Enter your numbers
Any three of these give the fourth.
One lakh
One amount, put in once. For money added along the way, CAGR is the wrong measure.
Two lakh fifty thousand
What it is worth now, or what you sold it for. Add any dividends you were paid if you want them counted.
Five lakh
What you want the amount to grow to.
A steady rate you choose. Real returns vary from year to year and can be negative.
From 1 year upwards. Under a year, a yearly rate exaggerates the change.
Try an example
Your result
Fill in the fields to see your result.
It grew by
20.11% a year
2.5 times what you put in, over 5 years
₹1 Lakh became ₹2.5 Lakhs in 5 years. That is the same as growing 20.11% every year, with each year's growth added to the next.
₹1 Lakh became ₹2.5 Lakhs in 5 years. Grew 20.11% every year for 5 years.
| Figure | Value |
|---|---|
| You started with | ₹1 Lakh |
| It became | ₹2.5 Lakhs |
| Yearly rate | Grew 20.11% every year for 5 years |
- Gain
- ₹1.5 Lakhs
- Change in all
- 150%ignoring time
- Doubles every
- 3.8 years
How this is worked outShowHide
- Money put in
- once, at the start
- Added or taken out later
- nothing
- Growth
- the same every year
- Tax, fees and exit loads
- not deducted
CAGR = (value now ÷ amount invested) raised to (1 ÷ years), minus 1. It describes what happened between two dates. It is not a forecast, and it says nothing about the ups and downs in between.
Illustrative only, not advice. Nothing you enter is stored.
Year by year, at a steady rateShowHide
The same rate applied every year, which is what CAGR describes. A real investment's path between the two amounts is almost always bumpier.
| Year | At the start | Change | At the end |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | ₹1,00,000 | +₹20,112 | ₹1,20,112 |
| Year 2 | ₹1,20,112 | +₹24,158 | ₹1,44,270 |
| Year 3 | ₹1,44,270 | +₹29,016 | ₹1,73,286 |
| Year 4 | ₹1,73,286 | +₹34,852 | ₹2,08,138 |
| Year 5 | ₹2,08,138 | +₹41,862 | ₹2,50,000 |
Before you rely on these numbers
- This is an illustrative tool, not investment advice and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security or product.
- CAGR describes what has already happened between two amounts. It is not a forecast, and past performance does not tell you what an investment will do next.
- A final value or a time worked out from a return you expect assumes that return is earned steadily every year. Real returns vary and can be negative.
- It assumes one amount went in at the start and nothing was added or withdrawn. For SIPs and other staggered investments it gives a misleading figure.
- The result is before tax, exit loads and charges unless the amounts you enter already allow for them.
- Nothing you type is sent anywhere. The calculation runs entirely in your browser and nothing is stored.
What is CAGR?
CAGR stands for compound annual growth rate. It is the single yearly rate at which an investment would have had to grow, every year, to get from what you put in to what it is worth now. Real investments do not grow evenly, so CAGR is a way of describing an uneven journey as one steady number. That makes it useful for comparing investments held for different lengths of time.
How to use the CAGR calculator
Start by choosing what you want to find out. The calculator then asks only for the numbers that question needs.
- Yearly return. Enter the amount invested, what it is worth now and how long you held it, in years and months (from 1 year) to see the yearly rate it grew at.
- Final value. Enter an amount, the yearly return you expect and the number of years to see what it would grow to.
- Time needed. Enter an amount, a target and the yearly return you expect to see how many years it would take.
Each answer comes with the gain or loss in rupees, the total change ignoring time, and how long money takes to double at that rate. A year-by-year table under the calculator shows what steady growth at that rate looks like. The first answer measures what has already happened. The other two are only as good as the return you assume.
How is CAGR calculated?
CAGR = (value at the end ÷ amount invested)^(1 ÷ years) − 1
Dividing the final value by the starting amount gives how many times over the money grew. Raising that to the power of one over the number of years spreads the growth evenly across them, and taking away 1 turns it into a rate.
Worked example: ₹1 lakh that became ₹2.5 lakhs in 5 years grew 2.5 times over. That is a gain of ₹1.5 lakhs, or 150% in all, and a CAGR of 20.11% a year. At that rate money doubles about every 3.8 years.
CAGR, absolute return and XIRR
Absolute return is the total change from start to finish, with no account taken of time. A 150% gain sounds the same whether it took 5 years or 15, which is why it is only useful for periods under a year.
CAGR brings time in, so a 150% gain over 5 years (20.11% a year) can be told apart from the same gain over 15 years (6.3% a year). It assumes all the money went in on day one.
XIRR is the measure to use when money went in or came out at different times, as it does with a SIP. It gives each amount credit only for the time it was actually invested. Using CAGR on a SIP understates the return, because it treats every instalment as if it had been invested from the first day.
CAGR Calculator FAQs
CAGR Calculator
There is no single number. A CAGR only means something next to what else the money could have done over the same period: the rise in prices, what a fixed deposit (opens in new tab) paid, or the benchmark (opens in new tab) index for that kind of fund. A riskier investment should have a higher CAGR to be worth the risk.
A simple average of yearly returns can mislead. If an investment gains 100% one year and loses 50% the next, the average of the two is 25% a year, yet you are back exactly where you started. The CAGR is 0%, which is what actually happened to your money.
No. CAGR assumes all the money went in on the first day. In a SIP (opens in new tab) each instalment is invested for a different length of time, so CAGR understates the return. The right measure there is XIRR (opens in new tab), which uses the date and amount of every instalment.
For a lump sum (opens in new tab), CAGR is the fair way to state the return, because the money really did go in once. It lets you compare two investments held for different lengths of time on the same footing.
Turning a short period into a yearly rate exaggerates it. A 10% gain in 3 months works out to a CAGR of about 46%, which says very little about what a full year would bring. For anything held under a year, the plain percentage change is the more honest figure.
Yes. If the value at the end is lower than the amount invested, the CAGR is negative and shows the steady yearly rate at which the money shrank. The calculator then says the investment fell, and shows how long it takes to halve at that rate instead of how long it takes to double.
It is the number of years money takes to double at the CAGR shown, worked out exactly. The Rule of 72 (opens in new tab) is the shortcut for it: divide 72 by the yearly rate. At 12%, that gives 6 years, and the exact answer is 6.1.
Only if you include them in the value at the end. To count payouts you received along the way, add them to the final value before you enter it. The result is then a rough total return, since it ignores when each payout arrived.
Divide one plus the CAGR by one plus the inflation rate, then take away one. A CAGR of 12% with prices rising 6% a year is a real return (opens in new tab) of about 5.7% a year. That is the rate at which your buying power actually grew.
No. The calculator uses only the two amounts you enter. For your return after costs, enter the value at the end after taking off any tax, charges and exit load (opens in new tab) you paid.
No. CAGR describes the past between two dates and hides everything in between, including years of loss. Change either date and the figure can change a lot. It is a measure of what happened, not a forecast of what will.
No. Nothing you enter in this CAGR calculator is stored.
Still have questions? Write to us at help@time.money
You May Also Like
SIP Calculator
See what a monthly SIP grows to over time, how much of the final figure is your own money, and how much is return.
Illustrative example, not advice.
SWP Calculator(Systematic Withdrawal Plan)
See whether a corpus can fund a monthly withdrawal for as long as you need it to, with the tax on each instalment, and what would be left at the end.
Illustrative example, not advice.
Home Loan EMI Calculator(Equated Monthly Instalment)
Work out the monthly EMI on a home loan, how much of what you repay is interest, and when the loan ends, with what an extra payment each month would save.
Illustrative example, not advice.
Page last updated: