If you put all your money in once and took it all out once, CAGR is the right answer. The moment you do anything else — SIPs, top-ups, partial withdrawals, dividends — CAGR breaks down and XIRR is what you need. This page runs both on the same set of cash flows so you can see exactly how much CAGR misleads you.

Calculator → Comparison

CAGRvsXIRR

Two return metrics, two completely different answers — see why XIRR is what you actually want.

Currency:

Cash Flows (one per line: YYYY-MM-DD, amount) Negative = investment, Positive = withdrawal/maturity. CAGR uses only first and last; XIRR uses all.

CAGR Option A

Compound Annual Growth Rate. Uses only first and last value, ignores everything in between.

CAGR (Simple)

CAGR–

First Investment–

Final Value–

Years Span–

Treats All Cash Flows AsJust first & last

XIRR Option B

Extended Internal Rate of Return. Weights every cash flow by its date — what Excel and brokerages use.

XIRR (Time-weighted)

XIRR–

Total Invested–

Total Returned–

# of Cash Flows–

Treats All Cash Flows AsProperly weighted by date

The Verdict

–

Adjust the inputs above to see how the answer changes.

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When CAGR Works

Single buy → single sell with nothing in between (e.g., bought a stock at $1,000 in 2020, sold for $2,500 in 2025).
Comparing benchmarks over the same fixed period.
Quick mental math — CAGR is easy to communicate.

Why CAGR Fails for Most Real Investments

Suppose you started a $1,000/year SIP in 2020, stopped contributing in 2024, and the portfolio is now worth $7,500 in 2026. CAGR would naively compute (final / initial)^1/years − 1, but which value is “initial”? The first contribution? Total invested? The final value? Each gives a wildly different answer, none correct.

XIRR solves this by treating every cash flow as a separate event, weighted by its date. Money invested earlier gets more time to compound; money invested later gets less. The XIRR is the single rate that makes the net present value of all flows equal zero.

The Math

CAGR = (FV / IV)1/years − 1

XIRR: Σ CFi / (1 + XIRR)(di − d0) / 365.25 = 0

Worked Example (the one in the calculator above)

Example: Five $1,000 annual investments (2020–2024), redeemed for $7,500 in April 2026. Naive CAGR using just first investment ($1,000) and final value ($7,500) over ~6 years = 40.05%. Reality: XIRR ≈ 13.4%. The 27% gap is the price of misreading your own portfolio.

Where Each Calculator Fits

CAGR Calculator — for your kid’s science fair: “Bought stock X at ₹100, sold at ₹250 after 5 years.”
XIRR Calculator — for your actual portfolio: SIPs, top-ups, dividends, partial redemptions.
IRR Calculator — for project evaluation with annual (regular) cash flows.
Stock Return Calculator — for a single buy → single sell with brokerage and dividends.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my brokerage app sometimes show different XIRR than this calculator?▾

Different platforms include/exclude unrealised gains, dividends, brokerage. Always check whether the displayed number is XIRR (whole portfolio) or CAGR (per-fund return). Both are useful, both differ.

Is XIRR the same as IRR?▾

Almost. IRR assumes equally-spaced (annual) cash flows; XIRR allows any dates. For SIPs and real-world portfolios, always use XIRR.

Why might XIRR fail or return strange numbers?▾

If all cash flows are the same sign (only investments, no returns) or if the sign changes multiple times unexpectedly, XIRR can fail to converge or have multiple solutions. Always include both negative (investment) and positive (return) flows.

Should I trust CAGR ever?▾

Only when there were no intermediate cash flows. The moment you make a second investment or take a partial withdrawal, CAGR is wrong.

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