SIP Calculator
Explore More Finance Calculators
How to Use the SIP Calculator
Enter your monthly SIP amount
Type or drag the fixed monthly investment you plan to make in rupees.
Set the expected annual return rate
Enter the expected percentage return per year, or tap one of the preset chips (8%, 10%, 12%, 15%) based on historical fund performance.
Choose the investment duration
Select how many years you plan to stay invested, or use the preset chips (5y, 10y, 15y, 20y, 30y).
Adjust the inflation rate if needed
The default is 6% but you can change it to see the real purchasing power of your future corpus.
Review your summary and chart
See your total investment, estimated returns, nominal corpus, and inflation-adjusted value instantly, plus an investment split donut and a corpus growth chart.
Read the smart insights
Check the key numbers the calculator works out for you: total growth, time to double using the Rule of 72, how many times your money grows (corpus multiplier), and the real annual return after inflation.
Open the year-wise breakdown
Tap View Year-wise Breakdown to see exactly what you invest and how your value grows in each and every year, or reset to defaults anytime with the Reset button.
SIP Calculator - Estimate Mutual Fund Returns With Inflation Adjustment
Most people understand that investing regularly is better than not investing at all. But there's a subtler question that goes unanswered in many financial plans: what will your investments actually be worth in real terms after accounting for inflation? A mutual fund corpus of ₹1 crore sounds impressive until you realize that 20 years from now, at 6% annual inflation, that same ₹1 crore will have the purchasing power of roughly ₹31 lakh in today's money. This SIP Calculator solves that problem by showing you both the nominal future value and the inflation-adjusted real value of your SIP investments simultaneously.
Enter your monthly SIP amount, expected annual return, investment duration, and inflation rate - and the calculator instantly projects your total invested amount, estimated returns, nominal corpus, and the real corpus in today's purchasing power. Use it to plan with eyes open.
What Is a Systematic Investment Plan (SIP)?
A Systematic Investment Plan is a method of investing a fixed amount in a mutual fund at regular intervals - typically monthly. Rather than trying to time the market with a large lump sum, SIP breaks your investment into smaller, periodic instalments that go in regardless of market conditions.
This approach harnesses two powerful financial forces. The first is rupee cost averaging: when markets are down, your fixed monthly amount buys more units at lower prices; when markets are up, it buys fewer units at higher prices. Over time, this smooths out the average cost per unit and reduces the impact of short-term volatility on your overall returns.
The second is compounding: the returns generated by your investment generate their own returns over time. A ₹5,000 monthly SIP at 12% annual return over 20 years accumulates a corpus of approximately ₹49.9 lakh on a total investment of just ₹12 lakh - the remaining ₹37.9 lakh is pure compounding gain. The longer you stay invested, the more powerful this effect becomes.
The SIP Formula - How Future Value Is Calculated
The future value of a SIP is calculated using the future value of an annuity formula:
FV = P x [((1 + r)n - 1) / r] x (1 + r)
Where:
- FV = Future value of the SIP corpus
- P = Monthly SIP amount
- r = Monthly rate of return = Annual expected return / 12 / 100
- n = Total number of instalments = Investment years x 12
Example: Monthly SIP ₹10,000, annual return 12%, tenure 15 years. Monthly rate r = 12 / 12 / 100 = 0.01. n = 15 x 12 = 180 instalments. FV ~ ₹50,09,000. Total invested = ₹18,00,000. Estimated returns = ₹32,09,000.
The inflation-adjusted real value uses the present value formula applied to the nominal FV: Real Value = FV / (1 + inflation rate)years. At 6% inflation over 15 years, ₹50,09,000 nominal becomes approximately ₹20,93,000 in today's purchasing power - a meaningful difference that changes how you plan.
Nominal vs. Real Returns - Why Both Matter
Nominal return is your raw investment growth - the headline corpus your SIP builds. Real return is what that corpus is worth in terms of actual purchasing power after subtracting inflation's effect. The difference between the two is not a rounding error - it is the gap between financial comfort and financial disappointment.
India's long-term average CPI inflation has run at 5-7% annually. If your equity SIP delivers 12% nominal returns, your real return is approximately 12 - 6 = 6% (using the simplified formula). This means your wealth is genuinely growing at 6% per year in real terms - which is excellent. But if you plan your retirement assuming the full 12% nominal corpus, you will consistently underestimate how much you actually need to invest.
The inflation toggle in this calculator makes both numbers immediately visible. It's the difference between planning on paper and planning for reality.
How Tenure and Amount Interact - Key Scenarios
Starting early vs. starting late: Two investors both invest ₹5,000/month at 12% p.a. Investor A starts at age 25 and invests for 30 years - corpus ~ ₹1.76 crore. Investor B starts at 35 and invests for 20 years - corpus ~ ₹49.9 lakh. Investor A invested only ₹6 lakh more in absolute terms but ended up with 3.5x the corpus. The extra decade of compounding is the difference.
Increasing SIP amount over time: A ₹5,000 monthly SIP stepped up by 10% each year for 20 years at 12% p.a. produces a corpus roughly 2x that of a flat ₹5,000 SIP for the same period. As income grows, increasing your SIP by even 5-10% annually has an outsized impact on the final corpus.
Expected return rate sensitivity: At ₹10,000/month for 20 years - at 10% p.a. the corpus is about ₹76 lakh; at 12% it's about ₹99.9 lakh; at 14% it's about ₹1.32 crore. The 4% difference in return rate produces a ₹56 lakh difference in corpus. Choosing the right fund category for your goal and horizon matters significantly.
Understanding the Smart Insights in This Calculator
Beyond the headline numbers, this SIP calculator shows you a few quick-read insights that translate raw figures into decisions:
- Total Growth: The percentage your investment has grown by over the full tenure, comparing your final corpus with what you actually put in. It shows you how much of the result is compounding rather than your own contributions.
- Time to Double (Rule of 72): A handy rule that estimates how many years your money takes to double at a given return rate. Simply divide 72 by your annual rate - at 12%, your money doubles roughly every 6 years (72 / 12 = 6). This explains why long SIP tenures are so powerful.
- Corpus Multiplier: How many times your invested amount your final corpus represents. A multiplier of 4, for example, means your total investment roughly quadruples over the period - a useful way to compare planning scenarios at a glance.
- Real Annual Return (net of inflation): Appears when you switch on inflation adjustment. It is the true return that grows your purchasing power, roughly your nominal return minus the inflation rate. A 12% nominal return at 6% inflation leaves you about a 6% real gain.
These insights help you answer three practical questions faster: how long your money takes to grow, how much it multiplies by, and whether you are truly beating inflation.
Common SIP Mistakes That Cost Returns
Stopping SIPs during market downturns: This is the costliest mistake SIP investors make. A correction is when rupee cost averaging works best - you accumulate more units at lower prices, which deliver superior returns when markets recover. Stopping during a downturn locks in losses and misses the recovery.
Not reviewing fund performance: SIPs automate investment but not monitoring. A fund that consistently underperforms its benchmark for 3+ years warrants a switch. Review your SIP portfolio annually - not to react to short-term noise, but to ensure the underlying fund remains well-managed and aligned with your goal.
Ignoring inflation in goal planning: A retirement goal of ₹2 crore set 25 years ago needs to be ₹7-8 crore in today's terms to provide the same standard of living. Always set financial goals in today's money and then inflation-adjust them to determine the required corpus.
Over-diversifying: Having 8-10 SIPs across similar large-cap funds creates portfolio overlap without meaningful diversification. 3-5 well-chosen funds across different categories (large-cap, mid-cap, flexi-cap, debt) is typically sufficient for most investors.