Step-up SIP calculator
A ₹5,000 SIP raised 10% a year for 20 years reaches ₹99,44,358, against ₹49,95,740 if you never touched it — roughly ₹49.49 L more, for a first instalment that is identical. This calculator shows both paths side by side.
Your step-up SIP
What leaves your bank account every month. Type any amount — the slider is just a shortcut.
Raise your SIP by this much every 12 months — usually pegged to your salary hike.
An assumption, not a promise. Equity funds are usually modelled at 10–12%; see what rate to assume.
Stepping up against standing still
What you investWhat compounding adds
| Year | Monthly | Invested so far | Returns | Value at year end |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹5,000 | ₹60,000 | ₹4,047 | ₹64,047 |
| 2 | ₹5,500 | ₹1,26,000 | ₹16,621 | ₹1,42,621 |
| 3 | ₹6,050 | ₹1,98,600 | ₹39,605 | ₹2,38,205 |
| 4 | ₹6,655 | ₹2,78,460 | ₹75,201 | ₹3,53,661 |
| 5 | ₹7,321 | ₹3,66,306 | ₹1,25,979 | ₹4,92,285 |
| 6 | ₹8,053 | ₹4,62,937 | ₹1,94,930 | ₹6,57,867 |
| 7 | ₹8,858 | ₹5,69,230 | ₹2,85,533 | ₹8,54,764 |
| 8 | ₹9,744 | ₹6,86,153 | ₹4,01,824 | ₹10,87,978 |
| 9 | ₹10,718 | ₹8,14,769 | ₹5,48,482 | ₹13,63,250 |
| 10 | ₹11,790 | ₹9,56,245 | ₹7,30,918 | ₹16,87,163 |
| 11 | ₹12,969 | ₹11,11,870 | ₹9,55,388 | ₹20,67,258 |
| 12 | ₹14,266 | ₹12,83,057 | ₹12,29,114 | ₹25,12,171 |
| 13 | ₹15,692 | ₹14,71,363 | ₹15,60,420 | ₹30,31,783 |
| 14 | ₹17,261 | ₹16,78,499 | ₹19,58,896 | ₹36,37,395 |
| 15 | ₹18,987 | ₹19,06,349 | ₹24,35,576 | ₹43,41,925 |
| 16 | ₹20,886 | ₹21,56,984 | ₹30,03,144 | ₹51,60,128 |
| 17 | ₹22,975 | ₹24,32,682 | ₹36,76,172 | ₹61,08,854 |
| 18 | ₹25,272 | ₹27,35,950 | ₹44,71,381 | ₹72,07,332 |
| 19 | ₹27,800 | ₹30,69,545 | ₹54,07,950 | ₹84,77,496 |
| 20 | ₹30,580 | ₹34,36,500 | ₹65,07,858 | ₹99,44,358 |
Why a rising instalment beats a bigger starting one
A flat SIP has a hidden assumption baked into it: that the amount you could spare in your first year is the amount you should invest for the next twenty. Almost nobody's income works that way.
A step-up instruction raises the instalment by a set percentage every twelve months, usually pegged to a salary review. The effect is larger than people expect, for a reason that is easy to miss: the increases arrive early enough to compound. A 10% rise in year two gets eighteen more years of growth. The same money added in year nineteen gets one.
That is also why "I'll invest more later, once I'm earning properly" is such an expensive plan. Later is precisely when extra money is worth least.
The honest caveat
A step-up comparison flatters itself, and it is worth being explicit about why: you are also investing more money. In the reference case above, the step-up path puts in ₹34.36 L against ₹12 L for the flat one. Of course it ends up with more.
The interesting question is not "does more money produce more money" — it does — but whether the step-up is efficient. It is: the extra rupees earn returns for longer than the same rupees would if you waited and invested a larger amount later. The year-by-year table below shows exactly where the divergence starts.
Worth setting the step-up to 0% once, to see the flat baseline, then back to your real number.
What step-up percentage is realistic?
- 5% — roughly keeps pace with inflation. Your real commitment stays flat rather than shrinking. This is the floor, not an ambition.
- 10% — the common default, and roughly a typical Indian salary increment. This is the setting most people should model first.
- 15–20% — realistic in the early career years when increments are large, but do not project it across twenty years. Compounded, a 20% annual rise makes the final instalment absurd — check the "instalment in the final year" figure before you believe the total.
That last figure exists to keep the projection honest. If year twenty's instalment is more than your plausible income, the plan is fiction.
Before you rely on this
An estimate, not a forecast
This is arithmetic applied to assumptions you chose. Mutual funds carry market risk, returns are not guaranteed, and past performance does not indicate future results. Nothing here is personalised advice — for decisions of any size, speak to a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Questions people actually ask
What is a step-up or top-up SIP?
A standing instruction that increases your SIP instalment automatically at a fixed interval — normally once a year — by either a percentage or a fixed rupee amount. Most Indian fund platforms and registrars support it under the name "top-up SIP" or "step-up SIP".
If yours does not, the manual version works identically: start a second SIP each year for the increment, or cancel and restart at the higher amount.
Is a step-up SIP better than just starting with a larger amount?
If you can genuinely afford the larger amount from day one, that is better — money invested earlier always wins. But that is rarely the real choice.
The real choice is between a large instalment you might abandon in month eight and a smaller one that grows as you do. A cancelled SIP compounds nothing, so the sustainable option usually wins in practice even when it loses on the spreadsheet.
Should the step-up match inflation or my salary?
Inflation is the minimum that stops your real contribution shrinking. Your salary increment is the target that actually builds wealth, because it captures the part of your rising income that is not consumed by rising prices.
A practical rule: raise the SIP by your increment percentage, and treat anything above inflation as the part doing real work.
Can I stop the step-up later if money gets tight?
Yes. A top-up instruction can normally be cancelled or paused without disturbing the underlying SIP, which continues at whatever instalment it had reached.
That asymmetry is worth knowing when you set it up: the downside of being ambitious is a phone call, while the downside of being timid is compounding you never get back.
Does the calculator raise the amount monthly or yearly?
Yearly, on the twelfth-month anniversary — which is how real top-up mandates behave. So in year one you pay your starting instalment twelve times, then it rises.
Some calculators apply the increase monthly, which quietly inflates the result. The exact loop this page uses is written out on the methodology page.