Inflation Calculator
See how inflation erodes purchasing power — project future cost of an item, or find the present-day value of a future/past amount. Free to use.
Inflation Calculator
An inflation calculator computes either the future cost of something at today's price after a number of years of inflation, or the present-day equivalent value of a future amount.
Future cost = Today's cost × (1 + inflation rate)^years; equivalently, present value = Future amount ÷ (1 + inflation rate)^years.
Input: ₹50,000 today, 20 years, 6% annual inflation
Result: Equivalent future cost ≈ ₹1.60 lakh
What inflation rate should I use?
India's long-term CPI inflation has historically averaged roughly 5-7%; use a higher rate for categories like education or healthcare, which have historically outpaced headline inflation.
Why does this matter for retirement planning?
A retirement corpus must grow faster than inflation erodes purchasing power — see the Retirement Corpus and FIRE calculators, which build inflation into the target corpus.
Inflation Calculator: how it works
An inflation calculator adjusts an amount for the erosion of purchasing power over time, in either direction.
Formula
Future cost = present cost × (1 + inflation)^n; present value = future amount ÷ (1 + inflation)^n.