Free xirr calculator
See your true annualized return on a SIP, lump sum, or any portfolio with irregular cash flows. Enter each investment as a negative amount and money received as a positive amount, with the days between them — the calculator returns your XIRR (money-weighted annual return), total invested, total returned, and net gain — updated live, as you type.
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Estimates only, based on the values you enter. Not investment advice.
Results are estimates. Consult a professional.
What is XIRR?
XIRR — the Extended Internal Rate of Return — is the single annualized rate of return that ties together a series of investments and withdrawals made on different dates. It answers the question every investor actually cares about: across all my buying, selling, and the time my money was at work, what percentage did I really earn each year? Because XIRR accounts for both the size and the exact timing of every cash flow, it is the truest measure of your personal rate of return — the rate that, applied to each instalment, reproduces the value you ended up with. This XIRR calculator returns that figure the moment you enter your cash flows and the days between them.
The name says it all: XIRR extends the internal rate of return (IRR) to handle cash flows that are not evenly spaced. IRR assumes one neat period between each flow; XIRR uses the real calendar gap in days. That makes it the standard yardstick for mutual-fund SIPs, lump sums, and any portfolio where you add or withdraw money at irregular times.
Why XIRR is the right metric for SIPs and irregular investments
A Systematic Investment Plan (SIP) puts money in every month, so each instalment is invested for a different length of time. The instalment you paid three years ago has compounded far longer than the one you paid last month. A single point-to-point return cannot capture that — it treats your whole holding as one lump sum dropped in on day one, which it never was.
XIRR solves this by weighting every contribution and withdrawal by the exact time it stayed invested. It handles SIPs, lump-sum top-ups, partial redemptions, SWP withdrawals, dividends, and switches all in one number. As the fund houses put it, XIRR is your personal rate of return — your actual return on investment, not the fund's headline figure.
- SIP investments — monthly, fortnightly, or quarterly instalments, each invested for a different span of time.
- Lump sums plus top-ups — an initial investment followed by irregular additions whenever you had spare cash.
- Partial withdrawals and SWPs — money taken out on dates that do not line up with when it went in.
- Mixed portfolios — combining all of the above into one consolidated, money-weighted return.
How to calculate XIRR
There is no closed-form equation for XIRR — you cannot rearrange the formula to isolate the rate. Instead the rate is found by iteration: a computer tries a rate, checks whether the discounted cash flows sum to zero, and adjusts until they do. The calculator above does this instantly, but the four logical steps are worth knowing.
- List every cash flow with its date. Each investment is a negative amount (money leaving your pocket); each redemption or the final value is positive (money coming back).
- Measure the days from the first cash flow. The first date is day 0; every later flow is counted as the number of days after it, divided by 365 to express the gap in years.
- Discount each flow at a trial rate. Divide each cash flow by (1 + r) raised to its year fraction, then add them up.
- Solve for the rate that zeroes the sum. Adjust r — using Newton-Raphson, then bisection as a fallback — until the discounted flows net to zero. That rate is the XIRR.
A worked example using the XIRR calculator
Priya invests $10,000 into a mutual fund at the start of each of five consecutive months, then checks the value of her holding one year after her first instalment. It is worth $56,000. She has put in $50,000 in total, but each instalment was invested for a different length of time — so what is her real annualized return? Here is exactly what the calculator does.
Step 1 — Enter the cash flows with their days
Each $10,000 investment is a negative cash flow; the final $56,000 value is a single positive cash flow on day 365. The days are measured from the very first instalment, which sits at day 0.
| Date (days from start) | Cash flow | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | −$10,000 | First SIP instalment |
| Day 30 | −$10,000 | Second instalment |
| Day 60 | −$10,000 | Third instalment |
| Day 90 | −$10,000 | Fourth instalment |
| Day 120 | −$10,000 | Fifth instalment |
| Day 365 | +$56,000 | Value of the holding after one year |
Five investments totalling $50,000, then the year-end value of $56,000.
Step 2 — Let the calculator solve for the rate
A simple gain of $6,000 on $50,000 looks like 12%. But that ignores timing: most of Priya's money was invested for far less than a full year, so the rate it earned to reach $56,000 must be higher than 12%. The calculator iterates until the discounted cash flows net to zero.
XIRR vs CAGR vs IRR — which return should you use?
