Investment Return Calculator
Investment return is how much an investment gains or loses compared with what you put in. Enter a starting amount, a monthly contribution, an assumed annual return, annual fees and a time period to estimate the final value, your total gain and what the fees cost — so you can compare plans and providers on the same basis. The return you enter is an assumption, not a guarantee.
- Free to use
- No sign-up required
- Runs in your browser
Your result
Enter your figures and select Calculate.
Projected value after fees
–
- Total you contribute–
- Growth after fees–
- Value with no fees–
- What the fees cost you–
- Return after fees–
- Your contributions–
- Growth after fees–
Year-by-year projection
| Year | Contributed | Value after fees | Value with no fees |
|---|
Rounded to two decimal places. Assumes the same return every year, contributions at the end of each month, and no tax.
Please note: investment returns are not steady and are not guaranteed. Real portfolios rise and fall, sometimes sharply, and you can get back less than you put in. This projection applies one constant rate that you choose. It is an illustration of the arithmetic, not a forecast, and not financial advice.
Get Your Detailed Investment Return Report
Your year-by-year projection, the effect of fees, return scenarios and time-horizon comparisons in one downloadable report.
- Year-by-year projection with and without fees
- Contributions vs estimated growth
- Return scenario comparison
- Time horizon comparison
- Calculation method and key observations
- Downloadable PDF
One-time report price: ₹199. You see a free preview before paying. The calculator above stays free to use.
What is investment return?
Investment return measures what an investment has gained or lost relative to the money put into it. It can be read in money — the gain — or as a percentage. For a single lump sum the two are easy to relate; once you add money over time, the timing of each contribution matters too.
Key terms
- Initial investment — the starting amount invested at the beginning.
- Contributions — further amounts added along the way; here, a fixed amount at the end of every month.
- Final value — the estimated worth of the investment at the end of the period, after fees.
- Gain or loss — final value minus everything you put in. It is negative if the investment is worth less than you contributed.
- Overall return — the gain as a percentage of what you put in. In the example below, a gain of ₹11,77,341.16 on ₹10,00,000.00 contributed is an overall return of 117.7%.
- Annualised return — the steady yearly rate that would produce the result. For a lump sum it is the compound annual growth rate (CAGR): (final value ÷ initial investment)^(1 ÷ years) − 1. ₹1,00,000 growing to ₹3,59,267.72 over 15 years is 8.90% a year — the 10% assumed return less the 1% fee, taken from the balance. With regular contributions, money is invested at different times, so the overall return and the annualised rate differ.
What this calculator is for
Most investment comparisons quote fees as small percentages — 0.25%, 0.75%, 1% — which look almost identical. They are not. A fee is charged on the whole balance every year, so it compounds against you exactly as returns compound for you. This calculator runs your plan twice, once with your fees and once without, and shows the gap in money.
Unlike the SIP calculator, it also accepts a starting lump sum alongside the monthly amount.
How investment return is calculated
First, the fee is applied to the return. A fee deducted from the balance each year leaves:
At a 10% return and a 1% fee that is 1.10 × 0.99 − 1 = 8.9%. (Simply subtracting, 10% − 1% = 9%, slightly overstates the result, because the fee is taken from a balance that includes that year's growth.)
Next, the net annual return is turned into its exact monthly equivalent, m = (1 + net)^(1/12) − 1, so that “8.9% a year” really does produce 8.9% over twelve months. Then:
This differs from the SIP calculator's convention (annual rate ÷ 12, contributions at the start of the month), which is common for Indian mutual fund SIPs. Both are legitimate; they give slightly different figures for the same inputs, and each page states which it uses.
Example: ₹1,00,000 plus ₹5,000 a month for 15 years
Assumptions: an assumed 10% annual return before fees and 1% total annual fees, held constant for the whole period. Illustrative only.
The calculator opens with ₹1,00,000 to start, ₹5,000 a month, an assumed 10% return, 1% total fees, over 15 years (180 months). The net return is 8.9%, giving a monthly rate of 0.71303% and a growth factor of (1.0071303)^180 = 3.5926772.
You contribute ₹10,00,000 in total. With no fees the same plan reaches ₹24,09,944.67, so the 1% fee costs ₹2,32,603.51 — about 9.7% of what the plan would otherwise have been worth.
Factors that affect investment returns
Five inputs drive the result: the starting amount, the monthly contribution, the time period, the assumed return and the fees. The amounts work in proportion; time, return and fees compound, which is why small changes in them move the final value a long way. The tables below use the example above and change one input at a time. They are illustrations of the arithmetic, not forecasts — real returns vary from year to year and can be negative.
Time period
| Period | Total contributed | Estimated value after fees | Estimated gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | ₹4,00,000.00 | ₹5,25,919.17 | ₹1,25,919.17 |
| 10 years | ₹7,00,000.00 | ₹11,78,248.01 | ₹4,78,248.01 |
| 15 years | ₹10,00,000.00 | ₹21,77,341.16 | ₹11,77,341.16 |
| 20 years | ₹13,00,000.00 | ₹37,07,531.22 | ₹24,07,531.22 |
| 25 years | ₹16,00,000.00 | ₹60,51,138.18 | ₹44,51,138.18 |
Assumed return
| Assumed return (before 1% fees) | Estimated value after 15 years | Estimated gain |
|---|---|---|
| 6% a year | ₹15,23,928.85 | ₹5,23,928.85 |
| 8% a year | ₹18,18,260.95 | ₹8,18,260.95 |
| 10% a year | ₹21,77,341.16 | ₹11,77,341.16 |
| 12% a year | ₹26,15,440.89 | ₹16,15,440.89 |
How much difference does the fee level make?
