CAGR Calculator
Calculate annual growth rate
Enter your investment values to calculate CAGR
We'll show your annual growth rate, total growth, and a year-by-year chart. Works for gains, losses, or flat returns.
When an investor in India says their portfolio gave 80% returns, the first question any financial planner will ask is over how many years? A fund that doubled in 3 years is not the same as one that doubled in 8. But most people compare them as if they are. CAGR, or Compound Annual Growth Rate, is the number that makes fair comparison possible by converting total growth into an annual rate.
Every mutual fund fact sheet you see on AMFI, every performance table on Zerodha or Groww, every analyst report comparing equity returns to FD rates, they all use CAGR. Yet most retail investors do not know exactly what it means or how to verify it. This CAGR calculator India lets you do exactly that. Enter your starting amount, final amount, and years. You get the annual growth rate, total return, and a chart showing how the value grew year by year.
Why This Calculator Is More Useful Than a Basic Return Calculator
A basic investment return calculator tells you the percentage gain between two numbers. This one converts that gain into an annualised rate, which is the standard that all serious investment analysis in India runs on. Here is what makes it different from what you get elsewhere.
The same metric fund houses use
When HDFC Flexi Cap says it delivered 14.2% over 5 years, that figure is CAGR. This calculator uses the identical formula so you can verify any fund's reported return independently, without trusting the marketing sheet.
Makes unlike investments comparable
Your PPF ran for 15 years. A stock you held for 3 years. An FD that matured in 2 years. CAGR puts all three on the same annual scale so you can see which one actually worked harder for you.
Spot underperforming investments early
If an equity fund has been in your portfolio for 7 years and the CAGR is 8%, it has not beaten a standard fixed deposit. Knowing this number early lets you redirect money before more years are wasted.
Free, no login, instant chart
No account, no subscription, no personal details. Enter your values and the calculator shows the result along with a year-by-year growth chart immediately. Works on mobile and desktop.
What CAGR does not capture: interim volatility, dividends received separately, capital gains tax, or the drag of expense ratios on mutual fund returns. It is a clean measure of start-to-end growth rate, nothing more. For SIP investments, XIRR is more accurate than CAGR because money enters at multiple points in time. To compare your equity CAGR against fixed deposit returns, use our FD Calculator.
The CAGR Formula, Explained Without Jargon
CAGR is not a simple average of your yearly returns. If your investment gained 30% one year and lost 10% the next, the average is 10%. But the actual annual rate of change is lower because losses hit a higher base. CAGR avoids this distortion by only looking at where you started and where you ended.
CAGR = (Final Value ÷ Initial Value) ^ (1 ÷ Years) − 1- Final Value = the current or ending value of your investment
- Initial Value = the amount you originally invested
- Years = the number of years the investment ran
- ^ (1/Years) = the nth root, which annualises the total growth
The result is a decimal. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage. A result of 0.1148 means 11.48% CAGR per year.
₹1,00,000 invested in Nifty 50 index grew to ~₹2,59,000 in 10 years → CAGR ≈ 10%This is why 10% is used as the long-term equity benchmark in India. At this rate, money roughly doubles every 7.2 years. A fund consistently beating this over 10 or more years is genuinely outperforming the market, which fewer funds do than their advertisements suggest.
How ₹1 Lakh Grows at Different CAGR Rates
The table below shows what a single investment of ₹1 lakh becomes at various growth rates over time. These figures assume no withdrawals and no additional investments. Use them to benchmark whatever CAGR your calculator shows against known asset classes in India.
| CAGR | After 5 Years | After 10 Years | After 15 Years | After 20 Years | Where This Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6% | ₹1.34L | ₹1.79L | ₹2.40L | ₹3.21L | Bank FD, liquid funds |
| 8% | ₹1.47L | ₹2.16L | ₹3.17L | ₹4.66L | PPF, conservative hybrid funds |
| 10% | ₹1.61L | ₹2.59L | ₹4.18L | ₹6.73L | Nifty 50 index, large cap funds |
| 12% | ₹1.76L | ₹3.11L | ₹5.47L | ₹9.65L | Flexi cap, diversified equity |
| 15% | ₹2.01L | ₹4.05L | ₹8.14L | ₹16.37L | Mid cap funds, quality stocks |
| 18% | ₹2.29L | ₹5.23L | ₹11.97L | ₹27.39L | Small cap funds, concentrated bets |
These figures are based on historical CAGR ranges for each asset category in India. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. The returns shown do not account for inflation, taxes, or fund expense ratios, which reduce actual take-home returns.
