The realization multiple is a private equity measurement that shows how much has been paid out to investors. The realization multiple measures the return that is realized from the investment. Private equity funds are unique in that they hold assets that are pulled together from all sorts of illiquid sources, including leveraged buyouts (LBO), start-ups and so on. The realization multiple is found by dividing the cumulative distributions from a fund, company or project by the paid-in capital.

The realization multiple is also referred to as distributed to paid-in capital (DPI).