XIRR, CAGR, and IRR all express returns as an annual percentage, but they answer different questions and are not interchangeable. Using the wrong one is the most common way investors misread their own performance.
| CAGR | IRR | XIRR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for | A single lump sum, point to point | Evenly spaced cash flows | Irregular, multiple cash flows |
| Considers timing of each flow | No | Partly (assumes equal periods) | Yes — to the exact day |
| Handles SIPs / top-ups / withdrawals | No | Awkwardly | Yes |
| What it measures | Point-to-point growth | Period rate that zeroes NPV | Money-weighted personal return |
CAGR works for one lump sum; IRR assumes equal periods; XIRR handles real-world dated cash flows.
CAGR — the compound annual growth rate — is perfect when you invest once and check the value later; it is calculated as (ending ÷ beginning)^(1 ÷ years) − 1. But CAGR assumes a single investment at the start, so it distorts the return on any SIP. IRR extends this to multiple cash flows but assumes they are evenly spaced, which real investing rarely is. XIRR removes that assumption by using the actual dates — which is why it is the metric fund platforms report for portfolios with staggered transactions.
In short: use the CAGR calculator for a lump sum held from one date to another, the IRR calculator for equally spaced project cash flows, and this XIRR calculator whenever your investments and withdrawals land on irregular dates.
How to calculate XIRR in Excel and Google Sheets
Both Excel and Google Sheets have a built-in XIRR function, and the syntax is identical:
- Put each cash flow in one column. Enter investments as negative numbers and redemptions (or the current value) as positive numbers.
- Put the matching dates in the next column, as real dates — one date per cash flow, in any order.
- In an empty cell, type
=XIRR(values, dates)and select the two ranges. - Format the result as a percentage. That figure is your annualized XIRR.
What is a good XIRR?
There is no single fixed benchmark for a good XIRR — it depends on the asset class, the fund, and the market conditions over your holding period. A good XIRR is one that beats the relevant benchmark or the average return of similar investments, and that comfortably outpaces inflation so your money grows in real terms.
As rough context only, long-run equity mutual funds have historically delivered XIRRs in the low-to-mid teens over full market cycles, while debt funds sit lower, in line with prevailing interest rates. The honest comparison is always against the right yardstick: an equity fund's XIRR should be measured against an equity index, not against a savings account. And a high XIRR over a few months means little — money-weighted returns on short, lucky windows can look spectacular and vanish just as fast.
Limitations of XIRR
XIRR is the most accurate everyday measure of personal returns, but it is not infallible. Knowing where it strains keeps you from over-trusting a single percentage.
- It needs a sign change. With no outflow-and-inflow pair, there is no rate that balances the equation and XIRR is undefined.
- It can be unstable over very short windows. A few weeks of data can produce wildly high or low annualized figures that are not meaningful.
- It assumes reinvestment at the same rate. Like all IRR-family measures, it implicitly assumes interim cash flows are reinvested at the XIRR itself, which may not hold.
- Unusual cash-flow patterns can yield multiple solutions. Streams that switch sign several times can technically have more than one mathematically valid rate.
For most investors none of this is a problem: a normal SIP or lump-sum-plus-redemptions pattern has exactly one sensible answer, and that is what the calculator returns. Use XIRR for the full life of an investment rather than tiny slices, and it will tell you, faithfully, what you actually earned per year.
Methodology and sources
This calculator solves the standard XIRR equation — Σ CF_i / (1 + r)^((d_i − d_0) / 365) = 0 — for the annual rate r, using Newton-Raphson iteration with a bisection fallback for hard cases. It is the same calculation as the XIRR function in Excel and Google Sheets, and the money-weighted return that mutual-fund platforms report for portfolios with irregular cash flows. Investments are entered as negative cash flows and redemptions (or the current value) as positive cash flows, each paired with the number of days from the first transaction. Figures are estimates based on the inputs you enter and are not investment advice.
Microsoft Support — XIRR function (definition and syntax).Frequently asked questions about the free xirr calculator
About this XIRR calculator
This XIRR calculator runs entirely in your browser. Every figure you enter stays on your device — nothing is sent to a server, logged, or shared. It solves the standard XIRR equation for the annual rate that sets the time-weighted net present value of your dated cash flows to zero — using Newton-Raphson with a bisection fallback — and reports your total invested, total returned, and net gain, updating instantly as you type.
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