EXPIRY PAYOFF · NO MODEL, JUST THE ARITHMETIC
Options premium & payoff calculator
Enter a contract and see what it is actually worth at expiry: breakeven, maximum profit, maximum loss and the payoff across a range of settlement prices. Lot-aware, both sides of the trade, and deliberately free of predictions.
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Expiry payoff only — before brokerage, STT and other charges. Selling options involves margin and, for calls, uncapped risk.
Reading the payoff, with one worked example
Suppose you buy one NIFTY 25,000 call at a premium of ₹150 with a lot size of 65. Your outlay is ₹150 × 65 = ₹9,750, and that figure is also your maximum loss — if NIFTY settles at or below 25,000, the option expires worthless and the premium is gone. The breakeven is 25,150: strike plus premium. Settle at 25,300 and the intrinsic value is 300 points, worth ₹19,500 on the lot; subtract the ₹9,750 paid and the profit is ₹9,750. Settle at 25,100 and the option is in the money yet you still lose ₹3,250, because 100 points of intrinsic value does not cover a 150-point premium — the case most new buyers overlook.
The seller of that same contract sees the mirror image: ₹9,750 collected up front, kept in full below 25,000, surrendered rupee for rupee above it, with losses uncapped as the index climbs. That asymmetry — capped loss and uncapped gain for buyers, the reverse for sellers — is the whole geometry of options, and it is why the same contract can be rational for both sides at the same time: they are pricing probability against magnitude.
The formulas behind the numbers
Every result on this page reduces to four lines of arithmetic. A call's intrinsic value at settlement is the greater of zero and settlement minus strike; a put's is the greater of zero and strike minus settlement. A buyer's profit is intrinsic value minus premium, multiplied by lot size and lots; a seller's is premium minus intrinsic value. Breakeven is strike plus premium for calls and strike minus premium for puts. Before expiry an option also carries time value on top of these numbers, which is why a position can lose money even when the underlying moves the right way — covered properly in the option Greeks guide.
Calculator questions
Are Indian options European or American style?
European — both index and stock options on NSE exercise only at expiry, which is why an expiry-payoff view is the natural baseline. You can always sell the option back before expiry at its market premium.
Can this calculate multi-leg strategies like spreads or straddles?
This version prices one leg at a time. A multi-leg position is the sum of its legs, so you can compute each leg here and add the results; a combined-strategy view may come later.
How is an option buyer’s breakeven calculated?
For a call: strike plus premium paid. For a put: strike minus premium. The underlying must cross that level at expiry for the buyer to profit, before costs.
What is the maximum loss when buying an option?
The premium paid multiplied by the lot size — that is the entire amount at risk for a buyer. Sellers face the mirror image: their gain is capped at the premium and their loss is not capped (for calls) or extends to the strike (for puts).
Does this calculator include brokerage and taxes?
No. It shows the pure expiry payoff. Brokerage, STT, exchange charges and GST reduce the outcome further — on thin trades they change the answer materially.
Why do results assume expiry?
Before expiry an option also carries time value, which needs a pricing model and a volatility input. The expiry payoff is the arithmetic every position ultimately resolves to, which makes it the honest baseline.