See exactly what happens to your shares after a split.

What is a stock split?

A stock split increases the number of shares outstanding while proportionally lowering the price per share. In a 2-for-1 split, every share becomes two and the price is halved. Your total position value is unchanged the instant the split happens — you simply hold more shares at a lower price. Companies often split to make shares feel more affordable to individual investors and to improve trading liquidity.

How this stock split calculator works

Enter your current share count, the price per share, and choose a split ratio — from common forward splits like 2-for-1, 3-for-1, 4-for-1, and 10-for-1, to reverse splits like 1-for-2, 1-for-5, and 1-for-10, or a custom ratio. The calculator shows your new share count, the adjusted price, and confirms that your value before and immediately after the split is identical. You can also enter a later market price to see any gain or loss that happened after the split.

Forward splits: more shares, lower price

Forward splits are the headline-grabbers. When a popular stock's price climbs into the hundreds or thousands of dollars, a split resets it to a more approachable level without changing what investors own. The quick-select examples in the calculator illustrate common ratios — a 10-for-1, a 4-for-1, and a 3-for-1 — that resemble well-known splits. These are educational examples, not live market data.

Reverse splits: fewer shares, higher price

A reverse split does the opposite: it reduces your share count and raises the price per share. A 1-for-10 reverse split turns 1,000 shares at $1 into 100 shares at $10. Companies often use reverse splits to lift a low share price — sometimes to satisfy a stock exchange's minimum-price listing requirement. While the math preserves value, a reverse split can be a signal worth researching, since it's frequently associated with struggling share prices.

Does a stock split make me money?

Not by itself. The moment a split occurs, your total value is exactly the same — only the share count and price change. Any gain or loss comes from how the stock trades afterward. Some stocks have historically risen following splits, but that's about investor demand and company performance, not the split mechanics. Enter a post-split market price in the calculator to separate the split itself from later price movement.

Splits and your cost basis

A standard split is not a taxable event. Your total cost basis stays the same but is spread across the new number of shares — so after a 2-for-1 split your per-share basis is halved. This matters when you eventually sell and calculate your capital gain. To estimate that tax, head to our capital gains tax calculator.

Key takeaways

• A split changes share count and price, never total value (at the moment of the split).
• Forward splits lower the price; reverse splits raise it.
• Splits are not taxable and your overall cost basis is preserved.
• Any profit or loss comes from trading after the split, not the split itself.