SIP Calculator
Every SIP calculator in India does the same arithmetic correctly, then shows you a number you will never receive. The fund's annual fee is not in it. Capital gains tax is not in it. This one puts both back, shows a range instead of a single figure, and tells you which compounding convention it used.
What you put in
Optional. Every calculator we read defaults this to 10% and none says why.
What you are assuming
Nobody knows this number. It is a guess, and it is the only input that really decides the answer.
The annual fee, charged on your whole balance. Your fund's factsheet states it.
What you would actually keep, after costs and tax
₹70,37,577
- You will have paid in
- ₹24,00,000
- Before costs and tax
- ₹91,98,574
- The fee takes
- ₹15,15,767
- Capital gains tax takes
- ₹6,45,229
₹91,98,574 is the figure every other SIP calculator we read would show you. It is before the fund's fee and before tax. Of eleven India SIP calculators read on 26 August 2026, not one subtracted either. The gap here is ₹21,60,996, or 23% of the number on the tin.
The same plan at three different assumptions
| If it returns | Before costs and tax | What you keep |
|---|---|---|
| 8% a year | ₹57,26,600 | ₹45,33,910 |
| 12% a year | ₹91,98,574 | ₹70,37,577 |
| 16% a year | ₹1,50,18,320 | ₹1,12,32,599 |
Four percentage points either way changes the answer by ₹66,98,690. Of the eleven calculators we read, ten print a single figure and one shows a range. The rate is the only input that really decides the outcome, and it is the one input nobody can know.
One more thing worth knowing, because it is invisible on every page in this field. Turning a yearly rate into a monthly one has two conventions. Doing it properly gives ₹91,98,574. Simply dividing by twelve, which five of the eleven tools do, gives ₹99,91,479, because 1% a month compounds to 12.68% a year and not 12%. Same inputs, same stated rate, a difference of ₹7,92,906. No page states which one it uses. We use the first.
On tax, each instalment carries its own purchase date, so each has its own holding period. Units held more than twelve months are long-term and taxed at 12.5% on gains above ₹1,25,000; anything newer is short-term at 20%. On this plan ₹52,76,092 of the gain is long-term and ₹6,715 is short-term, that second figure being the last twelve instalments, which have barely grown. Stamp duty of 0.005% on each purchase comes to ₹120 across the whole plan, which is real and negligible, and we would rather show it than imply it matters.
This is arithmetic on assumptions you chose, not a forecast and not advice. It assumes one steady rate, which no market delivers, so treat the range as the answer and the middle figure as one point inside it. It leaves out exit load, which is capped at 3% of net asset value by Regulation 44(4) but is set scheme by scheme, and it leaves out surcharge and cess on the tax, which come from the annual Finance Act. Base rates only. What a specific fund will do, and what you owe on it, are questions for a SEBI-registered investment adviser and a chartered accountant.
Cite this calculator
Using this in an article, a report or a class? Please credit it, and link back so readers can run the numbers themselves.
The Money Decoded. "SIP Calculator (India)." https://themoneydecoded.com/calculators/sip
The embed drops this calculator straight into your page as a working tool. It is 2600px tall by default and full width, so change the height if your column is much wider or narrower than ours.
Every SIP calculator shows you a gross number
Of eleven India SIP calculators read on 26 August 2026, not one subtracted the fund's expense ratio, and not one subtracted capital gains tax. Stamp duty was not mentioned on a single page.
On a 10,000 rupee monthly SIP over twenty years, assuming 12% before costs, the figure this field prints is about 92 lakh. Put back a 1.5% expense ratio and the tax due on redemption and roughly 70 lakh is what reaches you. The difference is 23% of the number on the tin.
One tool says so. Groww carries a line in body copy directly beneath its widget admitting the calculator "does not provide clarification for the exit load and expense ratio (if any)". That is an admission rather than a fix. The number above it stays gross.
