Investment return calculator — turn a start and end value into CAGR

How to use the investment return calculator

1. Enter the Initial investment: the amount you put in at the start.
2. Enter the Final value: what the investment is worth now, or what you sold it for.
3. Enter the Years held. Half years such as 4.5 are fine.
4. Pick the Currency.
5. Read the CAGR (per year), Total gain and Total return. The table shows the value each year at that constant rate.

What it does and when to use it

You bought something years ago and it is worth more (or less) today. The obvious question is “how well did it do?” A total return of 80% sounds good, but it means something very different over 3 years than over 15. CAGR puts every investment on the same yearly footing, so you can compare a house, a fund and a share held for different periods.

Use it to review your own holdings, to compare an old investment with a deposit rate, or to check a growth figure someone quotes to you. If the holding period is shorter than a year, or you received cash income along the way, the annualised return calculator handles days held and income. To look forward instead, the future value calculator grows an amount at a chosen rate.

How it works

The calculator solves the compound growth formula for the rate:

CAGR = (Final value ÷ Initial investment)^(1 ÷ years) − 1

It then reports:

• Total gain = final value − initial investment
• Total return = total gain ÷ initial investment, as a percentage

The table rebuilds the smooth path: value in year t = initial investment × (1 + CAGR)^t. The last row always equals your final value. Real investments rarely move this smoothly, so treat the table as an illustration of the average rate, not a record of what happened.

Worked examples

These figures come from the calculator’s own function.

Money that doubled. Initial investment ₹1,00,000, final value ₹2,00,000, 6 years. The result is a CAGR of 12.25% per year, a total gain of ₹1,00,000.00 and a total return of 100%. The table shows ₹1,12,246.20 after year 1, ₹1,41,421.36 after year 3 and ₹2,00,000.00 after year 6.

An investment that lost money. Initial investment $10,000, final value $8,000, 3 years. CAGR is −7.17% per year, total gain −$2,000.00 and total return −20%. The yearly path runs $9,283.18, then $8,617.74, then $8,000.00. A 20% loss over three years is not 6.7% a year; compounding makes the yearly rate a little larger.

To see whether 12.25% beat a safer option, put the same ₹1,00,000 and 6 years into the FD calculator at a deposit rate and compare the maturity values.

Limits and tips

• One amount in, one amount out. The formula assumes a single investment at the start. If you added money along the way (a SIP, for example), CAGR on the totals will be wrong; a money-weighted measure such as the IRR calculator suits yearly cash flows better.
• Fees and taxes. Use the value you actually received after charges if you want your real return. Tax is not deducted.
• Short periods mislead. A big gain over a few months can turn into a huge yearly rate that is unlikely to repeat.
• Past returns are history. CAGR describes what happened; it does not predict what an investment will do next.
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