Calculate the Compound Annual Growth Rate of any investment. Enter the initial value, final value and the number of years - the calculator returns the exact CAGR, which is the smoothed annualised return that would have produced the same end value from the same starting amount.
Use 0.25 for one quarter, 0.5 for half a year.
CAGR
20.11%
Compound annual growth rate
Total multiple
2.500×
Absolute gain
₹1,50,000
Formula: CAGR = (Ending ÷ Beginning)^(1 ÷ years) − 1
Example: ₹1 Lakh → ₹1.61 Lakh in 5 years → CAGR ≈ 10% (rule of 72 sanity check: doubling in ~7.2 years at 10%).
CAGR smooths returns; it does not show volatility or interim drawdowns. For irregular cash flows (SIPs, withdrawals), use XIRR instead. Not tax-adjusted.
CAGR is the most-honest single number for evaluating long-term investment performance. It strips out the year-by-year volatility and tells you the constant annual rate at which your money would have had to grow to reach the final value from the initial value. Unlike simple-average returns, CAGR is geometrically correct - it accounts for the fact that a 50% gain followed by a 50% loss leaves you down 25%, not break-even.
Use this calculator to evaluate any historical investment: a stock you've held for years, a mutual fund you've owned across multiple market cycles, the appreciation of a property, or even your overall net worth. CAGR is the universal currency of long-term return comparison - it's how Warren Buffett's track record is reported, how mutual funds report 5/10/15-year returns, and how indices like the Sensex and Nifty 50 publish their long-term performance.
Enter the initial investment value (the amount you put in or what the asset was worth when you started tracking).
Enter the final value (current value or the amount you withdrew/sold for).
Enter the number of years between the two values (decimals like 7.5 are allowed).
View the CAGR percentage - this is the exact annualised return that would have produced your end value from your start value.
Compare the CAGR with relevant benchmarks (Nifty 50 long-term CAGR is roughly 12-13%, FD ~7%, gold ~9-10%).
CAGR converts a multi-year return into a single equivalent annual rate. Mathematically it solves for the constant rate r such that initial × (1 + r)^n = final, where n is the number of years. The result is the smoothed annual rate that, if applied every year, would have grown your initial amount into exactly the final amount over n years.
CAGR = (Final / Initial)^(1/n) − 1
CAGR uses geometric mean instead of arithmetic mean. If you earn 30% in year 1 and lose 10% in year 2, the simple average is 10% but the actual CAGR is closer to 8.17% - because (1.30 × 0.90)^0.5 − 1 = 0.0817. This geometric correction matters most for volatile assets like equity, where simple-average returns systematically overstate actual wealth creation.
CAGR is silent about the path. Two investments that both go from ₹1 lakh to ₹3 lakh over 10 years have the same CAGR (11.61%), even if one rose smoothly and the other tripled in year 1 and then drifted sideways. For risk evaluation you need standard deviation alongside CAGR.
CAGR is also silent about additional contributions or withdrawals. If you added or withdrew money during the holding period, CAGR isn't the right metric - use XIRR (extended internal rate of return) instead, which handles cash flows on different dates. The XIRR calculator on this site is the right tool for SIPs and other multi-cash-flow investments.
Sensex was around 21,170 at the start of 2014 and around 72,200 at the start of 2024. CAGR = (72,200/21,170)^(1/10) − 1 = 13.1% per annum. This means a ₹1 lakh investment in a Sensex index fund (ignoring expenses) would have grown to about ₹3.42 lakh in 10 years.
CAGR = (1,20,00,000/50,00,000)^(1/14) − 1 = 6.46% per annum. This is in the typical range for Indian real estate over the last decade - beats inflation but lower than equity, before adjusting for rental yield, illiquidity and maintenance costs.
Compound Annual Growth Rate - the constant annual rate at which an investment would have had to grow to reach its final value from its initial value over a given number of years. It's the standard way to express multi-year investment returns.
Average return is the simple arithmetic mean of yearly returns; CAGR is the geometric mean. For volatile investments, simple average always overstates actual wealth creation. CAGR is the honest number.
No. CAGR assumes a single lump-sum at the start. IRR (and XIRR) handle multiple cash flows on different dates. Use CAGR for buy-and-hold; XIRR for SIPs and investments with periodic contributions.
Long-term Nifty 50 TRI CAGR is roughly 12-13%. A diversified equity mutual fund delivering 13-15% CAGR over 10+ years is doing well. Anything above 18% sustained for 10+ years is exceptional and worth investigating closely.
Yes. If the final value is less than the initial value, CAGR is negative - the formula simply returns a number less than zero. Negative CAGR is common in short windows for volatile assets.
For meaningful equity comparisons, use at least 7 years; 10+ years is better. For debt instruments, 3-5 years is enough. For real estate, 10+ years given the high transaction costs.
Indian financial products - home loans, fixed deposits, mutual funds, NPS, insurance - each carry their own quirks: monthly reducing balance vs flat-rate interest, quarterly vs monthly compounding, indexation on capital gains, the choice between the old and new tax regime. We design every finance calculator to use the formula that an Indian bank, AMC, or insurer would actually use, and to surface the assumptions in plain English so you can audit the result against your own statement.
Use this calculator alongside the EMI, SIP and inflation calculators to plan your money holistically. A standalone EMI number means little until you compare it with your in-hand salary, your existing debt-to-income ratio, and the impact of inflation on the real cost of the loan. The related-tool grid below makes it one click to chain these analyses together.
The CAGR Calculator is part of the Finance suite on Online Calculator Tools, alongside 6 related calculators. All tools share the same UI patterns, the same privacy-first rendering (nothing is sent to a server), and the same commitment to showing the formula and assumptions behind every result.