The reason the rest of the field cannot follow is structural. A distributor whose calculator prints a post-fee, post-tax figure is a distributor printing a smaller number next to its own Invest Now button. Every commercial tool we read had one, and ClearTax renders "File ITR Now" between its inputs and its result.
The rate is a guess, and it decides everything
The expected return is the only input that really moves the answer, and it is the one input nobody can know. Four percentage points either side of 12% changes a twenty-year outcome by more than the entire amount you paid in.
What the field does with that uncertainty is the most revealing thing about it. The defaults line up almost perfectly by how accountable the publisher is for the guess.
| Publisher | Default rate |
|---|---|
| SBI Mutual Fund, the asset manager | 6%, fixed, not editable |
| AMFI, the industry body | 12%, and the slider caps there |
| Brokers and content sites | 12% |
| ClearTax | 15%, in a field with no maximum |
| Policybazaar | 17% |
The asset manager legally answerable for its own illustrations uses 6% and will not let you argue. AMFI is the only tool that refuses to let a user type an optimistic number. At the other end, Policybazaar seats an unsourced note beside the field reading "Top 25% of investors consistently generate more than 12% return", and ClearTax ships a 15% default on a page whose own FAQ says 10% to 12% is the usual assumption.
Ten of the eleven print a single figure. ClearTax's runs to 1,01,52,946.41, a crore quoted to the paisa off a guess. Only Scripbox shows a band, and it loads on the pessimistic end, which is the most honest default state we found anywhere.
The convention nobody discloses
There are two ways to turn a yearly rate into a monthly one, they give different answers, and no page in this field says which it used.
The correct conversion is the twelfth root: a 12% year is 0.949% a month. The shortcut is to divide by twelve, which gives 1% a month. But 1% a month compounds to 12.68% a year, so the shortcut quietly models a higher return than the one on screen.
| Years | Correct | Divide by twelve | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 20,27,590 | 20,62,159 | 34,569 |
| 10 | 56,00,897 | 58,08,477 | 2,07,580 |
| 20 | 2,29,96,434 | 2,49,78,698 | 19,82,264 |
| 30 | 7,70,24,330 | 8,82,47,844 | 1,12,23,514 |
Five of the eleven tools do it correctly and five divide by twelve. Groww's page calls dividing by twelve "a common mistake". AMFI's page instructs readers to do exactly that. Angel One's source still carries the correct line, commented out, directly above the version they shipped.
This calculator uses the twelfth root and shows you what the other convention would have said.
How a SIP is taxed, instalment by instalment
Each SIP instalment buys units on its own date, so each instalment has its own holding period. That is what makes SIP tax different from lump-sum tax, and it is the reason this calculator runs a loop rather than a formula.
Units of an equity-oriented fund held more than twelve months are long-term, taxed at 12.5% on gains above 1,25,000 rupees a year under section 198 of the Income-tax Act 2025. Anything newer is short-term at 20% under section 196. So when you redeem a twenty-year SIP, the final twelve instalments are short-term, even though they have grown least.
On a long plan that short-term slice is small. On a two or three year SIP it is a large share of everything you hold, which is the case where this distinction changes the answer materially.
Those are base rates. Surcharge and cess come from the annual Finance Act and are not modelled here. If you want the arithmetic behind the rates themselves, our post on short-term versus long-term capital gains works through both.
What this calculator does not do
It does not forecast anything. It computes arithmetic on assumptions you chose, and it assumes one steady rate, which no market has ever delivered. Treat the range as the answer and the middle figure as one point inside it.
It does not model exit load. SEBI caps that at 3% of net asset value under Regulation 44(4) of the Mutual Funds Regulations 2026, but the actual charge is set scheme by scheme in the Scheme Information Document, which is the authoritative place to read it.
It does not name funds, rank them, or suggest you start a SIP. Three of the eleven tools we read list specific schemes beside the calculator. We do not, and a SEBI-registered investment adviser is the right person for that question.
It does not compute surcharge or cess, and it does not handle debt-oriented funds, which are always short-term when bought on or after 1 April 2023.
