Inflation Calculator
See how inflation erodes the value of money over time. Enter an amount, inflation rate and years to find the future cost and loss in purchasing power.
Formula last reviewed 4 August 2026 · How we verify our calculators
Future cost
- Today's value
- ₹1,00,000
- Increase in cost
- ₹79,085
Updates live as you type
Frequently asked questions
Inflation is the rate at which prices rise over time, reducing the purchasing power of money. ₹100 today buys less in the future when prices have gone up.
If your savings earn less than the inflation rate, their real value shrinks. This is why money kept idle or in low-yield accounts loses purchasing power over the years.
India's long-term retail inflation has often hovered around 5–7%, though it varies year to year. Use a rate reflecting your spending — education and healthcare often inflate faster.
Invest in assets that historically outpace inflation over the long term, such as equities or equity mutual funds, so your money grows in real terms rather than just nominal terms.
The same ₹1,00,000 expense, ten years apart
Today it's ₹1,00,000. At 6% inflation, that identical basket of goods costs ₹1,79,085 in 10 years — an increase of ₹79,085, almost double, for something that hasn't actually changed at all. Nothing got more valuable; the rupee just buys less than it used to.
The same formula that grows a SIP also grows a price tag
Future cost = Present value × (1 + rate)ⁿ is identical in structure to the compound-growth formula behind every investment calculator on this site — inflation and investment returns are mathematically the same mechanism, just pointed in opposite directions on your purchasing power. One grows what your money can buy; the other shrinks it. Enter today's amount, an expected annual inflation rate and a time horizon, and this calculator projects what the same basket of goods will cost by then, alongside the flat-versus-rising comparison in the chart above.
The rule of thumb worth memorising
Divide 72 by the inflation rate and you get roughly how many years it takes for costs to double — the "Rule of 72." At 6%, that's about twelve years; at 8%, closer to nine. It's rough, but rough is often all planning needs: it's the fastest way to sanity-check whether a long-term goal is priced in today's rupees or tomorrow's.
Why every other goal on this site should be inflation-adjusted
A retirement corpus, a child's education fund, a house down payment — any of these calculated in today's prices will fall meaningfully short by the time you actually need the money, because the target itself keeps moving while you save toward it. This is also why parking long-term savings in an instrument yielding less than the inflation rate quietly loses you money in real terms, even as the account balance climbs on paper every year. Run any large future goal through this calculator first, then use the inflation-adjusted number — not today's price — as the actual target for your SIP, FD or retirement plan.