Goal Planning
· Last reviewed July 2026Inflation Calculator
Calculate how much an expense will cost in the future due to inflation in India. See how ₹1 lakh today compares to its value in 10, 20, or 30 years. Free online inflation impact calculator.
Future Cost in 20 Years
₹3.2 Lac
At 6% annual inflation
Purchasing Power Loss
68.8%
Equivalent Cost Increase
₹2.2 Lac
💡 Today's ₹1 lakh will have the purchasing power of ₹31,180 in 20 years at 6% inflation.
Purchasing Power of ₹1 Lakh Over Time
How much today's ₹1 lakh will be worth in future rupees
Get this calculated on your actual portfolio
Inflation-adjusted goal planning is built into FundSageAI — upload your portfolio to see if your investments are beating inflation over time.
What is Inflation Calculator?
The Inflation Calculator shows you the future cost of any expense due to the compounding effect of price inflation over time. In India, CPI inflation averages 5–6% annually over the long term. This means ₹1 lakh today will only be worth ₹74,000 in 5 years and ₹55,000 in 10 years in terms of what it can buy. For financial planning, this is critical — your investment returns must exceed inflation for you to actually grow richer. The calculator also shows 'real purchasing power': what ₹1 lakh of today's money will be worth in N years.
How to use this tool
Enter the current cost of an item or monthly expense (e.g., ₹1 lakh for a college semester fee today).
Set the Inflation Rate — India's historical CPI inflation is 5–6%; education/healthcare inflation is 10–12%.
Set the number of Years — how far into the future you want to project.
Read the Future Cost, Purchasing Power Loss %, and the year-by-year erosion chart.
The Formula
Future Value = Current Amount × (1 + Inflation Rate%)^Years Purchasing Power of ₹1 lakh = ₹1,00,000 / (1 + Inflation Rate%)^Years Example at 6% for 20 years: Future Cost = ₹1,00,000 × (1.06)^20 = ₹3,20,714 Purchasing Power = ₹1,00,000 / 3.207 = ₹31,180
Key Terms
- Inflation
- The rate at which the general price level of goods and services rises over time, reducing the purchasing power of money.
- CPI
- Consumer Price Index — India's primary inflation measure, tracking the price change of a fixed basket of goods and services consumed by urban/rural households.
- Real Return
- Investment return after subtracting inflation. Real Return ≈ Nominal Return - Inflation. If a fund returns 12% and inflation is 6%, the real return is ~6%.
- Purchasing Power
- The quantity of goods or services that a unit of money (₹1, ₹1 lakh) can buy. Inflation reduces purchasing power over time.
Key Benefits
- ✓Understand the real cost of future financial goals in today's rupees vs future rupees.
- ✓Avoid under-planning retirement and education goals by ignoring inflation.
- ✓See how investments that beat inflation (equity 12%) vs those that don't (savings account 4%) compare.
- ✓Useful for every goal: child's education, wedding, home purchase, and medical emergency funds.
Practical Example
Current monthly expense: ₹60,000 Inflation rate: 6% Years: 20 Future monthly expense: ₹1,92,428 Purchasing power loss: 68.8% Your ₹1 lakh today = only ₹31,180 in 20 years → Investments must return >6% just to break even
FundSageAI Dashboard
Do more with your real portfolio data
- 1Real return vs inflation comparison per fund
- 2Inflation-adjusted portfolio growth chart
- 3Goal corpus adjusted for future price levels
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