Investing
CAGR Calculator
Compound annual growth rate between two values.
Last updated 14 August 2026 · Free · No sign-up · Nothing you type leaves your browser
Values
Compound annual growth rate
15.71%
₹5 L became ₹12 L over 6 years — a 2.40× multiple, equivalent to a steady 15.71% every year even though the real path almost certainly wasn't smooth.
Total growth
₹7 L
Multiple
2.40×
Annualised (CAGR)
15.71%
The smoothed path CAGR implies
CAGR describes only the start and end points. It says nothing about what happened in between — the same15.71% CAGR could hide a smooth climb or a route that fell sharply and recovered.
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What CAGR actually tells you
CAGR answers one narrow question well: given where an investment started and where it ended up, what single steady annual rate explains the difference? It is the right tool for comparing two lump-sum investments over the same period, or for describing how a fund or index performed between two dates.
What it hides
Because CAGR only uses the endpoints, it says nothing about the journey in between. A volatile investment and a steady one can post the identical CAGR over five years while feeling completely different to hold. Before treating a CAGR figure as a description of risk, look at the year-by-year path if you can — or use our market crash simulator to see how a bad early year changes outcomes even when the average stays the same.
Multiple cash flows need a different tool
CAGR breaks down the moment there is more than one investment or withdrawal date — a SIP, a staggered lump sum, or a partial redemption. For those, use the XIRR calculator, which accounts for the exact date of every cash flow rather than just a single start and end.
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Frequently asked questions
What is CAGR?
Compound Annual Growth Rate is the single, steady annual rate that would take a starting value to an ending value over a given number of years, if growth happened smoothly rather than in the lumpy, uneven way real investments actually move.
How is CAGR different from average annual return?
A simple average of yearly returns can be misleading because it ignores compounding and can be distorted by a single extreme year. CAGR instead works backwards from the actual start and end values, so it always reflects what really happened to your money, not an average of percentages.
Can CAGR be misleading?
Yes — it only looks at two points in time. An investment that fell 50% and then doubled has the same CAGR over that period as one that grew in a straight line, even though the experience of holding each was completely different. Always check the path, not just the CAGR, before drawing conclusions.
Is CAGR the same as XIRR?
No. CAGR needs exactly one starting value and one ending value. If you made multiple investments or withdrawals at different dates — like a SIP — CAGR cannot be applied correctly. Use the XIRR calculator instead, which is built for exactly that.