prices fall after the start date. The DCA vs lump sum panel above runs both for the window you chose, net of the same fee.

The exchange fee you enter is taken out of every purchase before coins are bought, so "total invested" is the gross amount you paid and "coins accumulated" reflects what the fee left. Recurring-buy fees on exchanges range from zero to about 1.5%; 0.5% is the default.

Coinucation stores a daily close for USD1 from Coinbase candles back to listing and CoinGecko for the last year, 414 days as of Oct 8, 2026. Today's value uses the price from our 20-minute sampler. Each purchase uses the close on its scheduled day; charts sample monthly.

It is the money-weighted rate (an internal rate of return) that turns the sequence of purchases into today's value, so later purchases count for less time than early ones. It is an approximation and says nothing about future returns.