Calculate your Compound Annual Growth Rate and view a year-by-year growth chart — free, in your browser, with a downloadable graph.
Enter a starting year and value plus an ending year and value above, and the tool instantly returns your compound annual growth rate along with a line chart plotting the projected value for every year in between.
The line is a smooth, constant-rate projection, not a record of real year-to-year performance. Actual investments rarely grow in a straight compounding line, so treat the chart as a way to visualize the average rate, not an exact history of the investment.
Can I use this for SIP or mutual fund returns?
Yes, enter your initial investment value and its current value along with the number of years invested to get an annualized growth rate.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No, the chart and calculation happen entirely in your browser and nothing is saved or transmitted. For a deeper look at what CAGR means and how to use it to compare SIPs and stocks, see our CAGR guide.
Compound annual growth rate answers a narrow question precisely: if a value had grown at one steady rate every year, what rate would take it from where it started to where it ended? It is a smoothing device. The formula is CAGR = (Ending ÷ Beginning)^(1 ÷ years) − 1, and the whole of its usefulness and all of its limitations follow from that single line.
An investment of ₹1,00,000 becomes ₹2,50,000 over seven years. The ratio is 2.5, the seventh root of 2.5 is about 1.1398, so the CAGR is roughly 13.98%. The absolute return over the period was 150%, but that number is meaningless for comparison until you know it took seven years. CAGR is what makes two investments of different durations comparable at all.
These three are constantly confused and they answer different questions.
| Measure | What it tells you | When it misleads |
|---|---|---|
| Absolute return | Total percentage gain from start to finish | Ignores time entirely, so 150% over 2 years and over 20 years look identical |
| Average annual return | The arithmetic mean of yearly returns | Always overstates real growth when returns vary, sometimes badly |
| CAGR | The constant rate that reproduces the actual end value | Hides everything that happened in between |
The gap between the second and third rows is worth seeing concretely. A value that falls 50% in year one and rises 100% in year two has an arithmetic average return of 25% per year, which sounds excellent. In reality it ended exactly where it started, and the CAGR is 0%. Arithmetic averages of volatile returns are not just imprecise, they are systematically optimistic, and the effect grows with volatility.
Because CAGR only looks at the first and last values, two paths that begin and end at the same points have identical CAGR no matter how different they were to live through. One might have climbed steadily; the other might have halved in year three and spent four years recovering. The summary statistic cannot distinguish them.
This matters for two reasons. It matters psychologically, because the path determines whether an investor actually stays invested. And it matters mechanically for anyone withdrawing money along the way, because withdrawals during a downturn permanently remove units that cannot participate in the recovery. Whenever you compare CAGR figures, look at the drawdowns alongside them or you are comparing only half the picture.
CAGR assumes a single amount invested at the start and left alone until the end. Break that assumption and the number stops being meaningful.
| Metric | Use it when |
|---|---|
| CAGR | One lump sum in, one value out, nothing in between |
| XIRR | Multiple cash flows on irregular dates, such as SIPs or lumpy top-ups |
| IRR | Multiple cash flows at regular, evenly spaced intervals |
All three express an annualised rate, so their outputs look interchangeable on a page. They are not. Quoting a CAGR where an XIRR was required is one of the most common errors in performance reporting, and it usually flatters or penalises the result rather than being neutrally wrong.
CAGR is not only a markets metric. It is a clean way to describe growth in any quantity measured at two points in time: revenue between two financial years, subscriber counts, production volume, website sessions, or the growth of a category in a market study. The same caution applies everywhere. It compresses a whole history into one number, which is exactly what makes it readable and exactly what makes it incomplete.
Portfolio values and business revenue figures are private, and running a root through them does not require a server. Everything on this page is computed in your browser with JavaScript that loaded alongside the page. No value you enter is uploaded, retained after you close the tab, or attached to an analytics event, and the chart you can download is drawn locally rather than generated remotely. Disconnect from the internet and the calculator keeps working, which is the simplest demonstration that nothing is being sent.
CAGR = (Ending value ÷ Beginning value) raised to the power of (1 ÷ number of years), minus one. For ₹1,00,000 growing to ₹2,50,000 over seven years, the ratio is 2.5 and the seventh root gives a CAGR of about 13.98%.
An average annual return is the arithmetic mean of yearly returns and systematically overstates real growth when returns vary. A value that falls 50% then rises 100% has a 25% average return but a 0% CAGR, because it ended exactly where it started. CAGR reflects what actually happened to the money.
No, it will understate the real rate. Each instalment was invested for a different length of time, so the right measure is XIRR, which accounts for the date of every individual cash flow. CAGR only applies to a single lump sum left untouched from start to finish.
No. It only looks at the beginning and ending values, so two investments with wildly different journeys can show identical CAGR. Always look at the drawdowns alongside the CAGR, particularly if money is being withdrawn along the way.
It can be computed, but annualising a few months of data multiplies short-term noise into a misleading headline. A 10% gain over one quarter is best described as a 10% quarter rather than an annualised rate approaching 46%.
No. The calculation and the downloadable chart are both produced in your browser on your own device. Nothing you enter is transmitted, stored or logged, and the page continues to work with your network disconnected.