XIRR Calculator
Enter every investment and withdrawal with its date. XIRR returns the annualised rate that makes all those cashflows balance — the only honest way to measure a SIP.
What XIRR measures, and why your SIP needs it
XIRR — extended internal rate of return — is the annualised return on a series of cashflows that arrive on irregular dates. It answers one question: what constant annual rate, applied to every rupee for exactly as long as that rupee was invested, reproduces the money you actually ended up with?
That "for exactly as long as that rupee was invested" is the whole point. In a SIP, your first instalment has been working for years and last month's has been working for weeks. Any measure that treats them as equal will be wrong.
Why CAGR gives the wrong answer on a SIP
CAGR assumes a single amount invested once and left alone. Feed it a SIP and it silently pretends every instalment went in on day one — which flatters your return badly.
Take ₹10,000 a month for five years. You have invested ₹6,00,000 and the folio is worth ₹8,20,000.
- Absolute return: ₹2,20,000 on ₹6,00,000 = 36.7%. True, but says nothing about time.
- CAGR, misapplied: treating ₹6,00,000 as a day-one lumpsum growing to ₹8,20,000 over five years gives about 6.4% — too low, because most of that money was not invested for five years.
- XIRR: around 12.9%, because it credits each instalment only for the months it was actually in the market.
The mistake runs in both directions depending on the cashflow pattern, which is what makes it dangerous. There is no rule of thumb to correct it — you have to date the cashflows.
How XIRR is actually calculated
There is no closed-form formula. XIRR is the rate r that makes the present value of every cashflow sum to zero:
Σ cashflowi ÷ (1 + r)^(daysi ÷ 365) = 0
Because r cannot be isolated, every implementation — Excel, Google Sheets, this page — searches for it numerically. The schedule above shows the search's result: each of your cashflows discounted back to the first date at the rate found. Add that column up and you get zero. That is not a coincidence; it is the definition.
This calculator reproduces Microsoft's own documented XIRR example to the second decimal, so a figure here will match what Excel gives you on the same cashflows.
XIRR, CAGR and absolute return side by side
| Absolute return | CAGR | XIRR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Accounts for time | No | Yes | Yes |
| Handles multiple dates | Yes | No | Yes |
| Handles withdrawals | Partly | No | Yes |
| Right tool for | A quick "how much did I make?" | One lumpsum, one exit | SIPs, top-ups, partial redemptions, real portfolios |
Getting your cashflows out of a statement
Every mutual fund CAS or broker statement lists dated transactions, which is exactly what this needs. Three rules:
- Money leaving your pocket is negative. SIP instalments, lumpsum purchases, top-ups.
- Money coming back is positive. Redemptions, dividends actually paid out, switches out.
- If you still hold the investment, add today's value as a final positive cashflow dated today. Without it there is nothing for the return to be measured against, and the calculator will tell you so.
Do not include a dividend that was reinvested — no money moved, and counting it double-counts the units you already hold.
What counts as a good XIRR
Judge it against what the same money could have earned elsewhere over the same period, not against a round number. As a rough frame for Indian investors: a fixed deposit sets the risk-free floor at roughly 7%, so an equity SIP returning less than that has not paid you for the risk. Long-run equity index returns have historically landed in the low teens.
Two cautions. A period shorter than a year annualises badly — three months of 4% becomes an eye-catching 17% a year, and it means nothing. And XIRR is backward-looking; it describes what happened, not what will. To project forwards from an assumed rate instead, use the SIP calculator.
Mistakes that produce a wrong number
- Getting the signs backwards. If everything is positive there is no solution, and the calculator will say so rather than guess.
- Forgetting the closing value. The most common error. An ongoing SIP with no final positive cashflow looks like a total loss.
- Using CAGR on a SIP. Covered above, and by far the most common way people overstate — or understate — how they have done.
- Reading too much into short periods. Under a year, prefer the absolute return.
- Comparing pre-tax XIRR to a post-tax alternative. Equity gains carry LTCG above the annual exemption; an FD is taxed at slab. Compare like with like.