CAGR Calculator

What this calculator answers

It finds the steady yearly growth rate that would take a value from where it started to where it ended. That rate is the compound annual growth rate, or CAGR. It works for anything measured at two points in time: an investment, a company’s revenue, a customer count, a price. The calculator also runs the formula in reverse, finding the ending value, the starting value or the years needed from a rate, and it compares the CAGR with the plain average of year-by-year changes when you have every year’s figure.

How to use it

Choose what to find, then fill in the fields that appear:

• CAGR from a start and end value: the starting value, the ending value and the period between them. Values can be in any unit, as long as both use the same one: 1,250,000, $1,250,000 and 1250000 all work.
• CAGR from yearly values: one value per line, oldest first. A year in front of each value is optional (2020 1,250,000), and you can paste one or two columns from a spreadsheet or the lines of a CSV file (2020,1250000). Six values cover five years of growth.
• Ending value or starting value from a growth rate: the value you know, the yearly rate in percent (type 7 for 7%) and the period.
• Time to reach a value: the starting value, the target and the yearly rate.

The period is either years and months (a blank box counts as 0) or a start date and an end date. An optional inflation rate adds the growth after inflation.

Results update as you type. The Try buttons load an investment that doubled in 7 years, a growth rate between two calendar dates, a rise of 40% followed by a fall of 40%, and $10,000 grown at 7% for 10 years. The “what if” table under the results repeats the calculation with the period one and two years shorter or longer, or with the rate one and two points lower or higher. To compare two investments or two periods, press Save for comparison, change the inputs and save again.

How to calculate CAGR

Divide the ending value by the starting value, raise the result to the power of 1 divided by the number of years, then subtract 1:

$$\text{CAGR} = \left(\frac{E}{B}\right)^{1/t} - 1$$

• $E$ is the ending value and $B$ the starting value, in the same unit.
• $t$ is the period in years: months ÷ 12, or the days between two dates ÷ 365.25.
• The result is a yearly rate; multiply by 100 for a percentage.

The same relation, rearranged, gives the other three answers, with $r$ the yearly rate as a decimal:

$$E = B\,(1 + r)^{t} \qquad B = \frac{E}{(1 + r)^{t}} \qquad t = \frac{\ln(E / B)}{\ln(1 + r)}$$

Worked example: revenue from 1,250,000 to 2,375,000 in 5 years

A company’s revenue was 1,250,000 in its 2020 fiscal year and 2,375,000 in 2025, five years later.

1. Growth multiple: 2,375,000 ÷ 1,250,000 = 1.9, a total growth of 90%.
2. Fifth root: 1.9^(1 ÷ 5) = 1.136974.
3. CAGR: 1.136974 − 1 = 0.136974, or 13.70% a year.

Growing at exactly 13.70% a year, revenue would have been 1,421,218.11 after one year, 1,615,888.74 after two, 1,837,224.27 after three and 2,088,877.12 after four, reaching 2,375,000 in year five. At that rate a value doubles in 5.40 years; the rule of 72 estimates 72 ÷ 13.70 = 5.26 years. With 3% inflation a year, the real CAGR is 1.136974 ÷ 1.03 − 1 = 10.39%.

The same 90% growth spread over a different number of years gives a very different CAGR: 23.86% over 3 years, 17.41% over 4, 11.29% over 6 and 9.60% over 7. The number of years moves the answer as much as the values do.

CAGR between two dates or for part of a year

With dates, the period in years is the number of days between them divided by 365.25, a year that counts one leap day in every four. An investment worth 10,000 on June 14, 2019 and 16,480 on March 2, 2026 was held for 2,453 days, or 2,453 ÷ 365.25 = 6.715948 years. Its total growth is 64.80%, and its CAGR is 1.648^(1 ÷ 6.715948) − 1 = 7.72% a year. The year-by-year table then lists the value on each anniversary of the start date.

For less than a year, the CAGR stretches a short-term change to a full year as if it would continue at the same pace. A value that rises 12% in 9 months has a CAGR of 1.12^(12 ÷ 9) − 1 = 16.31%, even though it only gained 12%. The calculator shows a warning for any period under a year; for such periods the total growth is often the clearer figure to quote.

CAGR vs. average annual return

The CAGR is always at or below the simple average of the yearly changes, and the two are equal only when every year changes by the same percentage. Averaging percentages ignores that each year’s change applies to a different base.

With the example company’s yearly revenue (1,250,000, 1,410,000, 1,380,000, 1,720,000, 2,050,000 and 2,375,000), the yearly changes are +12.80%, -2.13%, +24.64%, +19.19% and +15.85%. Their average is 14.07%, which is 0.37 percentage points above the 13.70% CAGR. Growing at 14.07% a year would have produced 2,414,160.72, not the 2,375,000 actually reached.

