SIP vs RD Calculator — Compare Returns Side by Side — India 2026

SIP Calculator

Understanding Your Investment Returns

This calculator projects your returns using compound interest, where your earnings generate their own earnings over time. The power of compounding means that even small regular investments can grow into substantial wealth over long periods. For example, investing just Rs 5,000 per month at 12% expected returns for 25 years can grow to over Rs 1 crore — of which only Rs 15 lakh is your own money and Rs 85 lakh is compounding returns. The key factors that determine your final corpus are: the amount invested, the rate of return, the duration of investment, and the frequency of compounding.

Important Considerations

Past returns do not guarantee future performance, especially for market-linked instruments like mutual funds and equities. The returns shown are estimates based on the rate you enter. Equity investments carry market risk but have historically delivered 12-15% CAGR over 15+ year periods in India. Fixed income options like PPF (7.1%) and FD (6-7.5%) offer lower but more predictable returns. Diversifying across asset classes — equity, debt, gold, and real estate — reduces overall portfolio risk while optimizing returns for your risk tolerance.

SIP vs RD After Tax — The Real Gap

Headline returns understate how far apart these two products land, because they are taxed under completely different systems. RD interest is taxed at your slab rate, every year, on an accrual basis — as income from other sources, with no special rate and no Section 80C or 80TTA shelter (sections of the Income-tax Act, 1961; carried over with new section numbers under the Income-tax Act, 2025 from FY 2026-27). Banks also deduct 10% TDS once your interest across the bank crosses the annual threshold (Rs 50,000 for general depositors and Rs 1 lakh for senior citizens since April 2025, raised from the earlier Rs 40,000/50,000 by Budget 2025; 20% if no PAN is on file). For a 30% slab investor (31.2% with cess), an RD's 6.5% — a typical major-bank rate as of mid-2026 — becomes roughly 4.5% post-tax. Equity SIP gains are taxed only on redemption, and — as of mid-2026, under the post-July-2024 Budget regime — long-term capital gains (units held over 12 months) are taxed at 12.5% above a Rs 1.25 lakh annual exemption; short-term gains at 20%. Worked example, Rs 10,000/month for 10 years, 30% slab: the RD at an effective ~4.5% post-tax grows to roughly Rs 15.2 lakh, versus Rs 16.9 lakh pre-tax. The SIP corpus of about Rs 23.2 lakh (at 12%) carries roughly Rs 11.2 lakh of gains; taxed at 12.5% beyond the exemption, tax is about Rs 1.24 lakh, leaving near Rs 22 lakh. The post-tax gap — about Rs 6.8 lakh — is wider than the Rs 6.3 lakh pre-tax gap, and it grows with your slab.

Rs 10,000 a Month for 10, 15 and 20 Years — The Full Table

Same Rs 10,000 monthly outflow, radically different destinations. Assumptions: deposits at the start of each month; RD at 6.5% per annum — a typical major-bank rate, since major-bank RD rates as of mid-2026 cluster roughly 6.25-6.8% (SBI about 6.25-6.4%, HDFC and ICICI up to about 6.5%), with 7-7.5% available mainly at small finance banks; the post office RD pays 6.7% and compounds quarterly, so its figures land marginally above the 6.5% bank assumption; SIP at an assumed 12% — a common long-run equity assumption, not a guarantee. - 10 years — invested Rs 12 lakh. RD: ~Rs 16.9 lakh. SIP: ~Rs 23.2 lakh. Gap: ~Rs 6.3 lakh. - 15 years — invested Rs 18 lakh. RD: ~Rs 30.6 lakh. SIP: ~Rs 50.5 lakh. Gap: ~Rs 19.9 lakh. - 20 years — invested Rs 24 lakh. RD: ~Rs 49.4 lakh. SIP: ~Rs 99.9 lakh. Gap: ~Rs 50.5 lakh. Notice the shape: the gap equals 37% of the RD corpus at 10 years, 65% at 15, and 102% at 20. A compounding rate five and a half points higher doesn't add linearly — it multiplies. By year 20 the SIP corpus is just over double the RD's even though both received identical Rs 24 lakh contributions. The honest caveats cut both ways: the RD figure is contractually guaranteed the day you start; the SIP figure is a long-run average that arrives with 30-50% drawdowns along the way. That is why the standard answer is horizon-based — RDs for goals under about 5 years, SIPs for 7+ years — rather than one product winning outright.