What Is GCI in Real Estate? (Plus 5 Expert Strategies to Boost Yours in 2025)

Gross commission income (GCI) is a valuable metric for measuring success in real estate. However, as the industry changes and agents adapt to shifts in compensation, GCI will become just one of many ways to measure an agent’s progress in building a successful business.

Thankfully, calculating GCI is simple, as is determining the related figure of net commission income (NCI). Below, we provide a deep analysis of these performance indicators, as well as expert strategies to boost your GCI in the coming year.

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• What is GCI in real estate?
• Why real estate GCI is important
• Calculating GCI
• The NAR settlement and real estate GCI
• Buyer’s agent comp strategies
• General commission stats
• How to boost GCI as a real estate agent
• Your GCI + Luxury Presence

What is GCI in real estate?

Gross commission income in real estate is the total revenue an agent earns from commissions on real estate transactions. GCI does not factor in business expenses such as marketing costs, brokerage fees, taxes, and other direct and indirect costs.

Gross commission income vs. net commission income

Net commission income (NCI) is your take-home pay — it’s your GCI minus your business expenses, including:

• Transaction fees
• Referral fees
• Marketing and ad spend
• Team and brokerage splits
• Taxes

You should include any expenses directly related to earning your commission in this figure, such as fees paid to a photographer, videographer, contractor, or interior designer. Taxes should always be the last expense you calculate because you’re only taxed on your net income.

	GCI	NCI
Represents:	Total revenue earned	Profit after deductions
Deductions:	None	Common business expenses, including splits, fees, taxes
Purpose:	Measure overall sales performance	Assesses actual profitability

Understanding the difference between GCI and NCI helps agents manage finances effectively and set realistic income expectations. For example, agents examining the gap between these two numbers may aim to optimize their NCI by negotiating favorable splits or reducing operational costs.

Why real estate GCI is important

GCI isn’t just a number; it’s a success metric. When you track your GCI, you can

• Understand your performance
• Identify seasonal or location-based trends
• Assess your commission rates
• Improve your ability to set goals
• Strategically plan expenses
• Track the success of lead-generation campaigns
• Compare yourself to competing agents
• Determine opportunities to gain market share and income
• Track progress against your brokerage-negotiated cap

Calculating GCI

The simplest way to calculate your annual GCI is to add together all the commissions you’ve earned that year. For higher transaction volumes, working with a formula (the total dollar amount of your sales in a given period multiplied by your commission rate) reduces errors and the time required for the calculation.

The formula for calculating GCI in real estate is sales volume multiplied by commission divided by 100, also expressed like this:

• GCI = sales x (commission rate/100)

Of course, a few variables can complicate these calculations:

• If your commission rate changes depending on the type of transaction (like commercial vs. residential, renting vs. buying, etc.), you will need to calculate the GCI for each commission separately, and then add the results together.
• Any seller concessions that change your commission will also need a separate GCI calculation.

Real-life examples

These examples showcase different sales scenarios and their impact on GCI, which can vary significantly depending on sale price, commission rate, and whether the commission is split.

Example 1: Standard residential sale

• Scenario: An agent represents the seller on a $500,000 home sale. The agreed-upon commission rate is 5% of the sale price, split equally between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent.
• Calculation:
  • Total commission: $500,000 × 5% = $25,000
  • Listing agent’s share: $25,000 ÷ 2 = $12,500
• GCI: $12,500

Example 2: Luxury home sale with 60/40 split

• Scenario: An agent represents the buyer in a $2.5 million property purchase. The commission rate is 5%, with 60% going to the listing agent and 40% to the buyer’s agent.
• Calculation:
  • Total commission: $2,500,000 × 5% = $125,000
  • Buyer’s agent’s share: $125,000 × 40% = $50,000
• GCI: $50,000

Example 3: Dual agency

• Scenario: An agent acts as both the listing agent and buyer’s agent on a property sold for $750,000, earning the full 4% commission.
• Calculation:
  • Total commission: $750,000 × 4% = $30,000
• GCI: $30,000