SIP Calculator

What Is a SIP?

A SIP, or Systematic Investment Plan, is a method of investing a fixed amount into a mutual fund scheme at regular intervals, typically monthly, instead of investing the entire amount at once.

SIP is not a separate financial product. It is a payment instruction, a NACH mandate that debits a fixed amount from your bank account on a chosen date each month and buys units of a mutual fund scheme at that day's NAV.

By investing the same rupee amount every month, you buy more units when the NAV (unit price) is low and fewer units when the NAV is high. This mechanism, called rupee cost averaging, is covered in detail further down this page.

How Is SIP Return Calculated?

SIP maturity value is calculated with the future value of an annuity due formula, since each instalment compounds for a different number of periods.

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

Dividing the annual rate by 12 to get a monthly rate is a common shortcut, but it is not how mutual fund NAVs actually compound. At a 12% annual return, dividing by 12 gives a flat 1% a month; the mathematically correct conversion gives approximately 0.9489% a month. The gap looks small, but it multiplies across hundreds of instalments, so this calculator always uses the compound conversion.

If you are combining a SIP with money you already have invested, open "More settings" above to add your existing corpus, or use the Wealth Growth Calculator to see the year your returns overtake your contributions.

SIP vs Lumpsum: Which Should You Choose?

Neither is universally better; it depends on when the money goes in and how much of it you have upfront. A lumpsum invests everything on day one, so more of it compounds for longer. A SIP spreads the same commitment across many entry points, which lowers your average cost when markets are choppy.

On a real comparison: investing Rs 10,000 a month for 15 years at 12% builds a total invested amount of Rs 18 lakh and a maturity value of roughly Rs 47.6 lakh. Putting the same Rs 18 lakh in as a lumpsum on day one, at the same 12%, grows to roughly Rs 98.5 lakh over 15 years, because the entire amount has 15 years to compound instead of an average of about 7.5 years across the SIP instalments.

That gap does not mean lumpsum wins in practice. Most investors do not have Rs 18 lakh sitting idle to deploy on a single day, and a lumpsum invested right before a market fall can sit underwater for years. SIP exists because it matches how income actually arrives: monthly.

Types of SIP

Regular SIP

Invests the exact same amount on a fixed date every month. The simplest and most common option, and the one modelled by the SIP tab above.

Step-up (or Top-up) SIP

Automatically increases your monthly contribution by a set percentage or amount every year, aligning your investment with salary growth. A flat Rs 10,000 SIP at 12% for 20 years reaches about Rs 91.99 lakh; the same SIP with a 10% annual step-up crosses Rs 1.6 crore over the same period.

Flexi SIP

Lets you adjust the monthly amount within a band depending on cash flow or market conditions, instead of a fixed figure every month.

Perpetual SIP

Has no fixed end date and continues until the investor explicitly cancels it, rather than stopping automatically after a chosen tenure.

What Is Rupee Cost Averaging?

Rupee cost averaging is the automatic side effect of investing a fixed amount every month rather than a fixed number of units. When the NAV drops, your Rs 10,000 buys more units that month. When the NAV rises, the same Rs 10,000 buys fewer units.

Over a full market cycle, this tends to bring your average cost per unit below the simple average NAV across the period, without you having to decide when to buy more or less. It does not protect against a fund that genuinely underperforms; it only smooths out entry timing within a given fund.

What Returns Can You Expect From a SIP?

A SIP has no fixed or guaranteed return. What it returns depends entirely on the underlying mutual fund category and the market period it runs through. Broad historical category averages, based on long-term rolling returns, look roughly like this:

These are broad, illustrative ranges, not a quote for any specific scheme, and they carry no guarantee of repeating. Before assuming a rate on this calculator, check a fund's actual trailing 5-year and 10-year returns on its AMC factsheet or on AMFI. Small-cap and mid-cap funds carry meaningfully higher volatility alongside the higher average return; a fund that has averaged 15% can still post a sharply negative year.

SIP Calculator Table: Rs 1,000 to Rs 25,000 per Month

Maturity values below assume a 12% p.a. return, compounded monthly using this calculator's formula. Recalculate with your own numbers above for an exact figure at your assumed rate.

