Call Put Premium Calculator
A straddle lives or dies on one number: the combined premium of the call and the put. Get it wrong and every breakeven, max loss and profit figure downstream is wrong with it. This calculator totals the two quoted premiums per share and per contract, then runs the full straddle position: long or short, both breakevens, max loss and max profit, and the profit or loss at any stock price at expiry.
This tool totals quoted premiums and analyzes the position at expiry. It does not price options: there is no Black-Scholes model, no volatility input and no Greeks here. Options involve substantial risk, including unlimited loss on short positions.
Quick Answer
Key takeaways
- Quotes are per share, money is per contract. The $8.25 combined premium is $825 of real cash per straddle, and every output on this page keeps the two units separate.
- A straddle has two breakevens, one full premium above the strike and one full premium below it. Any formula that splits the premium between the two sides understates the move you need.
- Long and short are mirror images with opposite risk: the buyer’s worst case is the premium, the seller’s worst case is uncapped.
- This tool totals quoted premiums. It does not estimate what an option should cost, which is a pricing-model question answered with volatility and the Greeks.
- Quick Answer
- How to use the call put premium calculator
- The premium formulas: per share, per contract, per breakeven
- Worked example: $100 strike, $8.25 combined premium
- Long vs short: the same premium, opposite risk
- Not a bond premium: clearing up the shared word call
- What competing calculators miss
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Add This Calculator to Your Website
- References
How to use the call put premium calculator
Use the first tab for the plain total. Enter the call premium and the put premium exactly as quoted, per share, add the number of contracts, and the result shows the combined premium per share and the full dollar cost with the 100-share multiplier written out. Leave contracts blank and the tool assumes one.
Use the second tab to analyze the position those premiums create. Enter the shared strike, pick long or short, repeat the two premiums, and give the tool a stock price at expiry to test. It returns both breakevens, the profit or loss at your test price per share and per position, and the max loss and max profit for the side you picked. Try the strike itself as the expiry price: that is the worst case for a buyer and the best case for a seller, and seeing the premium change hands at that single point explains the whole strategy. The pre-filled values are the worked example below, and nothing runs until you press Calculate.
The premium formulas: per share, per contract, per breakeven
Three short formulas do all the work on this page.
The absolute value in the last formula is what makes a straddle direction-neutral. At expiry only one leg can hold intrinsic value, and its size is simply the distance from the strike, whichever way the stock went. The position profits when that distance exceeds the combined premium, which is why the breakevens sit one full premium away from the strike on each side. For exposure that moves before expiry, time decay and volatility changes matter as well, and that is the territory of the option Greeks calculator rather than this expiry-based tool.
Worked example: $100 strike, $8.25 combined premium
The calculator is pre-filled with this position: one long straddle, strike $100, call at $4.50, put at $3.75.
| Figure | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Total premium | $4.50 + $3.75 | $8.25 per share |
| Cost of 1 contract | $8.25 x 100 | $825.00 |
| Cost of 2 contracts | $8.25 x 100 x 2 | $1,650.00 |
| Upper breakeven | $100 + $8.25 | $108.25 |
| Lower breakeven | $100 – $8.25 | $91.75 |
| Max loss (long) | Full premium, at a $100 close | $825.00 |
| P/L at $112 expiry | ($12.00 – $8.25) x 100 | +$375.00 |
The payoff table below is the same position at five expiry prices. Note the symmetry: the straddle does not care which direction produced the distance from the strike.
| Stock at expiry | Distance from strike | Long straddle P/L (1 contract) | Short straddle P/L |
|---|---|---|---|
| $85.00 | $15.00 | +$675.00 | -$675.00 |
| $91.75 | $8.25 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| $100.00 | $0.00 | -$825.00 | +$825.00 |
| $108.25 | $8.25 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| $115.00 | $15.00 | +$675.00 | -$675.00 |
Long vs short: the same premium, opposite risk
Long straddle (buy both)
- Pays $825 per contract in the example
- Worst case is fixed: the full premium, lost only at an exact strike close
- Best case is uncapped as the move grows
- Needs a move bigger than $8.25, about 8.3% here, just to break even
- Fits earnings and event trades where direction is unknown
Short straddle (sell both)
- Collects $825 per contract in the example
- Best case is fixed: the full premium, kept only at an exact strike close
- Worst case is uncapped on a large move in either direction
- Profits anywhere inside $91.75 to $108.25, a range most people overestimate
- Carries margin requirements and assignment risk the buyer never faces
The Options Industry Council strategy library describes the short straddle the same way the code does: selling a call and a put at the same strike and expiration, collecting the premium, and accepting open-ended risk. FINRA guidance on options accounts requires brokers to furnish the OCC disclosure document, Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options, before approving options trading. Read the short side of that document twice: the unlimited-loss line in the results box is not boilerplate.
