Online XIRR Calculator with unlimited cash flow entries

I use XIRR to calculate the effective return on my investments, such as chit funds, LIC policies, mutual funds, and other assets where irregular cash flows occur over a specific period. While Microsoft Excel is often the go-to for calculating XIRR (Extended Internal Rate of Return), it’s not always the easiest tool to use — especially if you’re new to it. You have to install the software, set up the data in cells, select it, and then apply the XIRR formula carefully to get your result.

Here’s an online XIRR calculator that makes this tedious process easy. Even if you’re not tech-savvy, you can use this tool to calculate the XIRR of your investments. Moreover, it also offers offline storage, meaning your data stays saved in your browser unless you clear the cache. Plus, if needed, you can generate a PDF report that includes all your cash flows and the XIRR result.

What is XIRR?

In our SIP calculator, we assume a regular flow of investments on a monthly basis, which is true for SIP investments. It’s easy to calculate the return on SIPs in mutual funds if the investor is disciplined and makes a consistent effort to maintain the pattern. But is that possible always? Consider a case where there are multiple mutual fund investments in a month, withdrawals in between, and no investments for a particular period—how do you estimate the return in this case? We can use the XIRR formula to calculate it in Microsoft Excel or simply input cashflow in a web-based online XIRR calculator like ours.

The XIRR formula is specifically designed to handle cash flows of uneven amounts, it can also take account of the exact date of each transaction. This makes XIRR ideal for calculating real returns, as the timing plays an important role in accuracy of results. For example, if you invest ₹100 each month, but on different dates over 12 months, the first ₹100 has a full 12 months to grow, while the last ₹100, made later in the year, has only one month or less to to grow. CAGR doesn’t account for this difference, and IRR doesn’t accommodate varying dates. Therefore, XIRR is the most accurate method for calculating returns in scenarios with irregular cash flows and timings.

How do we use XIRR formula to calculate the return?

There isn’t an explicit formula for calculating XIRR and most financial tools, whether it’s Google sheets or Excel, use an iterative method, often based on the Newton-Raphson algorithm to estimate it. The general mathematical representation is as follows:

[math] 0 = \sum_{i=0}^{n} \frac{C_i}{(1 + XIRR)^{\frac{d_i – d_0}{365}}} [/math].

In Excel, you can use the built-in [=XIRR(cash_flows, dates, [guess])] function to calculate XIRR, Although the actual calculation of the entered data given in the cells happens in the background using an iteration formula as given above. For example, =XIRR( A1:A5, B1:B5, 0.1) calculates the XIRR based on the cash flows in cells A1 to A5 and the corresponding dates in cells B1 to B5, with an initial guess of 10%.

Real-life applications of XIRR Calculator

Most of investments I will list a few situations where I use XIRR regularly to estimate the net effective rate of return.

Calculating a Chit fund’s interest rate or return

In the initial phases of a chit, higher bids by the bidders result in larger dividends being distributed among the participants. As members bid for the chit early, the winning bidder forego a larger portion of the prize amount in exchange for receiving the fund earlier, leaving the remaining amount as a dividend to be shared by the rest of the group. This sharing reduces the monthly payments for other members, during the early stages of the Chit fund. Calculating the returns on such an investment, which involves varying payments, deduction of commissions, and sudden and early payout, is complex. An XIRR calculator can help you determine the overall return of Chit investment by accounting for the varying contributions and payouts.