CAGR Calculator — Real Annualised Return | Techovra
CAGR Calculator
Turn any starting value, ending value and time period into one annualised growth rate.
Calculate Your CAGR
Works for gains and losses. Results update as you type.
"My investment grew 80%" tells you almost nothing on its own. 80% over 2 years is a very different result from 80% over 10. This CAGR calculator converts any two values and a time period into a single annualised percentage, the only number that lets you fairly compare investments held for different lengths of time.
What this tool does
Enter a starting value, an ending value and the number of years between them, and this compound annual growth rate calculator returns the rate that would have taken you from one to the other, compounding steadily every year. It works the same whether you're checking a stock, a mutual fund, a business's revenue, or any other value that changed over time.
The CAGR formula
How to calculate CAGR:
A worked example: a gain
Say you invested ₹1,00,000 five years ago, and it's worth ₹1,80,000 today. The calculator opens with these numbers.
- Ratio: 1,80,000 ÷ 1,00,000 = 1.8.
- Run the formula: CAGR = (1.8)^(1/5) − 1 ≈ 12.47%.
That 80% total gain works out to roughly 12.47% p.a. compounded, a healthy, realistic return in line with what Nifty 50 has delivered over longer stretches historically.
A worked example: a loss
CAGR works the same way when a value has fallen, not just grown. Say ₹1,00,000 invested two years ago is worth ₹90,000 today.
- Ratio: 90,000 ÷ 1,00,000 = 0.9.
- Run the formula: CAGR = (0.9)^(1/2) − 1 ≈ −5.13%.
A negative CAGR result like this one is exactly as valid as a positive one. It tells you the investment has been losing roughly 5.13% of its value per year on average, compounded.
Why CAGR beats a simple percentage for comparing investments
A flat 80% total gain and a flat 80% total gain look identical on paper, but if one took 5 years and the other took 10, they represent very different rates of actual performance. CAGR strips out the time variable entirely, which is why it's the standard figure quoted on mutual fund fact sheets and used to compare completely different assets (a stock, a fund, gold, even a business) on the same footing. Our guide on ROI vs CAGR explained works through the same comparison with a 50% return as the example.
If you already have an investment-return figure from your broker or fund fact sheet and want to see how it was derived, the investment return calculator shows the same annualised math from a different starting point, and the ROI calculator gives you the simple total-return figure to compare it against.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CAGR the same as ROI?
No. ROI is a simple total-gain percentage that ignores time entirely, while CAGR annualises the return so it accounts for how long the money was invested. An investment can have a high ROI but a modest CAGR if it took many years to get there. See our ROI calculator for that side-by-side comparison.
What's a "good" CAGR for an Indian equity investment?
There's no fixed benchmark, but Nifty 50 has delivered roughly 12%-14% CAGR over the trailing 20 years as a long-term reference point. A single stock's CAGR can reasonably be compared against that index figure to see whether it's beaten or lagged the broader market over the same period.
This shows you the CAGR math using standard formulas. It is not investment advice. Past performance does not predict future results.