SIP Calculator

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is a way of investing a fixed amount into a mutual fund at regular intervals — typically monthly — instead of investing a large lump sum all at once. Each installment buys units of the chosen mutual fund at that day's prevailing price (its Net Asset Value, or NAV), so over time you accumulate units across many different price points. SIPs are one of the most popular ways retail investors in India build long-term wealth in equity and hybrid mutual funds, largely because the fixed, automated monthly commitment makes consistent investing easier to sustain than trying to time occasional lump-sum investments.

This tool simulates your SIP month by month: at the start of each month, your fixed monthly investment is added to your running balance, and the entire balance then grows by that month's rate of return (the annual rate divided by 12). This is mathematically equivalent to the standard SIP future value formula, FV = P × [((1 + r)ⁿ − 1) ÷ r] × (1 + r), where P is the monthly investment, r is the monthly rate of return, and n is the total number of months — the extra (1 + r) factor reflects that each SIP installment is invested at the start of its month and therefore compounds for that entire month, matching how most Indian mutual fund SIPs are actually structured.

The annual return rate you enter is an assumption about the future, not a guarantee, and small differences in this assumption compound into large differences in the projected total value over long periods — the entire point of a SIP is long-term compounding, so the rate you assume has an outsized effect on results measured over 10, 15, or 20+ years. Equity mutual funds have no fixed or promised rate of return; actual returns fluctuate year to year and can occasionally be negative, especially in the short term. This tool lets you test a few different rate assumptions to see how sensitive your projected wealth is to that single input, which is a more useful exercise than treating any single projected number as a promised outcome.

If you plug the exact same monthly amount, rate, and duration into a fixed-deposit or recurring-deposit calculator, you should get a very similar result to this SIP calculator, since the underlying compounding math is the same — the real-world difference between a SIP and a fixed deposit isn't in the formula, it's in what the rate represents. A fixed deposit's rate is contractually guaranteed by the bank for the deposit's term. A SIP's assumed rate is just an estimate of a mutual fund's average return, which is inherently variable and unguaranteed, unlike a bank's fixed rate — so while the arithmetic is identical, the reliability of the rate you're plugging in is very different between the two.

Because a SIP invests the same fixed amount every month regardless of whether the market is up or down that month, it automatically buys more mutual fund units when prices (NAV) are low and fewer units when prices are high, without requiring you to actively time the market at all. Over many months and market cycles, this rupee cost averaging effect tends to smooth out the average purchase price of your units compared to investing the same total amount as a single lump sum at one specific (and essentially random) point in time. It doesn't guarantee better returns than a lump sum in every scenario, but it does reduce the risk of committing a large amount right before a market downturn, which is a big part of why SIPs are popular with investors who'd rather not try to predict short-term market movements.

Long-term historical average returns for diversified equity mutual funds in India have often been cited in the 10-15% annual range over multi-decade periods, though this varies significantly by fund category, time period measured, and market conditions, and past performance is never a guarantee of future results. Many SIP calculators and financial planners default to something in the 10-12% range as a moderately conservative long-term planning assumption for equity-oriented funds specifically — debt or hybrid funds would warrant a meaningfully lower assumption. Whatever rate you use, treat it explicitly as a planning assumption rather than an expected certainty, and consider running the calculation with a lower rate as well to see how sensitive your plan is if actual returns come in below your primary estimate.

No — this tool calculates pure compounding growth based on the annual return rate you enter, which you should treat as the net rate you expect to earn after fees if you want the result to reflect your actual take-home growth, since expense ratios (the fund's ongoing annual management fee, typically well under 2% for most funds) already reduce a fund's published returns before they're reported. Exit load (a fee charged if you redeem units before a minimum holding period) isn't relevant to a growth projection at all, but does matter separately if you're planning to withdraw before your SIP's committed holding period ends.

No — the total value and estimated returns shown are pre-tax figures. In India, capital gains from equity mutual fund units held over a year are taxed as long-term capital gains, and units held a year or less are taxed as short-term capital gains, both under rules that have been revised periodically by the government, so the current applicable rates and exemption thresholds should be checked separately at the time you actually redeem. Since tax is only triggered on redemption (not during the accumulation years this tool projects), it's reasonable to view this calculator's output as your pre-tax corpus and to account for eventual capital gains tax separately when you actually plan a withdrawal.

Each row shows your cumulative invested amount, your projected portfolio value, and the wealth gained (value minus invested) as of the end of that specific year — letting you see how the ratio between what you've put in and what it's grown to shifts over time. In the early years, cumulative invested amount and portfolio value track relatively closely together, since compounding hasn't had much time to work yet; in the later years, the gap between invested amount and value typically widens substantially, since a much larger base of accumulated capital is now compounding on itself. This pattern — most of the growth happening in the final years of a long SIP — is one of the most important reasons financial advisors emphasize starting a SIP early and staying invested for as long as possible.

No — every calculation, including the full year-wise breakdown, runs entirely in your browser using plain JavaScript arithmetic. Nothing you enter is transmitted anywhere or stored on any server, so this tool is safe to use for real financial planning figures you'd rather not send over the network.