Crypto DCA calculator
Replay a regular-buy plan on real prices from the last year and see how it stacked up against going all in on day one.
Why your average cost beats the average price
Four monthly buys of $100. Drag each month's price.
The aha: the same $100 buys more coins when the price is low, so cheap months get more weight. Your cost per coin (a harmonic mean) is always at or below the simple average price, here by $8.81. The wilder the swings, the bigger the gap.
When DCA helps, and when it doesn't
DCA doesn't make a losing coin profitable; it changes when your money goes in. It tends to beat a lump sum when the price falls or chops sideways after you start, and to lag when the price climbs steadily, because most of your money arrives later at higher prices. Its real strength is behavioural: a schedule removes the temptation to time the market.
Fees matter more with frequent small buys. A 1.5% card fee on each weekly purchase quietly eats a noticeable slice of returns, so compare daily versus monthly above with a realistic fee. To track a real DCA plan, log each buy as a lot in the portfolio tracker.
Questions people ask
What is dollar-cost averaging (DCA) in crypto?
Buying a fixed dollar amount of a coin on a regular schedule (daily, weekly or monthly) regardless of price, instead of investing everything at once. You automatically buy more coins when the price is low and fewer when it is high.
How does this Bitcoin DCA calculator work?
It replays real daily closing prices from CoinGecko over the period you choose (up to 365 days, the limit of the free price history), buys your amount on each scheduled date, subtracts the fee, and values the stack at today's price.
Is DCA better than investing a lump sum?
Not always. In a market that mostly rises, a lump sum at the start usually wins because more money is invested for longer. DCA shines when prices fall or swing after you start, and it reduces the risk of buying everything at a peak. The calculator shows both side by side for the same period.
Why can't I go back further than a year?
The free CoinGecko price history available to browsers is limited to the last 365 days. That is enough to see how DCA behaves across rallies and drawdowns.