CAGR vs Absolute Return: When to Use Which
Both are valid. The question is what you are trying to measure. Retail investors often make the mistake of using absolute return to compare investments that ran for very different durations, which gives a misleading picture.
Use this when you are comparing two investments that ran for different periods. A fund that gave 150% absolute return over 10 years has a CAGR of only 9.6% per year, which is below what a good large cap fund typically delivers.
Also the right metric for evaluating any long-term investment: equity funds, ELSS, NPS, real estate, or business revenue over years.
Limitation: smooths out volatility and does not show what happened year by year.
Use this for short-term trades or when all investments you are comparing ran for the same period. If you bought a stock at ₹200 and sold at ₹260 in 9 months, annualising that return can be misleading.
Also useful for a quick sanity check: did I make or lose money, and by how much in rupees and percentage terms?
Limitation: does not account for time, so a 50% return over 2 years looks the same as 50% over 10 years.
What Your CAGR Result Actually Tells You
A CAGR number on its own means nothing without context. Here is how experienced investors in India interpret CAGR results across different ranges.
Below 6% CAGR
India's retail inflation has averaged 5 to 6% over the past decade. A CAGR below this means your investment grew slower than prices did. In real terms, your purchasing power may have shrunk. To see exactly how much inflation has eroded your returns, check our Inflation Impact Calculator. This is common with savings accounts, some traditional insurance plans, and poorly performing debt funds. It does not always mean you made a bad choice, but it is a signal to review whether this is the right vehicle for your goals.
6% to 10% CAGR
Solidly above inflation and typical for PPF (currently 7.1%), good debt mutual funds, and conservative hybrid funds. Right for money you need within 3 to 5 years, an emergency fund allocation, or a portion of a retirement portfolio that cannot afford equity volatility.
10% to 15% CAGR
The historical range for large-cap and Nifty 50 index funds over 10 year periods. If your equity portfolio lands here after 7 or more years, you have broadly kept pace with the market. This is a reasonable expectation for a diversified equity investor who stayed invested through multiple market cycles.
Above 15% CAGR
Impressive, but look carefully at the time period. A 20% CAGR over 18 months might just be a bull market riding a wave. A 15% CAGR held over 10 or more years is genuinely exceptional. Most actively managed funds in India have not consistently beaten 15% over a decade, which is part of why index investing has grown so rapidly among Indian retail investors since 2020.
CAGR and Mutual Fund Performance in India
Every return figure you see on a fund's AMFI fact sheet or on platforms like MF Central, Zerodha Coin, or Groww is expressed as CAGR. When investors track mutual fund CAGR across schemes, these 1Y, 3Y, 5Y, and 10Y columns are all annualised rates, not total returns. When you see that a fund delivered 22% last year and 14% over 5 years, that does not mean last year was better in isolation. The 5 year CAGR of 14% means ₹1 lakh became ₹1.93 lakh after 5 years of compounding at that rate.
For SIP investors, note that CAGR is not the most accurate metric because you invest money at different times. The standard used by fund houses for SIP performance is XIRR. But CAGR remains useful for measuring your overall portfolio value today against what you put in as a lump sum at the start.
One practical use: if you are reviewing whether to switch from a regular plan to a direct plan, calculate the CAGR of your existing investment. Then use the expense ratio difference (typically 0.5 to 1% per year for direct vs regular) to see how much that has cost you in annualised terms over your holding period.
Frequently Asked Questions
