RD Calculator
A recurring deposit of ₹5,000 a month for 5 years at the post office rate of 6.7% matures at about ₹3,56,829 on ₹3,00,000 deposited. The calculator below takes your own monthly deposit, rate, and tenure, and shows the maturity, a year-by-year table, and one number the rest of the field leaves out: what the same total would have become as a single lump sum over the same period. That comparison is usually the answer to why an RD maturity looks lower than the headline rate suggests.
Post office RD takes ₹100 minimum, in multiples of ₹10, with no upper limit.
6.7% is the post office RD rate, unchanged since 1 October 2023. Bank RD rates differ.
The post office RD is fixed at 5 years. Bank RDs run 6 months to 10 years.
Maturity amount, before tax
₹3,56,829
- Total deposited
- ₹3,00,000
- Interest earned (taxable at your slab)
- ₹56,829
- Same total as one lump sum for the full term
- ₹4,18,220
That last line is the one worth sitting with. The same ₹3,00,000 at the same 6.7% for the same 5 years is worth ₹61,391 more as a single deposit, because in an RD your money is only inside for an average of about half the term. An RD is not a worse rate. It is the same rate on money you do not have yet.
Year-by-year growth
| Year | Deposited | Interest | Year-end balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹60,000 | ₹2,210 | ₹62,210 |
| 2 | ₹60,000 | ₹6,484 | ₹1,28,694 |
| 3 | ₹60,000 | ₹11,052 | ₹1,99,746 |
| 4 | ₹60,000 | ₹15,933 | ₹2,75,679 |
| 5 | ₹60,000 | ₹21,150 | ₹3,56,829 |
This assumes each deposit is made at the start of the month and interest compounds quarterly, the convention every major Indian RD calculator uses without stating it. The formula returns ₹7,231.38 per ₹100 monthly denomination at 7.2%, matching the table published in the scheme's own gazetted rules. Figures are before tax: RD interest is fully taxable at your slab rate and accrues annually even though a post office RD pays nothing until year five. Rates are revised quarterly, so a long figure is an estimate. This is an educational tool, not financial advice.
How the calculator works
An RD is an annuity, not a lump sum. You pay in every month while the bank compounds every quarter, so each instalment earns over a different, and often fractional, number of quarters. The standard closed form handles that mismatch with a minus one-third exponent in the denominator:
M = R * [ (1 + i)^n - 1 ] / [ 1 - (1 + i)^(-1/3) ]
R = monthly deposit
i = annual rate / 400 (the quarterly rate)
n = number of quarters (years * 4)That exponent is the whole trick, and it is worth knowing it is not arbitrary: summing each monthly deposit compounded at the quarterly rate for its own remaining holding period reproduces this closed form exactly. The calculator runs full floating-point precision throughout and rounds only for display, which matches how the field's own worked examples behave.
A worked example
Take ₹5,000 a month into a post office RD at 6.7% for the full 5-year term:
- Monthly deposit: ₹5,000, 60 instalments
- Total deposited: ₹3,00,000
- Maturity: about ₹3,56,829, before tax
- Interest earned: about ₹56,829, taxable at your slab
The relationship is proportional, because an RD is fixed-rate. ₹1,000 a month grows to about ₹71,366, and ₹10,000 a month to about ₹7,13,658. Per ₹100 of monthly deposit the 5-year figure at 6.7% is ₹7,136.58, which is the number to scale from.
Why the maturity looks low
Almost everyone meets the same surprise. ₹3,00,000 goes in and ₹3,56,829 comes out, and 6.7% over five years intuitively felt like it should be more. The intuition is not wrong about the rate. It is wrong about the time.
A ₹3 lakh lump sum sitting in a 5-year deposit at 6.7% grows to about ₹4,18,220. The same ₹3 lakh paid in monthly through an RD at the same 6.7% grows to about ₹3,56,829. That is a gap of roughly ₹61,391 on identical money at an identical rate, and the reason is simply that your first instalment earns for five years while your last earns for one month. Across the whole term your money is inside for an average of about half the period.
This is not a flaw in the product and it is not a worse rate. It is the arithmetic of not having the money yet, which is precisely the situation an RD exists for. The reason it goes unsaid is easier to guess: the pages ranking for this question are almost all owned by banks and aggregators, and nobody selling a deposit has a reason to explain that its effective return sits below its advertised one.