The gap widens as the changes swing more. A value that rises 40% from 100 to 140 and then falls 40% to 84 has an average change of 0.00%, yet it lost money: its CAGR is -8.35% a year. Choose CAGR from yearly values (or the “Up 40%, down 40%” button) to see both figures, the yearly changes and the steady path side by side.

CAGR vs. IRR when money was added or withdrawn

The CAGR uses only the first and last values, so it can’t tell growth apart from money you put in or took out. If an account grew from 10,000 to 20,000 because you deposited 8,000 along the way, the 10,000 increase is mostly your own money, but the CAGR treats all of it as growth.

When there were deposits or withdrawals, use a money-weighted return instead: the internal rate of return (IRR) finds the one rate at which the dated amounts you put in and took out balance the final value. Spreadsheets call the dated version XIRR. An NPV and IRR calculator or a dollar-cost averaging calculator handles those cash flows.

How to calculate CAGR in Excel or Google Sheets

The power formula works in any spreadsheet. With the numbers from this page:

• CAGR over whole years (13.70%): =(2375000/1250000)^(1/5)-1. Excel’s RRI function gives the same rate: =RRI(5,1250000,2375000).
• CAGR between two dates (7.72%): =(16480/10000)^(1/((DATE(2026,3,2)-DATE(2019,6,14))/365.25))-1. Subtracting two dates gives the days between them.
• Ending value from a rate (19,671.51 from 10,000 at 7% for 10 years): =10000*(1+0.07)^10.
• Years to reach a target (9.49 years from 1,250,000 to 2,375,000 at 7%): =LN(2375000/1250000)/LN(1+0.07). Excel’s =PDURATION(0.07,1250000,2375000) gives the same, but only for positive rates.

Under the results, the last line of “How this was calculated” is the formula for your own numbers, ready to paste.

When CAGR can’t be calculated

A growth rate compares a positive starting value with the ending value. Instead of an error, the calculator names the case and gives the change you can still use:

• Ending value of 0: everything was lost, so the CAGR is -100% whatever the period.
• Starting value of 0: any ending value is an unlimited multiple of 0, so no percentage describes the growth. Measure from the first year with a positive value, or quote the change in value.
• Negative starting value, such as a net loss: the ratio misleads. Going from -100 to -50 is an improvement but gives a ratio of 0.5.
• Value turning negative (positive start, negative end): no steady rate can change the sign of a value.

In each case the result shows the total change and a straight-line change per year, the total change divided by the years.

Reading the result

• CAGR is the headline, with the values and period restated under it.
• Total growth is the whole change as a percentage of the starting value, and the growth multiple is ending ÷ starting value. A multiple of 1.9 is growth of 90%.
• Doubling time is how long a value takes to double at this rate, with the rule-of-72 estimate beside it. A negative CAGR shows the halving time instead.
• Real CAGR and real total growth appear when you enter inflation. They measure growth in buying power, as if every value had been restated in the prices of the starting date.
• The chart and the year-by-year table show the smoothed path: where the value would have been each year at the steady rate. With dates, each row is an anniversary of the start date. They are not the actual yearly values, unless you entered those.
• The “what if” table shows how much the answer depends on the period or the rate. For a CAGR, it keeps your two values and changes only the number of years.

Assumptions and limitations

• The CAGR assumes one steady rate compounded once a year. It says nothing about how bumpy the path was.
• Deposits, withdrawals and other money moved in or out are treated as growth. Use an IRR in that case.
• Dates are converted to years as days ÷ 365.25; dividing by 365 gives a slightly different rate for the same dates.
• Dividends, fees and taxes count only if they are already in the values you enter.
• Past growth is not a forecast. A CAGR describes what happened, or what would happen at an assumed rate. This is an educational calculation, not investment advice.

Common mistakes

• Counting values instead of years. Revenue for 2020 through 2025 is six numbers but five years of growth. Using 6 here would give 11.29% instead of 13.70%.
• Entering months as years. A period of 18 months is 1.5 years, not 18.
• Quoting a CAGR for a few months. A 12% gain over 9 months becomes 16.31% a year when annualized; say what the period was.
• Treating the average of yearly returns as the growth rate. It overstates what a value actually compounded to, as the -8.35% example shows.
• Calling a total change a yearly rate. A 90% rise over 5 years is 13.70% a year, not 18% (90 ÷ 5), because each year’s growth builds on the last.
• Comparing a nominal CAGR with a real one. Enter the same inflation rate for both, or for neither.