How the Return Rate Changes Your SIP Corpus

The return rate you assume has an outsized effect on the projected corpus, more than most people expect. On a Rs 10,000 monthly SIP over 10 years:

Total invested stays fixed at Rs 12 lakh across every row; the entire difference comes from the assumed rate compounding on the same contributions. This is why picking a realistic rate for the specific fund category matters more than the exact monthly amount for long-term projections.

Monthly SIP Needed to Build Rs 1 Crore

Reaching a Rs 1 crore corpus takes a dramatically smaller monthly commitment the earlier you start, because compounding does more of the work over a longer runway. At an assumed 12% p.a.:

The bonus stat box in the calculator above computes this exact figure for whatever rate and tenure you have entered, so you do not need to interpolate between these rows.

Minimum SIP Amount and How to Start

Most AMCs in India set the SIP floor at Rs 500 per month, though a handful accept Rs 100. SEBI requires every open-ended mutual fund scheme to offer a monthly SIP option, so this is not something individual fund houses can opt out of.

Starting a SIP takes four steps: complete KYC (PAN, address proof, and an in-person or video verification) once through any AMC, RTA, or broker app; pick a fund matching your goal and risk tolerance; set up a NACH e-mandate linking your bank account; and choose the monthly debit date. Most platforms complete this end to end in under 15 minutes for an already-KYC-verified investor.

How Is SIP Taxed in India?

Each SIP instalment is treated as an independent purchase for capital gains tax, since it buys units on its own date at its own NAV. There is no separate "SIP tax"; ordinary mutual fund capital gains rules apply to each instalment individually.

Because each instalment has its own 12-month clock, a SIP that has run for 5 years typically has a mix of long-term and short-term lots at redemption. Most broker platforms show this lot-wise split automatically before you confirm a redemption.

XIRR vs CAGR: Which Applies to Your SIP?

CAGR measures the annualised return of a single investment made on a single date, so it works for a lumpsum but not for a SIP. A SIP has a separate cash flow on a separate date for every instalment, and CAGR has no way to account for that.

XIRR (Extended Internal Rate of Return) solves this by finding the one annualised rate that reconciles every instalment's date and amount against your portfolio's current value. Your broker's Consolidated Account Statement or app dashboard reports XIRR for a SIP, not CAGR, and for long-running SIPs the two figures can diverge by 1-3 percentage points from what a flat-rate calculator like this one would project.

ELSS SIP and the Section 80C Lock-In

ELSS (Equity Linked Savings Scheme) funds are diversified equity mutual funds with two extra features: a mandatory 3-year lock-in and eligibility for a Section 80C deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh per financial year.

The lock-in applies per instalment, not from the date the SIP started. An investor running an ELSS SIP for 5 years cannot redeem the full corpus after exactly 3 years; only units bought more than 36 months ago are unlocked, while the most recent three years of instalments remain locked on a rolling basis.

Common SIP Mistakes to Avoid

1. Stopping during a market fall: a SIP's entire advantage comes from buying more units when prices drop. Pausing during a correction removes the one feature that makes rupee cost averaging work.
2. Assuming an unrealistic rate: entering 18-20% because a fund did that in one strong year, rather than checking its 10-year trailing average, produces a maturity figure that will not hold up.
3. Ignoring the tenure mismatch: running an equity SIP for a goal that is 2-3 years away exposes short-term money to market volatility it cannot afford to absorb.
4. Never increasing the amount: a flat SIP ignores rising income over time. A step-up SIP captures that growth automatically; see the Types of SIP section above.
5. Redeeming ELSS thinking the lock-in is a single date: as covered above, the 3-year lock-in applies per instalment, not from the SIP's start date.

How to Use This SIP and Lumpsum Calculator

1. SIP tab: Enter your monthly amount, expected return rate, and tenure using the sliders or the year presets. Open "More settings" to add an existing corpus you already hold.
2. Lumpsum tab: Enter a one-time investment amount, expected return rate, and tenure to project growth without any further contributions.
3. Growth Schedule: Open this section to see the stacked bar chart and year-by-year table splitting your corpus into amount invested versus wealth gained.
4. Bonus stats: The wealth multiplier and the monthly SIP (or lumpsum) needed to reach Rs 1 crore update live with every input change.

Frequently Asked Questions