CAGR Calculator

How to use the CAGR Calculator

1. Enter the beginning value (what you started with).
2. Enter the ending value (what it’s worth now, or at the end of the period).
3. Enter the number of years between the two.
4. See the CAGR and total growth percentage instantly.

What is a CAGR calculator?

CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) calculates the single, steady annual growth rate that would take an investment from its beginning value to its ending value over a given period — even though the real year-to-year growth was almost certainly uneven. It’s the standard way to compare investments fairly over different time periods.

How the calculation works

CAGR finds the constant annual rate that, if compounded every year for the full period, would turn the beginning value into the ending value — smoothing out the actual ups and downs into a single comparable number.

Formula

CAGR = [(Ending value ÷ Beginning value)^(1 ÷ years) − 1] × 100

Worked example

An investment that grows from ₹1,00,000 to ₹2,00,000 over 5 years has a CAGR of about 14.87% — even though actual year-to-year returns were likely uneven.

Understanding your result

• CAGR is the smoothed, annualised growth rate — useful for comparing investments over different time periods.
• Total growth is the simple overall percentage change from beginning to end, with no annualising.

Factors that affect the result

CAGR depends only on the beginning value, ending value and number of years — it deliberately ignores the path taken in between, which is both its strength (easy comparison) and its limitation (it hides volatility).

Common uses

Investors use CAGR to compare the historical performance of different mutual funds, stocks or portfolios on a like-for-like annual basis, and to compare an investment’s growth against a benchmark or inflation.

Important notes & limitations

CAGR is a backward-looking, historical measure — it describes what happened, not what will happen next. It also smooths away volatility, so two investments with the same CAGR can have had very different, and very differently risky, journeys to get there.