Options Breakeven Calculator: Call and Put

Options breakeven at expiry is strike plus premium for a call, or strike minus premium for a put, before charges. This page's Call selector currently follows the Put calculation, so do not rely on its Call result. Several extra cards also use assumptions that the form does not ask you to enter. Use the formulas and labelled examples below to check the expiry arithmetic; they do not estimate a live option's resale value.

Call and put breakeven at expiry

The strike is the price written into the option contract. The premium is the amount paid or received per underlying unit. At expiry, the option's intrinsic value, meaning its exercise value, is compared with that premium. A breakeven price is the underlying price where the payoff from a single option position balances its premium.

• Call expiry breakeven = strike + premium per unit.
• Put expiry breakeven = strike − premium per unit.
• Buyer and seller share that single-leg breakeven when the strike and premium are identical. Their profit and loss run in opposite directions.
• Lot size changes the total money at stake. It does not change the underlying breakeven price before costs.

An option can be in the money and still lose money for its buyer. In the money means it has exercise value. Profit also requires recovering the premium and applicable charges. The options profit calculator offers a related payoff check; read its assumptions before using the result.

Breakeven formulas at a glance

Breakeven means the underlying price at expiry where the position makes neither a profit nor a loss, before charges. The table covers all four single-option positions. Premium here means the price per unit, not the total for the lot.

A buyer and a seller of the same option share one breakeven, but their results run in opposite directions. The buyer's loss is capped at the premium paid. The seller's profit is capped at the premium received. Keep in mind that the page's call selector currently follows the put calculation, so for calls use the formula above and not the Call result on the form.

Breakeven also has a business meaning, the sales level where a company stops making a loss. This page is about options only.

What this form accepts, and which outputs need care

1. Enter Strike Price and Premium Paid/Received as per-unit amounts in the same currency.
2. Select Call Option (CE) or Put Option (PE). The current Call selection needs repair, so check call arithmetic independently.
3. Choose Option Buyer or Option Seller. This changes the direction of the payoff, not the premium's entry convention.
4. Enter the actual contract's Lot Size and Number of Lots. Verify the applicable contract specification instead of copying the old lot-size help text.

The NSE market-lots file, checked on 15 October 2026, lists 65 units for Nifty and 30 for Bank Nifty in the October series. Check your exact contract and date before entering quantity; the form's older help values are unsuitable as a current reference.

Breakeven Price is the main result. The form also lists Points to Breakeven, Move Required %, Money Status, Intrinsic Value, Time Value, Current P&L, Trade Direction, To Breakeven and Est. Probability %. Those labels do not establish that the calculation has the information needed for a current-market assessment.

There is no visible current underlying-price field, time-to-expiry field or volatility field in this form. The implementation supplies preset values for them. Consequently, the distance and money-status cards can refer to an assumed price rather than the underlying price you are viewing. The estimated probability also depends on hidden inputs and should not guide a trade.

Current P&L uses exercise value minus the original premium for a buyer, with the signs reversed for a seller. Before expiry, that is not a market-value profit or loss because the option can still have time value. There is no live option quote in this form.

Worked example: a put that reaches expiry breakeven

Illustrative inputs: Strike Price ₹22,800, Premium Paid/Received ₹120, Put Option (PE), Option Buyer, Lot Size 10 and Number of Lots 1. The quantity is invented to make the multiplication clear; it does not identify a current exchange contract.

Put breakeven is ₹22,800 − ₹120 = ₹22,680. Total premium paid is ₹120 × 10 × 1 = ₹1,200. If the underlying settles at ₹22,680, the put's exercise value is ₹120 per unit. The expiry profit calculation is (₹22,800 − ₹22,680 − ₹120) × 10 = ₹0 before charges.

The form's Put selection reproduces that breakeven. It does not take the hypothetical settlement price in this example as an input, so its Current P&L card is a separate calculation based on its preset spot price. Do not expect that card to display the example's settlement result.

For an illustrative call using the same strike and premium, the correct expiry breakeven is ₹22,800 + ₹120 = ₹22,920. The current Call selection fails this addition check. Changing the lot count cannot repair that error.

Bank Nifty option breakeven example

This example is made up to show the multiplication. The Bank Nifty lot size in the project's lot table is 30 units as of September 2026, taken from NSE's lot file. Confirm the current lot in that file before you use any quantity, because lot sizes are revised from time to time.

