What if you invested in PayPal in 2020?
PYPL · Financial · Data through 2026-06-01
If you invested $1,000 in PayPal in 2020
The same $1,000 in the S&P 500 would be worth $2,540(+154%)
The S&P 500 returned $2,540 on the same $1,000. S&P 500 outperformed by $2,159.
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Growth of $1,000
PayPal vs. S&P 500 vs. US Dollar, 2020 to present
Year-by-Year Returns
$1,000 invested in PayPal starting January 2020
| Year | Price | Value | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $112.91 | $1,000 | - |
| 2021 | $232.30 | $2,057 | +105.7% |
| 2022 | $170.46 | $1,510 | -26.6% |
| 2023 | $80.79 | $716 | -52.6% |
| 2024 | $60.82 | $539 | -24.7% |
| 2025 | $87.82 | $778 | +44.4% |
| 2026 | $52.36 | $464 | -40.4% |
What this return means
Buying PayPal (PYPL) in 2020 cost you money. That stake is worth $381 as of 2026-06-01, a -61.9% move that left you with less than you started with after 6.6 years.
That averages out to -13.6% a year, meaning the position shrank in compound terms across the 6.6-year window. A plain S&P 500 fund would have grown that $1,000 to about $2,540 instead, beating PayPal by around $2,159. The index compounded at about 15.2% a year, a reminder that a single stock can lag a basket of them.
The year-by-year record shows how bumpy the ride was. The best single year was 2021 at +105.7%, and the worst was 2023 at -52.6%. At its lowest point the position was down about 77% from an earlier high. These figures use split-adjusted closing prices and exclude dividends, taxes, trading fees, and inflation, so a real after-tax result would differ.
None of this is a recommendation. It is a record of what already happened, and past performance does not guarantee future results.
What if you invested $100 a month instead?
Most people do not drop a lump sum in on day one. They add a fixed amount every month. Putting $100 into PayPal at the close of every month from January 2020 through June 2026 means 78 buys and $7,800 contributed over about 6.5 years.
$100/month, dollar-cost averaged
$3,990
-48.8% on $7,800 in
Same $7,800, all in at the start
$2,973
-61.9% on $7,800 in
Spreading the buys out beat going all in at the start by $1,017. That happens when the price spent time below where it began, so averaging in caught the cheaper months. Averaging in also meant an average buy price of $84.13 per share across the whole stretch, so the monthly buyer never had to time a single low. Neither number counts dividends, taxes, or trading costs.
Illustrative fixed $100/month example, not a recommendation. Figures are computed from PYPL split-adjusted monthly closes through June 2026. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
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For informational and educational purposes only. Not financial advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results. All calculations are based on split-adjusted closing prices from Yahoo Finance and do not account for dividends, taxes, or trading fees. See our methodology and full disclaimer.