Pair this with the guide
The companion piece, what a SIP actually is, covers why it is a method and not a product, what happens if you miss an instalment, and the allotment rule that decides when your money is really invested.
For how compounding produces these numbers in the first place, what compound interest actually does is the foundation, and you can run plain lump-sum growth in the compound interest calculator. If you would rather see a guaranteed return with no market risk at all, the PPF calculator works the same arithmetic on a government-set rate.
Frequently asked questions
Why is this SIP calculator's number lower than every other one?
Because it subtracts what the others leave out. Every SIP calculator we read on 26 August 2026, eleven of them, printed a figure before the fund's annual expense ratio and before capital gains tax. On a 10,000 rupee monthly SIP over twenty years at 12%, that headline figure is about 92 lakh. After a 1.5% expense ratio and tax on redemption, roughly 70 lakh reaches you. Neither number is wrong. One of them is the number you can actually spend.
What return rate should I use in a SIP calculator?
Nobody knows, and the honest answer is to use a range rather than a figure. What is worth knowing is how differently the field guesses. SBI Mutual Fund, the asset manager legally answerable for its own illustrations, fixes its calculator at 6% and will not let you change it. AMFI, the industry body, caps its slider at 12%. Distributors and content sites default to 12%, 15% and, in one case, 17%. The further a page sits from responsibility for the projection, the higher the number it seats.
Does the expense ratio really matter that much?
Over long horizons it matters more than most people expect, because it is charged on the whole balance every year rather than on your contribution. On a 10,000 rupee monthly SIP over twenty years assuming 12% before costs, moving from a 0.5% expense ratio to 2.1% changes the corpus from about 86.6 lakh to about 71.5 lakh. SEBI caps the base expense ratio for an equity scheme's first 500 crore at 2.1% under Regulation 66(7) of the Mutual Funds Regulations 2026, but that cap covers the base ratio only.
How is a SIP taxed in India?
Each instalment carries its own purchase date, so each has its own holding period. Units of an equity-oriented fund held more than twelve months are long-term, taxed at 12.5% on gains above 1,25,000 rupees in a year under section 198 of the Income-tax Act 2025. Units held twelve months or less are short-term at 20% under section 196. On a long SIP that means the final twelve instalments are short-term when you redeem, though they have grown least. These are base rates, before surcharge and cess.
What is a step-up SIP?
A step-up SIP raises the monthly amount by a set percentage each year, usually to track a rising salary. Every calculator we read that offers it defaults to a 10% annual increase, and not one explains where that number comes from or ties it to any salary or inflation figure. The effect compounds hard: on a twenty-year plan, a 10% yearly step-up roughly triples what you pay in and more than doubles what you end with, compared with a flat amount.
Do SIP calculators account for stamp duty?
None of the eleven we read even mentioned it. Stamp duty of 0.005% applies to every mutual fund purchase, including each SIP instalment, since 1 July 2020, and redemption is exempt. In practice it is tiny: on a 10,000 rupee monthly SIP over twenty years it totals about 120 rupees across 240 instalments. This calculator shows it because leaving a cost out silently is how the rest of the field ended up with gross figures, not because the amount is significant.
Sources
Regulations and statute were read in their own text on 25 August 2026, not in summaries. The full record, including what could not be reached, is kept in the repository as a working document.
- Securities and Exchange Board of India, Mutual Funds Regulations 2026, in force 1 April 2026, for the base expense ratio ceilings in Regulation 66(7), the 3% exit load cap in Regulation 44(4), and the Fifth Schedule advertisement code on projections
- Income-tax Act 2025, section 198 for long-term gains on equity fund units at 12.5% above 1,25,000 rupees, section 196 for short-term at 20%, and section 2(101) for the twelve-month holding period
- SEBI investor FAQ on stamp duty for the 0.005% charge on issue of units, applying to each purchase and exempting redemption
- Observations about how other SIP calculators handle default rates, costs, tax and compounding come from a live review of eleven ranking India calculators on 26 August 2026, reading served markup and JavaScript bundles rather than marketing copy