Assume you buy one Bank Nifty call with a 55,000 strike at a premium of 400 per unit, and one Bank Nifty put with a 55,000 strike at a premium of 350 per unit. They are separate trades, shown side by side.

Now suppose the index settles at 55,700. The call is worth 700 per unit at expiry, so the buyer's profit is (300) per unit, or ₹9,000 for one lot before charges. The put expires with no value, so the put buyer loses the full ₹10,500. In real trading the option often has time value left before expiry, so a trade closed earlier can have a different result.

Breakeven after brokerage, STT and charges

The simple formula leaves out costs, and for an option buyer they are small but real. The table works out the charges for the call example above if the premium is 400 at both entry and exit, so the trade is flat before costs. The rates come from our charges log: STT of 0.15% on the sell-side premium, NSE options exchange charge of 0.03553% each side, SEBI fee of ₹10 per crore, stamp duty of 0.003% on the buy side and 18% GST on brokerage, exchange charge and SEBI fee. Brokerage of ₹20 per order is an assumed flat figure for the example, so replace it with your broker's tariff.

Divide the total by 30 units and you get about ₹2.52 per unit. So the net breakeven for this call is close to the strike plus premium plus that amount, about 55,402.5 (400 + 2.52 + 55,000, rounded). The exit turnover and STT rise slightly if the exit premium is higher, so treat the figure as an estimate. For the full cost picture, use the F&O cost calculator and the charges changelog. Option buyers can also pay STT at expiry if an in-the-money option is exercised, which is a separate case from the sale shown here.

Why a trade can close profitably before that price is reached

Expiry breakeven answers a settlement question. Closing an option earlier answers a different question: what premium did you receive compared with what you paid? The remaining time value and changes in implied volatility, the volatility priced into the option, can affect that resale premium. A buyer therefore does not have to wait for the underlying to cross the expiry breakeven to realise a gain.

Costs also matter. Brokerage and transaction charges move a buyer's net breakeven further into the profitable direction and reduce a seller's retained premium. This form has no fee inputs and its simple strike-and-premium calculation does not deduct them. Use the F&O cost calculator and charges guide to identify relevant costs.

The formula applies to a single option position. A spread combines option positions with different terms; its breakeven needs their combined payoffs. Different expiries introduce additional assumptions. The options probability page discusses the distinction between a model estimate and a realised result. An expiry breakeven alone supplies neither a probability nor a reason to buy or sell.

Strategies with two breakeven points

A position with more than one option leg can have two breakevens, one below and one above the strikes. In each case the breakeven comes from the combined payoff at expiry. Here are three made-up Nifty examples in index points, before charges. The prices are illustrative.

For a long straddle or strangle, the breakevens sit one total premium away from the strikes. The buyer needs a move large enough to cover both premiums. For an iron condor, the net credit moves the short strikes outward: the seller keeps profit only between the two breakevens. A reading above or below those levels starts to lose, until the long wings cap the loss.

Use the iron condor calculator and credit spread calculator for the combined payoff. This page's form handles one option at a time.

Keep the settlement question separate in your trade notes

When recording an option, identify the underlying, strike, option type, expiry and whether the premium was paid or received. Keep the premium per unit beside the total quantity so the position cost can be reconstructed. A strike and premium alone are enough for the simple expiry boundary, but they do not identify the full contract or its settlement obligations.

For a trade closed before expiry, record the actual option entry and exit premiums instead of using the underlying's movement as a substitute. Add the quantity closed and the charges attached to that closure. If part of the position remains open, distinguish that remaining exposure from the completed trade. This avoids comparing an expiry payoff on the whole original position with a realised result on only the closed portion.

If you are comparing scenarios, keep the original premium fixed unless the scenario explicitly changes the transaction. Changing both the underlying settlement price and the premium paid would describe a different starting trade. Label the scenario as hypothetical and record which assumption moved. For a seller, the same breakeven line does not mean the same loss exposure as the buyer; review the complete position rather than treating the shared boundary as a shared risk limit.

Breakeven questions

Sources

• Options Industry Council: long call payoff and breakeven.
• Options Industry Council: long put payoff and breakeven.
• Formula references and the live form were checked on 15 October 2026.