SIP Calculator

A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) is the disciplined investor's alternative to a one-time lump-sum purchase. Instead of timing a single large investment, you commit to investing a fixed amount into a mutual fund every month. Each installment buys units at that month's NAV, so over time you buy more units when prices are low and fewer when they are high — the averaging effect known as rupee-cost averaging. It turns a regular monthly income into a long-term corpus without requiring you to predict the market.

A SIP is only a mode of investing — you can run one in an equity, debt, hybrid or index fund. The realistic expected return, and the risk, depend entirely on the fund you choose.

This calculator uses the future value of an annuity due — installments at the start of each month:

M = P × [ (1 + i)ⁿ − 1 ] ÷ i × (1 + i)

• M — the maturity value (projected corpus) at the end of the tenure.
• P — your fixed monthly investment (installment).
• i — the monthly rate of return = annual return ÷ 12 ÷ 100 (e.g. 12% → 0.01).
• n — the number of monthly installments = years × 12 + months.

The trailing × (1 + i) is what makes this an annuity due rather than an ordinary annuity: a SIP debits at the start of the month, so every installment earns one extra period of growth. Dropping that factor would understate the corpus by exactly one period of compounding. Your total invested is simply P × n, and your estimated returns are M minus that. If the assumed return is 0%, the formula is an indeterminate 0/0 — the limit is just your contributions, so the maturity equals P × n.

We convert the annual return to a monthly rate by simple division (annual ÷ 12), which is the convention that reproduces the headline figures of SEBI's, Groww's and HDFC's interactive tools to the rupee. Some explainer pages instead use a geometric/effective monthly rate, (1 + annual)^1/12 − 1, which gives a marginally smaller (and arguably more theoretically “correct”) corpus. We follow the prevailing-platform convention so the figure matches what you will compare it against.

With i = 12 ÷ 12 ÷ 100 = 0.01 and n = 120 installments, the formula gives a maturity of ₹11,61,695.38 — that is ₹6,00,000.00 of your own contributions plus ₹5,61,695.38 of estimated returns. The year-by-year table below is generated by the same engine that powers the calculator above, so it can never drift from the math. Watch the estimated-returns column accelerate each year even though your monthly amount never changes — that is compounding rewarding the time your earlier installments stay invested.

As a short-end sanity check, ₹1,000 a month at 12% for a single year matures to about ₹12,809.33 — the small gain above the ₹12,000 invested is one year of monthly, start-of-month compounding.

The expected return is an assumption, not a guarantee, and small changes swing the result a lot over a decade. Here is the same ₹5,000 monthly SIP over 10 years at different assumed rates:

The same contributions produce very different corpuses purely from the return assumption — which is exactly why the headline figure should be read as a projection, not a promise. Use a conservative rate.

The table below shows the projected maturity value for four common monthly SIP amounts over 10 to 25 years, assuming a constant 12% annual return. All figures are engine-generated from the same formula that powers the calculator above. These are illustrative projections at an assumed rate — actual returns are market-linked.

Notice how the corpus grows disproportionately with tenure: ₹5,000 a month for 25 years produces roughly 3.4× the corpus of 10 years, even though the tenure is only 2.5× longer. This is compounding at work — each additional year adds both new installments and extra compounding time for every rupee already invested.

A SIP and a lump sum are two different ways to put money into the same fund. The right choice depends on whether you are investing from a monthly surplus or already hold a large sum, and on how comfortable you are with entry-timing risk:

A SIP spreads your entry across many months, smoothing out the price you pay and removing the pressure to time the market. A lump sum can outperform when markets rise steadily right after you invest, but it concentrates all your timing risk on a single date.

This calculator models a level SIP — the same installment every month for the whole tenure. A step-up (top-up) SIP instead raises your monthly amount by a fixed percentage each year, typically as your income grows. Even a modest 10% annual step-up can materially increase the final corpus, because each year's larger contributions still get years to compound. Step-up is a separate, more complex calculation (a sum of per-year annuity blocks) and most platforms ship it as a dedicated step-up SIP tool — so treat the figure here as the baseline for a fixed installment.

The maturity figure here is a gross nominal projection. Three things reduce your actual in-hand value:

• Capital-gains tax. Each SIP installment has its own holding-period clock from the date it was debited. For equity-oriented funds, gains on installments held more than 12 months are long-term capital gains (LTCG) — taxed at 12.5% on the portion above the ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption (Section 112A, FY 2025-26). Gains on installments held 12 months or less are short-term capital gains (STCG) at 20%. A single redemption can contain both, as FIFO applies. Debt fund gains are taxed at your income-tax slab rate regardless of holding period.
• Fund costs. The annual expense ratio is deducted continuously from the fund's NAV — a 1% ratio roughly shaves 1 percentage point off your effective return each year. Exit loads (typically 1% on redemptions within 12 months) further reduce proceeds on early withdrawal.
• Inflation. The corpus is a nominal figure. At 6% annual inflation, ₹1 crore in 20 years buys roughly what ₹31 lakh buys today. Adjust expectations for real purchasing power accordingly.

Use the calculator to compare scenarios and size your installment; consult a tax adviser for your exact post-tax, post-cost, inflation-adjusted figure.

The figures here use the simple-division monthly-rate, annuity-due convention published by SEBI's official Investor calculator and reproduced by Groww, HDFC and ClearTax, matching their worked examples to the rupee. Treat the result as a faithful illustration of how a level SIP compounds at a constant assumed rate — not as a guaranteed return or as financial advice.