Stocks / GOOGL
What If You Had Invested in Google 10 Years Ago?
Alphabet Inc. (Class A) (GOOGL) with real monthly prices, dividends reinvested, through November 2026.
GOOGL $282.57 ▼ -2.20% last close, Nov 05, 2026
If you had invested $1,000 in GOOGL in November 2016, today it would be worth
$7,353
Same $1,000 in the S&P 500 (SPY): $3,895
If you had put $500 a month into GOOGL since November 2016, your $60,500 would be worth today
$193,973
Same plan in the S&P 500 (SPY): $128,888
More options in the What If calculator.
GOOGL live price chart
GOOGL returns by period
| Period | Total return | Per year | $1,000 became | SPY per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 04, 2026 | $0.2200 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 08, 2026 | $0.2200 | +4.8% | ||
| Mar 09, 2026 | $0.2100 | +0.0% | ||
| Dec 08, 2025 | $0.2100 | +0.0% | ||
| Sep 08, 2025 | $0.2100 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 09, 2025 | $0.2100 | +5.0% | ||
| Mar 10, 2025 | $0.2000 | +0.0% | ||
| Dec 09, 2024 | $0.2000 | +0.0% | ||
| Sep 09, 2024 | $0.2000 | +0.0% | ||
| Jun 10, 2024 | $0.2000 | — |
GOOGL year by year
Best full year: 2005 (+115.2%). Worst: 2008 (-55.5%).
| Year | GOOGL | SPY | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (so far) | -9.5% | +8.3% | |
| 2025 | +66.0% | +17.7% | |
| 2024 | +36.0% | +24.9% | |
| 2023 | +58.3% | +26.2% | The stock recovered strongly despite early worries that AI chatbots could threaten search. |
| 2022 | -39.1% | -18.2% | An advertising slowdown and rising rates cut the stock by about 40%. |
| 2021 | +65.3% | +28.7% | |
| 2020 | +30.9% | +18.3% | |
| 2019 | +28.2% | +31.2% | |
| 2018 | -0.8% | -4.6% | |
| 2017 | +32.9% | +21.7% | |
| 2016 | +1.9% | +12.0% | |
| 2015 | +46.6% | +1.2% | |
| 2014 | -5.4% | +13.5% | |
| 2013 | +58.4% | +32.3% | |
| 2012 | +9.5% | +16.0% | |
| 2011 | +8.7% | +1.9% | |
| 2010 | -4.2% | +15.1% | |
| 2009 | +101.5% | +26.4% | |
| 2008 | -55.5% | -36.8% | The global financial crisis. Bank failures and a deep recession made this one of the worst years for stocks since the 1930s. Advertising budgets were among the first things companies cut. |
| 2007 | +50.2% | +5.1% |
GOOGL: all at once or every month?
Take $12,000: all of it on day one, or $1,000 a month for a year. Across every starting month since 2004 (256 of them), the lump sum was ahead after 12 months in 197 (77%). The lump sum usually won, but roughly one start in 4 favored spreading it out. The best case for monthly investing was a start in May 2008, when it finished the year 52% ahead.
Worst drop
GOOGL's worst fall in this history was -58.6%, a loss of more than half, from October 2007 to November 2008. Getting back to the old high took until September 2012: 46 months from the bottom and 4.9 years from the peak. $1,000 invested at that peak shrank to about $414 at the low.
Google dividends
GOOGL paid $0.86 per share over the last 12 months, quarterly. At $282.57 that is 0.30%, a small yield; nearly all of the return has come from the price. Amounts are adjusted for splits.
| Year | Dividends / share | Change | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | $0.83 | +38.3% | 0.27% |
| 2024 | $0.60 | — | 0.32% |
Yield = each year’s dividends divided by the price at the end of the year.
GOOGL dividend history: last 10 payments
| Ex-dividend date | Amount | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Sep 04, 2026 | $0.2200 | +0.0% |
| Jun 08, 2026 | $0.2200 | +4.8% |
| Mar 09, 2026 | $0.2100 | +0.0% |
| Dec 08, 2025 | $0.2100 | +0.0% |
| Sep 08, 2025 | $0.2100 | +0.0% |
| Jun 09, 2025 | $0.2100 | +5.0% |
| Mar 10, 2025 | $0.2000 | +0.0% |
| Dec 09, 2024 | $0.2000 | +0.0% |
| Sep 09, 2024 | $0.2000 | +0.0% |
| Jun 10, 2024 | $0.2000 | — |
Stock splits
- April 2014: 1.998-for-1
- July 2022: 20-for-1
One share bought before 2014 is 39.96 shares today.
About Google
| Company | Alphabet Inc. (Class A) |
| Listed | August 2004 (Nasdaq) |
| Sector | Communication services |
| Dividend | Started in 2024 |
Alphabet is Google's parent company. Search advertising still pays for most of it, along with YouTube, Google Cloud and Android, with smaller bets such as Waymo self-driving cars.
Google went public in August 2004 at $85 a share through an unusual online auction. After a 2-for-1 split in 2014, which created the voting GOOGL shares and the non-voting GOOG shares, and a 20-for-1 split in 2022, that IPO price works out to about $2 a share today.
Alphabet paid its first dividend in 2024. Before that, all of its return came from the share price and buybacks.
Questions about GOOGL
How much would $10,000 invested in GOOGL 20 years ago be worth today?
About $235,122 with dividends reinvested, invested at the November 2006 close: 2251.2% in total, or 17.1% a year.
When does GOOGL pay dividends?
In the last 12 months the payments went out in March, June, September and December, $0.86 per share in total.
Did GOOGL beat the S&P 500?
Yes. Over the last 20 years it was ahead by 6.5 percentage points a year: +17.1% a year for GOOGL against +10.6% for SPY, dividends reinvested. It also fell harder at its worst (-58.6% against -50.8% for SPY over the same history).