CAGR Calculator
Calculate the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of any investment. Enter the start value, end value and number of years to find your annualised return.
Formula last reviewed 4 August 2026 · How we verify our calculators
CAGR
- Absolute return
- 100.0%
- Total gain
- ₹1,00,000
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
Compound Annual Growth Rate is the smoothed annual rate at which an investment would have grown if it compounded steadily from its start value to its end value over the period.
Absolute return is the total percentage gain regardless of time. CAGR converts that into a per-year rate, making investments of different durations comparable.
CAGR = (End ÷ Begin)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, expressed as a percentage. This calculator applies it directly.
No. CAGR assumes smooth growth and ignores the ups and downs in between. Two investments with the same CAGR can have very different year-to-year risk.
Your investment doubled. That is not the same as "20% a year."
It's the mistake almost everyone makes doing this in their head: an investment that grew from ₹1,00,000 to ₹2,00,000 over 5 years *feels* like a 20% annual return — 100% total gain, divided evenly across five years. The actual answer is 14.87%, and the gap between those two numbers is exactly what CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) exists to correct.
The reason the naive shortcut overstates the return is that it ignores compounding entirely — it treats growth as if it added up in a straight line, when in reality each year's gain itself goes on to earn a return in every year after it. CAGR solves for the single constant annual rate that would carry a starting value smoothly to an ending value over the given years:
CAGR = (End ÷ Begin)^(1 ÷ years) − 1
Three inputs, one rate, and it's the correct one — not the one your gut does with a quick mental division.
Where CAGR quietly lies to you
CAGR's real limitation isn't the maths, it's what the maths hides: two investments can carry an *identical* 15% CAGR while having had completely different journeys — one climbing steadily the whole way, the other crashing 40% in year two and clawing back everything by year five. The final number looks identical; the experience of holding either one did not. CAGR is built for comparing a clean single entry against a single exit — a stock bought once and sold once, held for however many years — which is exactly what makes it the wrong tool the moment money moved in or out more than once. Staggered SIPs, periodic top-ups, partial withdrawals: any of those breaks CAGR's core assumption, and reaching for XIRR instead — which accounts for the exact timing of every cash flow — is what actually gives you the right number in those cases.