Pair this calculator with the guide
For the full rules, the default and revival regime, the advance deposit rebate, what early closure actually costs, and how RD interest is taxed, see our companion piece, What Is a Recurring Deposit. If you already have the lump sum, the sibling instrument is the fixed deposit, covered in What Is FD vs CD Explained with its own FD calculator. For the mechanism underneath both, see What Is Compound Interest, and for the RD among the other post office options, the Indian government savings schemes overview.
Frequently asked questions
How is recurring deposit maturity calculated?
RD maturity is calculated with an annuity formula, because you deposit monthly but the bank compounds quarterly, so each instalment earns for a different number of quarters. The standard closed form is M = R multiplied by [(1+i) to the power n, minus 1], divided by [1 minus (1+i) to the power minus one-third], where R is the monthly deposit, i is the annual rate divided by 400 (the quarterly rate), and n is the number of quarters. The minus one-third exponent exists purely to reconcile monthly deposits against quarterly compounding. At ₹5,000 a month for 5 years at 6.7%, that gives ₹3,56,829 on ₹3,00,000 deposited.
What is the current post office RD interest rate?
The post office RD pays 6.7% per year, compounded quarterly, on a fixed 5-year term. The National Savings Institute's own rate table dates the current 6.7% period as running from 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2026, so the rate has been unchanged for roughly eleven quarters. Finding that number is harder than it should be: the Department of Posts order for the July to September 2026 quarter states only that rates remain unchanged from the previous quarter and contains no rate table at all, so the figure traces back to the last notification that actually published one.
Why is my RD maturity lower than I expected?
Because your money is only inside the deposit for an average of about half the term. This is the single most common surprise with an RD and almost no page explains it. A ₹3 lakh lump sum in a 5-year deposit at 6.7% grows to about ₹4,18,220, but the same ₹3 lakh paid in at ₹5,000 a month through an RD at the identical 6.7% grows to about ₹3,56,829. Same money, same rate, same five years, roughly ₹61,391 apart. The last instalment earns one month of interest, not five years of it. An RD is not paying a worse rate; it is paying the same rate on money you do not have yet.
Does this calculator match the official figures?
Yes. The National Savings Recurring Deposit Scheme, 2019, notified as G.S.R. 918(E), publishes its own maturity table fixing ₹7,231.38 per ₹100 monthly denomination. This calculator returns ₹7,231.38 at the 7.2% rate that was in force when those rules were notified, matching the gazette to the paisa. Worth knowing: that gazette table has never been amended, so it is frozen at the December 2019 rate. At today's 6.7% the correct figure is ₹7,136.58, about ₹95 lower than the number still printed in the rules.
Is the RD maturity amount shown here before or after tax?
Before tax. RD interest is fully taxable at your slab rate, unlike PPF or Sukanya Samriddhi, and it is taxable on accrual each year even though a post office RD pays nothing until year five. TDS applies at 10% once interest from a bank, post office, or co-operative society crosses ₹50,000 in a financial year, or ₹1,00,000 for senior citizens, both thresholds having been raised by Budget 2025 with effect from 1 April 2025. Without a PAN, TDS runs at 20%. The calculator does not model post-tax return because that depends on your own slab and your other income.
Why does another RD calculator show a different number?
Usually the deposit-timing convention, which no calculator in the field states out loud. This one assumes deposits at the start of each month, so in a one-year RD the first instalment is held a full twelve months. Every major Indian RD calculator makes the same assumption silently, which makes it the most likely reason a figure disagrees with a bank passbook. Some published pages are simply wrong rather than differently configured: several print a lump-sum compound interest formula while defining the variable as a monthly instalment, which computes the growth of one deposit and not an RD at all.
Sources
- Ministry of Finance, National Savings Recurring Deposit Scheme, 2019, G.S.R. 918(E), notified 12 December 2019 (the maturity table, the default and revival rules, the advance deposit rebate, and premature closure), indiapost.gov.in
- National Savings Institute, Ministry of Finance, Interest rate on National Savings Schemes (dates the current 6.7% RD period as 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2026), nsiindia.gov.in
- Department of Posts, SB Order No. 07/2026, dated 30 June 2026, rates for Q2 FY 2026-27 unchanged (the order carries no rate table), nsiindia.gov.in rate table
- ClearTax, Section 194A: TDS on interest other than interest on securities (the ₹50,000 and ₹1,00,000 thresholds), cleartax.in