How long until my side project pays back the time I put in?
Enter your hours, your hourly value and what you spent. The calculator divides the total by what the site earns each month.
Months to break even
25.8 months
Total invested$515
Break-even dateNovember 2028
This calculator adds the value of the hours you spent to the cash you spent, then divides that total by the revenue the site makes in a month. The answer is the number of months before the site has paid you back. It exists because earnings screenshots never show the hours that came first.
How the math works
The formula is two lines:
Total invested = (hours * hourly value) + one-time costs
Months to break even = total invested / monthly revenueHours spent is everything, not just the build: DNS, email setup, Search Console, the review queue, the debugging. On our own sites the build was roughly a fifth of the total and the rest was setup and fixing silent failures, so if you only count build hours you will undercount by a wide margin.
Value of your time is whatever an hour is worth to you. Set it to 0 and the question changes from "was this worth my time" to "when does the site cover its own cash costs", which is a fairer question for something built to learn.
One-time costs are the domain, any paid tools and anything else you paid once. Recurring costs are not in this version; see "What the result does not tell you".
Monthly revenue is a steady-state figure. For a new AdSense site it will be close to zero for the first weeks while the site is reviewed and indexed. If you do not have a number yet, get one from the AdSense Revenue Calculator first using your niche's RPM range.
The defaults on this page are 25 hours at $20 an hour plus $15 of costs, which is a total of $515, against $20 a month. That produces a break-even of 25.8 months, which is $515 divided by 20.
Worked example from one of our sites
Our word-game utility sites run at the low end of display-ad earnings, a measured RPM between $0.50 and $2 per 1,000 pageviews. At that rate, $20 a month needs roughly 10,000 to 40,000 pageviews a month, which is why the break-even period on a low-RPM site is usually measured in years, not weeks.
How to read your result
Under 12 months: the site is paying back quickly, or you valued your time at close to zero. Check that your monthly revenue figure is something you have actually seen, not a projection.
12 to 36 months: normal for a solo content or utility site in a low-RPM niche. The site can still be worth building for the skill or as a portfolio piece; just know that is the reason.
Over 36 months, or never: either the niche pays too little per visitor or the traffic assumption is too low. Changing niche usually moves the number more than adding hours.
What the result does not tell you
- It ignores recurring costs such as paid hosting, email or tool subscriptions. Subtract them from monthly revenue before entering it.
- It ignores payout timing. AdSense pays only once your balance reaches the payment threshold, so the first cash can arrive months after the first dollar is earned.
- It ignores tax and the value of what you learned. Both are real; neither fits in a division.
- It assumes revenue is flat. Real small-site revenue is lumpy and seasonal.
Common mistakes
- Counting only the hours spent generating the front end.
- Entering the revenue you hope for instead of the revenue you have seen.
- Using a finance-niche RPM for a puzzle site.
- Forgetting the months before approval, when revenue is exactly zero.
- Treating a long break-even as failure. It is information, and it is cheaper to have it now.
Questions about break-even on a side project
Should I set my hourly rate to zero?
Set it to zero if you built the site mainly to learn. You then get the number of months until the site covers its own cash costs, which is a fairer test for a first project.
Where do I get a realistic monthly revenue figure?
From your AdSense Reports page once you have at least a full month of data. Before that, use the AdSense Revenue Calculator with the RPM range for your niche and enter the low end.
Why is my break-even over two years?
Usually because the niche pays under $2 per 1,000 pageviews. At that rate even modest earnings need tens of thousands of monthly pageviews.
Does this include hosting?
No. Many static hosts have a free tier, but if you pay for hosting or email, subtract that monthly cost from revenue before you enter it.
Is a long break-even a reason to stop?
Not on its own. It tells you the site will not repay your hours soon. Whether that matters depends on why you built it.