CAGR calculator
Convert any return into an annual rate, which is the only form in which two investments held for different lengths of time can be compared.
Runs entirely in your browserRuns entirely on your device — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Educational only, and not investment advice.
How to use this calculator
Each step names a control you will find on screen above.
- Amount invested
What you originally put in.
- Value today
What it is worth now, before tax and after any charges.
- Years held
The holding period. Half-years are allowed and matter — annualising 18 months as though it were a year overstates the rate considerably.
- Compare CAGR against absolute return
The two numbers sit side by side deliberately. The gap between them is how much a headline percentage was flattering the investment.
Worked example: “I doubled my money”
You put ₹1,00,000 into a fund and it is worth ₹2,00,000 today. It took six years.
What to enter
- Amount invested
- ₹1,00,000
- Value today
- ₹2,00,000
- Years held
- 6
What it shows you
- Absolute return
- 100%
- CAGR
- 12.2%
- Money multiple
- 2.00×
- Doubling time at this rate
- 6 years
the sixth root of 2, minus 1
Where this is taught
A calculator gives you a number. These explain what the number means and when it misleads you.
- Market Basics10 minWhat "12% a year" actually meansAbsolute return, CAGR and total return are three honest descriptions of the same investment that produce three very different numbers. Which one is being quoted at you matters.
- Fundamental Analysis11 minWhere your return actually comes fromThree sources and no fourth: profits growing, the multiple changing, and cash paid out. Knowing which one you are relying on is most of the discipline.
- Risk & Psychology12 minWhat return should you actually expect?Most plans fail because the number at the top was wrong. Where equity returns come from, what is reasonable in India, and why your own return will be lower than the fund's.
- Market Basics11 minDividends, and the yield trapA dividend is not free money, the highest yields are usually the most dangerous, and the payout ratio tells you more than the yield ever will.
- Risk & Psychology14 minThe number that was only ever an assumptionIn 2019 somebody typed 12 into a cell to see what would happen. Seven years later the household describes itself as being on a five-crore plan, and nobody in it can say where five crore came from. A spreadsheet renders a guess and a bank balance in the same font.