SIP Calculator

What is a SIP Calculator?

A SIP calculator is a simple tool that estimates the future value of your monthly Systematic Investment Plan. You enter three numbers — how much you will invest each month, the annual return you expect, and how many years you will invest for — and the calculator tells you how much your portfolio could be worth at the end. It is one of the most useful planning tools an Indian investor can have, because it converts a vague intention ("I want to build wealth through SIPs") into a concrete number ("I will have ₹X in 15 years if I invest ₹Y per month").

At SIPlyy, our SIP calculator runs entirely in your browser. The math is computed locally on your device — your inputs never travel to a server. This is by design. Your financial inputs are private, and we believe they should stay that way. You can use the calculator as many times as you like, with no sign-up and no usage caps.

The SIP formula — how the math works

The future value of a SIP is calculated using the future value of an annuity formula. The formula is:

FV = P × [((1 + r)^n − 1) / r] × (1 + r)

Where: P is your monthly investment amount, r is the monthly rate of return (annual rate ÷ 12), n is the total number of months (years × 12), and FV is the future value of your SIP. The final × (1 + r) accounts for the fact that each instalment compounds from the start of the next month.

For example, if you invest ₹10,000 per month for 10 years at an expected annual return of 12%, the math works out as follows. The monthly rate is 1% (12% ÷ 12). The number of months is 120. Plugging into the formula, the future value comes to approximately ₹23,23,391. Your invested amount is ₹12,00,000 (₹10,000 × 120 months). The remaining ₹11,23,391 is the wealth gained through compounding. That is the magic of a SIP — almost as much is created through returns as is contributed through investments, given enough time.

What is a realistic expected return?

The single most important assumption in any SIP calculation is the expected return. Get this wrong, and your entire plan is off. For Indian investors, here are sensible ranges based on historical data:

• Equity mutual funds (large-cap, flexi-cap, mid-cap): 10–12% over 7+ year horizons. The Nifty 50 has delivered roughly 11–13% CAGR over long periods, but with significant volatility in between.
• Hybrid / balanced advantage funds: 8–10%. These mix equity and debt to reduce volatility, at the cost of some upside.
• Debt funds: 6–7%. Post-April 2023 tax changes, debt funds no longer enjoy LTCG benefits, but they remain useful for short-to-medium-term goals.
• Index funds (Nifty 50, Sensex): 10–11%, mirroring the underlying index minus a small tracking error.

A common mistake is to use 15% or even 18% as the expected return because that is what some funds delivered in a particularly good period. This is dangerous. Long-term equity returns in India have been closer to 11–12%, and assuming anything higher sets you up for under-saving. Always use a conservative number for planning — if you exceed it, great; if you don't, you are still on track.

Inflation — the silent thief the calculator doesn't show

The SIP calculator shows you the nominal future value — what your portfolio will be worth in rupees, not what those rupees will buy. India has historically run at 5–6% inflation, so a rupee today will buy roughly ₹3 worth of goods in 20 years. If the calculator says you will have ₹1 crore in 20 years, the real purchasing power of that ₹1 crore will be approximately ₹30–35 lakh in today's terms.

For this reason, financial planners recommend setting goals in today's money and then inflating them. If you want the equivalent of ₹1 crore today in 20 years, you actually need to plan for ₹3 crore or more. Use the SIP calculator with a higher target to account for inflation, or work in "real returns" (nominal return minus inflation) — a 12% nominal return becomes roughly 6–7% real return.

How to use this calculator well

The best way to use the SIP calculator is to model multiple scenarios. Start with a base case — your current monthly investment, your current expected return, your current time horizon. Then change one variable at a time. What happens if you invest 20% more per month? What happens if you work for 5 more years? What happens if returns are 10% instead of 12%?

Two insights usually emerge from this exercise. First, time matters more than amount. A 25-year-old investing ₹5,000 per month will often end up with more than a 35-year-old investing ₹15,000 per month, because compounding is exponential. Second, step-ups matter enormously. If you increase your SIP by just 10% every year (in line with salary hikes), the final corpus can be 50–80% larger than a flat SIP. Use our Step-up SIP Calculator to model this.

What this calculator does NOT do

This SIP calculator is a projection tool — it cannot predict actual returns, because markets do not move in straight lines. It assumes a constant monthly return, but real markets have years of +30% followed by years of −15%. The order of returns matters for withdrawal (sequence-of-returns risk), but for accumulation the average return is what counts over long horizons.

The calculator also does not account for taxes. When you eventually redeem your mutual fund units, you will pay Long-Term Capital Gains tax (12.5% on equity gains above ₹1.25 lakh per financial year, post-July 2024 Budget). For debt funds, gains are added to your income and taxed at your slab rate. To estimate your post-tax corpus, knock off roughly 1–2 percentage points from your expected return if you plan to redeem at the end. Read our detailed guide on SIP taxation for more.

Finally, the calculator assumes uninterrupted monthly investments. In real life, you may pause your SIP during a job loss, step it up after a promotion, or stop it entirely to fund a goal. Treat the calculator's output as a planning anchor, not a guarantee.

Frequently asked questions about the SIP Calculator