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XIRR Calculator

Calculate the true annualised return of any investment with irregular cash flows — free, instant, no signup required.

XIRR Calculator

Enter each transaction below. Use positive amounts for investments (money going in) and negative amounts for redemptions (money coming out). The last row is typically your final redemption or current portfolio value (negative).

DateAmount (₹) — +ve invest / −ve redeem
XIRR (Annualised Return)
—
Total Invested
₹0
Total Redeemed
₹0
Net Gain / Loss
₹0

What is XIRR?

XIRR — Extended Internal Rate of Return — is a financial metric that calculates the annualised return of an investment when cash flows (deposits and withdrawals) occur at irregular, unequally spaced intervals. It is the most accurate way to measure the real return of any investment where money was added or withdrawn on different dates at different amounts.

In the context of Indian investing, XIRR is the standard metric used by mutual fund platforms, portfolio trackers, and SEBI-registered advisors to report the actual performance of a portfolio. When an AMC or platform shows you a "return" on your SIP or mutual fund investment, that number is almost always the XIRR.

Why XIRR Matters

Simple return metrics like absolute return or point-to-point CAGR fail when money was invested on multiple dates. Consider a SIP investor who invested ₹5,000 every month for 3 years: each instalment was invested on a different date, compounded for a different duration, and redeemed on the same final date. The simple average or CAGR of the total investment would be misleading because early investments had more time to compound than later ones. XIRR accounts for every transaction date and amount, giving a single annualised rate that makes all those different cash flows consistent — the internal rate at which the Net Present Value of all cash flows equals zero.

XIRR Formula Explained

XIRR finds the rate r that satisfies the following equation:

∑ [ Ci ÷ (1 + r)ti ] = 0

Where:
  Ci = Cash flow at transaction i (positive = investment, negative = redemption)
  ti = (Datei − Date0) ÷ 365 (years from first transaction)
  r = XIRR (the annualised return we are solving for)

Solved iteratively using Newton-Raphson method with an initial guess of r = 10%.

Because no closed-form algebraic solution exists, XIRR is solved numerically. This calculator uses the Newton-Raphson iterative method — the same algorithm used by Microsoft Excel's XIRR function — with a maximum of 100 iterations and a tolerance of 1e-7.

XIRR vs CAGR vs Absolute Return

  • Absolute Return: (Final Value − Total Invested) ÷ Total Invested × 100. The simplest metric but has no time dimension — a 50% absolute return over 1 year is very different from the same return over 10 years.
  • CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate): Measures annualised growth assuming a single lumpsum invested at the start and redeemed at the end. It is accurate only for a single cash flow — invest once, redeem once. It breaks down completely for SIPs or any multi-instalment investment.
  • XIRR: Handles any number of cash flows at any dates. It is the correct metric for SIPs, recurring deposits with irregular deposits, partial redemptions, and any real-world portfolio where money flowed in or out at different times. Always prefer XIRR when evaluating performance of a portfolio with multiple transactions.

When to Use XIRR

  • SIP investments: Monthly SIP instalments are invested on different dates; XIRR correctly accounts for the time each instalment was invested.
  • Portfolios with partial redemptions: If you withdrew some units mid-way, XIRR factors in those outflows in the return calculation.
  • Stock portfolios with multiple buy-sell transactions: Enter each buy as a positive cash flow and each sell as a negative cash flow, plus the current market value of remaining holdings as a final negative entry.
  • Real estate or business investments: Any investment where money went in on different dates and returns came back on different dates — XIRR is the right tool.
  • Comparing two portfolios: XIRR normalises returns to an annual basis regardless of timing, allowing fair comparison between two portfolios with different transaction histories.

How to Use This XIRR Calculator

  1. Enter each investment transaction: Type the date and enter a positive amount for money you put in (purchases, SIP instalments, top-ups).
  2. Enter each redemption transaction: Type the date and enter a negative amount for money you took out (partial redemptions, dividends received, final sale).
  3. The last row should be the current value: If you have not redeemed yet, add today's date with the current portfolio value as a negative number — this represents what you would receive if you sold today.
  4. Read the XIRR: The calculator will compute and display your annualised return. A positive XIRR means you have earned a return; a negative XIRR means the investment has lost value in annualised terms.

Advantages of Using XIRR for Return Measurement

  • Date-aware accuracy: Unlike CAGR, XIRR accounts for the exact date of every single transaction, giving a precise annualised return regardless of how irregular the cash flows are.
  • Universal comparability: By expressing returns as an annual percentage rate, XIRR lets you compare your mutual fund SIP with a fixed deposit, stock portfolio, or any other investment on a like-for-like basis.
  • Industry standard: XIRR is the metric used by AMFI, AMCs, SEBI-registered advisors, and portfolio analytics tools in India. Learning to interpret it puts you in sync with how the industry measures performance.
  • Handles complexity without extra effort: Whether you have 3 transactions or 300, XIRR collapses the entire history into a single meaningful number, making performance evaluation simple and actionable.

Frequently Asked Questions

IRR (Internal Rate of Return) assumes cash flows occur at equal, regular intervals — for example, exactly one year apart. XIRR is the extended version that works with cash flows occurring on any date, at irregular intervals. In practice, real-world investments rarely have perfectly spaced cash flows, so XIRR is almost always the more appropriate and accurate metric. Excel's IRR function requires evenly spaced periods, while XIRR accepts actual transaction dates — making XIRR far more useful for evaluating SIPs, mutual funds, and mixed portfolios.
What constitutes a "good" XIRR depends on the investment category and time horizon. For equity mutual funds in India, an XIRR of 12–15% over a 5+ year period is generally considered good and is in line with historical long-term returns of diversified equity funds. Large-cap funds targeting 10–12% XIRR over 7–10 years are considered healthy. For debt funds, an XIRR of 6–8% reflects normal performance. If your XIRR is significantly lower than the benchmark index return over the same period, you may want to review fund selection. Always compare your XIRR against the relevant benchmark, not an absolute target.
Yes. A negative XIRR means you redeemed less money in total (in present value terms) than you invested — i.e., the investment lost value after accounting for the time value of money. This can happen if you invested heavily at market peaks and redeemed early during a downturn, or if the underlying assets genuinely performed poorly. A negative XIRR does not necessarily mean a capital loss in absolute terms — it is possible to receive back more nominally than you invested but still have a negative XIRR if inflation and the time value of money eroded real returns. However, in most practical equity scenarios, a negative XIRR correlates with an absolute loss.
To calculate XIRR for a SIP: enter each monthly instalment as a positive cash flow on its actual investment date. For example, if you invested ₹5,000 on the 1st of every month for 3 years, add 36 rows — each with the specific date and amount ₹5,000. Then add one final row with today's date and the current value of the portfolio as a negative number (representing redemption). This calculator will then compute the XIRR across all those dated transactions. If you are still invested and have not redeemed, use the current NAV-based portfolio value as the "redemption" in the last row. The result is your annualised return since you started the SIP.