Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
ROI
66567%
Estimated annual value of risk reduction
$30,000,000
Net benefit (value − program cost)
$29,955,000
Successful phishes prevented per year (est.)
1,200
Click rate reduction
24%
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How to use this
- 1Enter phishing attempts received per year (est.).
- 2Enter baseline click rate.
- 3Enter post-training click rate.
- 4Enter average cost of a successful phish.
- 5Enter annual training program cost.
- 6Read your roi on the right — it updates as you type.
- 7Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Security awareness programs are one of the few controls where you can directly measure a before-and-after behavior change: click rate on simulated phishing tests. This calculator estimates the annual risk reduction value by comparing your baseline phish click rate to a post-training click rate, multiplying the delta by the number of phishing attempts your organization actually receives per year, and applying an average cost per successful phish (credential compromise, business email compromise, or malware execution). Industry benchmarks from Proofpoint and KnowBe4 show organizations running consistent quarterly simulated phishing and training typically cut click rates from an 30-35% baseline to under 5% within 12 months, though the largest gains come in the first two quarters. The ROI is usually dramatic on paper because a single prevented business email compromise ($130,000 median loss per FBI IC3 data) easily outweighs a full year of training platform licensing and program management time.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Phishing attempts received per year (est.): 5000
- Baseline click rate: 30
- Post-training click rate: 6
- Average cost of a successful phish: 25000
- Annual training program cost: 45000
Results
- ROI: 66567%
- Estimated annual value of risk reduction: $30,000,000
- Net benefit (value − program cost): $29,955,000
- Successful phishes prevented per year (est.): 1,200
- Click rate reduction: 24%
What each field means
Inputs
- Phishing attempts received per year (est.)
- The phishing attempts received per year (est.) used in the calculation. Starts at 5000 so you have a working example on load.
- Baseline click rate
- The baseline click rate used in the calculation. Starts at 30 so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 0–100.
- Post-training click rate
- The post-training click rate used in the calculation. Starts at 6 so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 0–100.
- Average cost of a successful phish
- The average cost of a successful phish used in the calculation. Starts at 25000 so you have a working example on load.
- Annual training program cost
- The annual training program cost used in the calculation. Starts at 45000 so you have a working example on load.
Results
- ROI
- Returned as a percentage and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Estimated annual value of risk reduction
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Net benefit (value − program cost)
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Successful phishes prevented per year (est.)
- Returned as a whole number. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Click rate reduction
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
How do I estimate 'phishing attempts received per year'?
Pull it from your email security gateway logs, most platforms report a count of messages classified as phishing or flagged and quarantined. If you don't have that visibility, a rough proxy is 3-8 phishing-classified emails per employee per year for a typical mid-size company, though targeted or high-profile organizations see much higher volume.
Is a single click really worth $25,000?
It varies enormously by what the click leads to. A credential harvest that gets caught by MFA might cost near zero, while a business email compromise that leads to a fraudulent wire transfer averages well over $100,000 per FBI IC3 reporting, so use your own incident history or a conservative blended estimate rather than the worst-case number.
Do click rates really drop that much from training alone?
Consistent monthly or quarterly simulated phishing combined with immediate, specific feedback (not generic annual compliance training) is what drives the drop; a once-a-year video module alone barely moves the needle. The gains documented across major awareness platforms come from repetition and real-time correction, not one-time content delivery.
What's missing from this ROI calculation?
It doesn't count the downstream value of employees who don't click but do report suspicious emails, which speeds up detection organization-wide, nor does it count reduced help desk load from fewer credential reset and malware cleanup tickets. Both push real ROI higher than this conservative estimate.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
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Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Phishing Training ROI Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/phishing-training-roi
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/phishing-training-roi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Phishing Training ROI Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Phishing Training ROI Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/phishing-training-roi) (2026).