Inflation Calculator

A household budget, 20 years on

Say a couple in Nagpur spend ₹40,000 a month today on rent, food, school fees, fuel and the rest. If prices rise 6% a year, the same month will cost 40,000 × 1.06²⁰, which is about ₹1,28,285, by the time they are thinking about retirement. A plan that assumes ₹40,000 a month in retirement would cover less than a third of their actual spending.

Note that 6% for 20 years is not a 120% rise. Each year's increase lands on the previous year's higher price, so the total is about 221%. Over 10 years, 6% a year adds 79%, not 60%.

College fees for a child who is three today

Fees often rise at their own pace, so work out that pace from what you can see. If a college's yearly fee went from ₹60,000 to ₹80,000 over five years, its own inflation is (80,000 ÷ 60,000)^1/5 − 1, about 5.9% a year. Use that figure in the calculator rather than a general one.

For a course that costs ₹25 lakh in total today, with fees rising 8% a year, the bill in 15 years is about ₹79.3 lakh. That's the number a savings plan has to reach, not ₹25 lakh.

A ₹1 crore payout promised in 25 years

Switch the calculator to "today's value". At 6% inflation, ₹1 crore received 25 years from now buys what about ₹23,29,986 buys today. It's still a useful sum, but less than a quarter of the headline. Bring any long-dated promise back to today's rupees before you compare it with what you pay in.

₹5 lakh in a 7% deposit

With inflation at 6%, the deposit's real return is 1.07 ÷ 1.06 − 1, about 0.94% a year. In 10 years the ₹5 lakh becomes about ₹9,83,576, which buys roughly what ₹5,49,224 buys today.

Now suppose the interest is taxed at 30%. The return after tax is 4.9%, and the real return turns negative: about −1.04% a year. The balance still climbs to about ₹8,06,724, yet it buys only what ₹4,50,470 buys today. Type your own deposit rate in the optional return box to see where you stand. Our guide to FD vs RD vs SIP goes through the trade-off between safety and beating inflation; it doesn't recommend any product.

Picking an inflation rate

As of November 2026, the government has set the RBI's target for consumer price inflation at 4%, with a tolerance band of 2% to 6%, for April 2026 to March 2031. That's a goal, not a forecast. For long goals many people plan with something near the top of the band, such as 6%, and then check the plan still works at 8%. For a single cost with its own history, such as school fees or rent, use that history instead.

Prices double in roughly 72 ÷ the inflation rate years: about 17.7 years at 4%, 11.9 at 6% and 9 at 8%. The calculator assumes one steady rate, which real prices never follow, so use it to size a goal and test a plan rather than to predict what anything will cost.