Not a bond premium: clearing up the shared word call
Readers land here from bond research often enough that the distinction belongs on the page. This calculator is about exchange-traded options: a call is a contract giving the right to buy shares at the strike. A callable bond’s call premium is something else entirely: money an issuer pays bondholders to redeem a bond early, set by a schedule in the bond contract. If that is the figure you need, use the call premium percentage calculator, which works from call price and par value. The two tools share a word and no math at all.
What competing calculators miss
Straddle content online is plentiful, and some of it is wrong in ways that cost money.
Miss 1: the halved breakeven. At least one ranking straddle guide prints the breakeven as strike plus premium divided by two. That contradicts the guide’s own worked numbers and every standard source: at expiry one leg pays and the other is worthless, so the paying leg must cover the full combined premium. This tool puts the breakevens one full premium from the strike, and the payoff table above proves it: at $108.25 the position is exactly flat.
Miss 2: swapped max profit and max loss. The same genre of guide states in one paragraph that a straddle’s maximum profit occurs at the strike and its maximum loss sits opposite the strike. For a long straddle that is exactly backwards, and the error survives because it reads plausibly. Here the result box wires max loss and max profit to the side you selected, so long and short can never be transposed.
Miss 3: per-share answers to per-contract questions. Many premium tools stop at the sum of the two quotes. Traders fund accounts in dollars, so this tool carries every total through the 100-share multiplier and the contract count, and labels the units on each line.
One honest limit: expiry math assumes both legs are held to expiration at the same strike and expiry. Closing early, rolling, or pairing different strikes turns the position into something else, a strangle in the last case, and those need their own analysis. Exercise instead of closing and the trade becomes plain share ownership, at which point the question changes to the one the stock sell calculator answers: what the shares are worth to exit.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. It totals premiums you enter from live quotes and analyzes the position at expiry. Estimating a fair premium needs a pricing model with the underlying price, strike, time, interest rates and implied volatility, plus the Greeks for sensitivity. None of that is in this tool, by design.
A position holding a call and a put on the same underlying, with the same strike price and the same expiration. Buying both is a long straddle, a bet that the stock will move a lot in either direction. Selling both is a short straddle, a bet that it will stay near the strike. The Options Industry Council lists both versions in its strategy library.
Add the combined premium to the strike for the upper breakeven and subtract it for the lower one. With a $100 strike and an $8.25 combined premium, the breakevens are $108.25 and $91.75. The full premium belongs in both formulas because at expiry only one leg has value, and it must repay the cost of both legs.
The total premium paid, reached only if the stock closes exactly at the strike at expiry and both legs expire worthless. In the worked example that is $8.25 per share, or $825 for one contract. Any distance from the strike at expiry recovers part of the premium.
The maximum profit is the premium collected, $825 per contract in the example, kept in full only at an exact strike close. The loss is genuinely uncapped on the upside because the sold call obligates the seller to deliver shares at the strike no matter how high the stock goes, and it is very large on the downside as well. Short straddles require margin and carry assignment risk.
Standard US equity options each control 100 shares of the underlying, a convention set by the exchanges and the Options Clearing Corporation. That is why a premium quoted at $8.25 costs $825 per contract. Some index and mini products use different multipliers, so check the contract specification before applying the 100-share figure elsewhere.
Strike choice. A straddle uses one strike for both legs. A strangle buys or sells a put at a lower strike and a call at a higher strike, which costs less premium but needs a bigger move to profit, and has a flat zone between the strikes where both legs expire worthless. This calculator assumes the single shared strike of a straddle.
Completely different payment. Here, a premium is the market price of an options contract, paid by the buyer to the seller. A bond call premium is paid by an issuer to bondholders when redeeming a callable bond early, at a price fixed in the bond’s call schedule. The bond figure comes from call price versus par value, not from option quotes.
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References
- Options Industry Council, “All Strategies: long straddle and short straddle definitions and risk profiles” OIC: All Strategies. Accessed October 2026.
- FINRA, “Regulatory Notice 21-15: options account approval and delivery of the OCC options disclosure document” FINRA Regulatory Notice 21-15. Accessed October 2026.
- Interactive Brokers Campus, “Straddle Strategies: Smart Play or Risky Business?” IBKR Campus: Straddle Strategies. Accessed October 2026.
- SecuritiesCE, “Mastering Option Strategies: straddle maximum gain, maximum loss and breakeven worked examples” SecuritiesCE: Mastering Option Strategies. Accessed October 2026.
- OptionsTrading.org, “How to Calculate Breakeven Points in Options Trading: straddle breakeven formulas” OptionsTrading.org: Breakeven Points in Options Trading. Accessed October 2026.