# Carbon project calculator: credits, costs and break-even

Last updated: 2026-11-01

Estimate how many carbon credits a reforestation project earns per hectare, what it costs to get there (design, validation, verification, planting, registry fees), when it pays back, and the area at which its fixed costs pay off. Every default is editable and shows its source, or says it is our assumption.

Open the tool: https://restorationscope.com/tools/carbon-project-calculator (free, no account).

Read more: [How many carbon credits does a hectare of reforestation earn?](https://restorationscope.com/blog/carbon-credits-per-hectare), [What a reforestation carbon project costs](https://restorationscope.com/blog/carbon-project-costs).

## How it works

1. Enter your area and credit price, and pick what grows and the standard you will certify under.
2. Read credits per hectare, the cash after the project, the payback year and the break-even area.
3. Replace the cost defaults with your own quotes, and open the details to change growth rates, deductions and the verification schedule.

## Input and output

- Input: Project area, what grows (IPCC regrowth or plantation rates), the standard, credit price, and costs: design and validation, each verification, planting per hectare, upkeep, yearly fixed costs and the share of revenue paid to communities.
- Output: Credits per hectare a year, credits and cash over the project, the year it pays back, the area at which it breaks even, the share of removals that become credits, and the year-by-year cash.

## Example

Input:

```text
Tropical moist forest regrowth in the Americas · Verra · USD 15 a credit · 30 years · default costs · 100 ha, then 2,000 ha
```

Output:

```text
About 6.3 credits per hectare a year
100 ha: 18,792 credits, −USD 534,842 after 30 years, does not pay back within 30 years
2,000 ha: 375,840 credits, USD 2,698,157 after 30 years, pays back in year 10
Break-even: about 415 ha
```

## Limits

- It is a planning estimate from published defaults: your own plots, your methodology expert and your verifier set the real numbers.
- Fees, prices and cost defaults were checked November 1, 2026; registries adjust their fees and credit prices move.
- Growth uses IPCC Tier 1 defaults for trees above and below ground; soil, dead wood and litter are left out.
- Baseline and leakage are fixed shares you choose; VM0047 calculates them from a performance benchmark and module VMD0054.
- Project emissions, such as fuel, fertiliser or burning to prepare the site, are left out; VM0047 deducts them.
- IPCC Table 4.4 sets root ratios by above-ground biomass (up to 125 t a hectare, and above); it switches at year 20 as a proxy, and teak borrows the natural-forest ratio, as no planted row covers its zone.
- Registry fees are one rate per credit: Plan Vivo’s drops from USD 0.40 to 0.35 above 50,000 credits a year, and Verra’s levy is charged on the tonnes claimed.
- Credits are sold when verified, at one price; forward credits, price changes, tax, finance costs and inflation are left out, and cash is not discounted.
- The cost defaults for design, validation and verification come from studies published in 2011 and 2014 (costs in 2010 and 2011 dollars), the latest primary figures we found.
- Harvested plantations are capped at their long-term average under Verra, which it does not model.

## Privacy

Everything runs in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to our servers.

## Questions

### How many carbon credits does a hectare of reforestation earn?

With IPCC default growth for the young tropical forests in the calculator and our example deductions, about 4 to 8 credits a hectare a year over the first 20 years, and fewer after. A fast plantation such as teak can earn about 12. Your own plots set the real number.

### What does it cost to set up a carbon project?

Studies from 2011 and 2014, the latest primary figures we found, put feasibility, the project design document and validation at about USD 45,000 (the low end of Forest Trends’ ranges) to 305,000 (Pearson and colleagues’ largest case) before the first credit, and each verification at about USD 30,000 to 50,000, plus registry fees. Assisted regrowth adds about USD 230 to 1,260 a hectare and planting about USD 220 to 2,260 (2011 USD, including the first years of care).

### How big does a reforestation carbon project need to be?

Big enough for its credits to pay the costs that don’t grow with area. With the default costs, which sit inside the published ranges, and USD 15 a credit, a tropical regrowth project under Verra breaks even at about 415 hectares, and at about 230 to 550 hectares across the published ranges for those costs. Grouped projects share them across many landholders.

### Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The calculation runs in your browser, and the numbers you enter stay there.