Guide · Concept

What is adjusted close price?

Last updated June 4, 2026 · ~6 min read

If you compare a stock's price from years ago to its price today, you can be badly misled — stock splits and dividends distort the raw number. Adjusted close is the standard fix, and it is what we use for every stock and index on this site.

The problem with raw closing prices

Two corporate events make a raw historical price lie about returns. A stock split multiplies the share count and divides the price — NVIDIA's 10-for-1 split in 2024 turned a ~$1,200 share into ten ~$120 shares overnight, with no change in what you owned. A raw chart shows a 90% 'crash' that never happened.

Dividends do the opposite kind of distortion: when a company pays cash to shareholders, its price drops by roughly that amount on the ex-dividend date — even though holders are no worse off, having received the cash.

What adjusted close does

Adjusted close rewrites the historical series so it is continuous and reflects what a holder actually experienced. It scales pre-split prices to today's share basis, and it adds back dividends as if they had been reinvested.

The result: a return calculated from adjusted close is the real total return, free of artificial cliffs and jumps.

Splits, concretely

Take NVIDIA across its 2024 split. On raw prices, the history shows ~$1,200 then suddenly ~$120. On adjusted prices, the entire earlier history is divided down to the post-split basis, so the line is smooth and a 2021-to-today return comes out correct. Tesla's 3-for-1 split in 2022 is handled the same way.

Dividends and 'total return'

Because adjusted close assumes dividends are reinvested, an index's adjusted return (its 'total return') is higher than its price-only return. For a broad index like the S&P 500, reinvested dividends are a meaningful chunk of long-run performance — leaving them out understates the real result.

What we do

Stocks and indices on this site use adjusted close, so splits and dividends are already handled. Crypto and gold are price-only — there are no splits or dividends to adjust for. Full details are on our methodology page.

FAQ

Why does my brokerage show a different old price than you do?

Some tools display raw closing prices, others display adjusted ones. If the old price looks much higher than ours, it is probably unadjusted for a later stock split.

Do you adjust crypto prices the same way?

No. Cryptocurrencies and gold have no stock splits or dividends, so there is nothing to adjust — we use the actual market closing price.

Related: Full methodology · Split-adjusted: $1,000 in NVIDIA · Split-adjusted: $1,000 in Tesla

This guide is educational and is not financial advice. See our terms & disclaimer.

← All guides