Same example, different total annual fees:
| Total annual fees | Value after 15 years | Cost of fees | Share of value lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | ₹24,09,944.67 | ₹0 | 0% |
| 0.25% | ₹23,49,362.67 | ₹60,582.00 | 2.5% |
| 0.50% | ₹22,90,431.06 | ₹1,19,513.61 | 5.0% |
| 1.00% | ₹21,77,341.16 | ₹2,32,603.51 | 9.7% |
| 1.50% | ₹20,70,330.72 | ₹3,39,613.95 | 14.1% |
| 2.00% | ₹19,69,073.28 | ₹4,40,871.39 | 18.3% |
Over 15 years, each additional 0.5 percentage point of annual fees costs roughly another 5% of the final value, and the share grows with time. Unlike the return, the fee is known in advance and is one of the few inputs you actually control — which is why our guides to investment fees and robo-advisor fees ask you to add up every layer of cost before comparing providers.
Finding your total fee
- Platform or management fee — charged by the app, broker or robo-advisor, usually as a percentage of your balance.
- Fund charges — each fund or ETF has its own ongoing charge, deducted inside the fund. Add it to the platform fee.
- Flat fees — a fixed monthly subscription is not a percentage. Convert it: annual fee ÷ your balance × 100. A flat fee is expensive on a small balance and cheap on a large one.
- Trading and currency costs vary with how you use the account and are not modelled here.
Related calculators and guides
- Investing a fixed amount every month only? The SIP calculator uses the convention common for Indian mutual fund SIPs (start-of-month instalments).
- One deposit at a fixed rate? The compound interest calculator shows how compounding frequency changes the result, and the simple interest calculator covers interest paid only on the original amount.
- Working towards a target? The savings goal calculator works backwards from the amount you need to the monthly saving required.
- Want the background? Stock investing basics explains why the average return is not what an investor earns, and our guide to investment fees shows how flat and percentage fees compare.
Assumptions and limitations
- A constant return every year. Real returns vary and can be negative for years at a time. The order of good and bad years affects real outcomes in a way a constant rate cannot show.
- Fees as a constant percentage of the balance, applied evenly through the year.
- No tax, no inflation adjustment (use the inflation calculator to convert the result to today's money), and no withdrawals.
- Contributions stay the same for the whole period.
Investment return questions, answered
What is investment return?
It is what an investment gains or loses compared with the money put into it, shown either in money (the gain) or as a percentage. A positive return means the investment is worth more than you contributed; a negative return means it is worth less.
How is investment return calculated?
This calculator applies your assumed annual return, reduced by the annual fee (net return = (1 + return) × (1 − fee) − 1), converts it to an exact monthly rate, and grows the starting amount and each end-of-month contribution at that rate. The gain is the final value minus everything contributed, and the overall return is that gain as a percentage of the contributions.
What is the difference between return and profit?
They describe the same gain in different units. Profit (or gain) is the amount in money — for example ₹11,77,341.16 in the default example. Return expresses it relative to what was invested — 117.7% of the ₹10,00,000.00 contributed. Return lets you compare investments of different sizes; profit tells you the money involved.
What is annualised return?
The constant yearly rate that would turn the starting amount into the final value over the period, also called CAGR for a lump sum: (final value ÷ starting amount)^(1 ÷ years) − 1. It makes returns over different periods comparable. With regular contributions the calculation is more involved, because each contribution is invested for a different length of time.
Are the calculator results guaranteed?
No. The result is an estimate based on the return and fee you enter, applied steadily every year. Real returns vary, can be negative, and depend on the order of good and bad years. Use the calculator to compare scenarios and understand the effect of fees and time, not as a prediction.
What return should I assume?
The calculator deliberately leaves that to you and supplies no default drawn from any market or provider. A cautious approach is to run several rates, including a low one, and check that your plan still works at the low end. Remember that the result assumes that rate is achieved steadily every year, which real investments do not do.
Why does a 1% fee cost so much more than 1% of my money?
Because it is charged every year on the whole balance, including all the growth built up so far. Money taken as a fee also stops compounding for you. Over 15 years in the default example, a 1% annual fee reduces the final value by about 9.7%, and over longer periods the share rises further.
Why is the result different from the SIP calculator?
The two pages use different, clearly stated conventions. This calculator converts the annual return to an exact monthly equivalent and adds contributions at the end of each month. The SIP calculator divides the annual rate by 12 and adds contributions at the start of each month, which is common for mutual fund SIPs. Both are legitimate; they give slightly different figures for the same inputs.
Can I enter a negative return?
Yes, down to −50% a year. It is a useful way to see how contributions behave in a falling market, though a real downturn is rarely a steady decline.
Is my data sent anywhere?
The calculation runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript on this page; the figures you type are not sent to our server, stored, or saved between visits. Only if you choose to open the detailed report are the starting amount, monthly contribution, return, fee, period and the display currency sent to our server, so that the report can be calculated there. If you buy a report, payment is handled by Razorpay and those figures are kept with the order so you can open the report again. No name, email address or phone number is asked for.