PPF calculator
What does a PPF account mature to, and does it beat an FD once tax is paid?
₹500 to ₹1.5 L a year. Deposit before the 5th of April and the whole year earns interest.
Re-declared every quarter. 7.1% is the FY 2024-25 rate.
Extensions come in 5-year blocks, with or without fresh deposits. This assumes you keep depositing.
₹40,68,208after 15 years
- You deposit
- ₹22,50,000
- Interest, tax-free
- ₹18,18,208
- The same money in an FD
- ₹33,89,991
- You can withdraw from year 7
- ₹2,58,489
7.1% is the FY 2024-25 rate — the Finance Ministry re-declares it every quarter. The deposit is assumed made at the start of the year; a real account pays on the lowest balance between the 5th and the month's end, so depositing later earns less. The FD comparison and the ₹6.8 L of 80C relief both assume the 30% slab.
- Deposited
- Interest
| Year | Deposited | Interest | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₹1,50,000 | ₹10,650 | ₹1,60,650 |
| 2 | ₹3,00,000 | ₹32,706 | ₹3,32,706 |
| 3 | ₹4,50,000 | ₹66,978 | ₹5,16,978 |
| 4 | ₹6,00,000 | ₹1,14,333 | ₹7,14,333 |
| 5 | ₹7,50,000 | ₹1,75,701 | ₹9,25,701 |
| 6 | ₹9,00,000 | ₹2,52,076 | ₹11,52,076 |
| 7 | ₹10,50,000 | ₹3,44,523 | ₹13,94,523 |
| 8 | ₹12,00,000 | ₹4,54,184 | ₹16,54,184 |
| 9 | ₹13,50,000 | ₹5,82,281 | ₹19,32,281 |
| 10 | ₹15,00,000 | ₹7,30,123 | ₹22,30,123 |
| 11 | ₹16,50,000 | ₹8,99,112 | ₹25,49,112 |
| 12 | ₹18,00,000 | ₹10,90,749 | ₹28,90,749 |
| 13 | ₹19,50,000 | ₹13,06,642 | ₹32,56,642 |
| 14 | ₹21,00,000 | ₹15,48,514 | ₹36,48,514 |
| 15 | ₹22,50,000 | ₹18,18,208 | ₹40,68,208 |
A PPF account is a 15-year deposit with the government where the interest is not taxed, and the two questions people actually arrive with are "how much will I have at the end" and "is it worth locking money up for fifteen years instead of putting it in a fixed deposit". Set what you can put in each year, the rate currently declared, and what you intend to do when the 15 years are up, and this gives you the maturity figure, how much of it is interest rather than your own money, and the same deposits in an FD after a top-slab taxpayer has paid tax on every year's interest.
A worked example
The full annual limit, ₹1,50,000 a year, at 7.1%, and closing the account at the end of the 15 years. Those are the three fields above, and the page returns:
- ₹40,68,208 at maturity
- ₹22,50,000 of it is your own deposits — fifteen payments of ₹1,50,000
- ₹18,18,208 is interest, and none of it is taxed
- the same deposits in an FD at the same rate, with the interest taxed at 30% every year, come to ₹33,89,991
- ₹22,50,000 What you deposited
- ₹18,18,208 Interest, untaxed
Interest is 44.7% of the ₹40,68,208 you walk away with.
The interesting thing is where the two halves cross. In year one the account earns ₹10,650 — less than a month’s deposit. By year 11 the interest credited (₹1,68,989) is larger than the ₹1,50,000 you put in that year, and in the final year the account earns ₹2,69,694 while you still pay in ₹1,50,000. That is the whole case for opening one early and never missing a year: the last five years of a PPF do more than the first ten.
Extending is where the money is
Same deposit, same rate, the four choices in the last field. Each extension block is five more years of ₹1,50,000 — and of compounding on a balance that is already large.
The first extension adds ₹7,50,000 of deposits and ₹25,90,079 to the maturity.
What this figure does not account for
The rate is not fixed for fifteen years
A PPF is not a fixed deposit — the Finance Ministry re-declares small-savings rates by notification every quarter, and the account earns whatever is declared, not what it was earning when you opened it. This page holds one rate flat for the whole term, which no real account has ever done. Run it half a point either side to see the range you are actually in.
The 15 years start later than you think
Maturity is 15 years from the end of the financial year in which the account was opened, not 15 years from the day you opened it. An account opened in January therefore runs about fifteen years and three months. Every row here is an account year, so the calendar dates on your passbook will sit a few months later than the table suggests.
The FD comparison is deliberately harsh, and also generous
It taxes the FD interest at 30% every year — right for a top-slab taxpayer, wrong if you are in the 5% or 20% slab, where the gap narrows sharply. But it also gives the FD the same 7.1%, and bank FDs frequently pay more than PPF. It is a like-for-like on tax treatment, not a forecast of which product wins.
The withdrawal figure is one specific year
The "you can withdraw from year 7" number is half the balance at the end of year 3, because that is the fourth year preceding year 7. It does not grow as you move up the table — the actual cap for a withdrawal in year 12 is set by year 8. Read it as an illustration of the rule, not a running allowance.
The 80C relief is a ceiling
Any tax saving on the money going in assumes the old regime, the 30% slab, no cess, and that your ₹1,50,000 of 80C room is not already used up by EPF, term insurance premiums, a home loan principal or school fees. For most salaried people EPF alone eats a large part of it, so the marginal PPF deposit saves nothing.
It assumes you never miss a year
Fifteen uninterrupted deposits at the ceiling. A year skipped is not just a missing ₹1,50,000 — it is a missing ₹1,50,000 compounding for the remaining term, and if the year fell under ₹500 the account was discontinued and needs reviving before it earns again.
PPF against the obvious alternatives
| PPF | Bank FD | ELSS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lock-in | 15 years | Your choice | 3 years |
| Return | Declared quarterly | Fixed when you book it | Market-linked |
| Tax on the growth | Exempt | Slab rate, every year | LTCG on redemption |
| TDS | None | Yes, above the 194A threshold | None |
| Deduction going in | 80C, old regime only | Only the 5-year tax-saver | 80C, old regime only |
| Getting at it early | Year 7, capped | Anytime, penalty | After 3 years |
Ratings are about certainty and tax, not about which is the better investment — that depends on the years you have.
Drawn to scale against a 30-year account. Nothing before year 3 is available at all.
Where to go next
Before you decide PPF is where the money goes, check what your 80C room already looks like — the EPF calculator shows how much of the ₹1,50,000 your salary is filling on its own every month. If you are choosing between locking money up and keeping it liquid, run the same deposits through the FD calculator at a real bank rate rather than PPF’s. And if the account is for a daughter under ten, the Sukanya Samriddhi calculator covers the scheme built for exactly that and usually declared at a higher rate than PPF.
How much can I put into PPF in a year?
Between ₹500 and ₹1,50,000 in a financial year, and the ceiling is per person, not per account — the PPF Scheme, 2019 counts your own account and any account you run for a minor together, so a parent depositing the full amount in a child's account has used up their own room too. Fall below ₹500 in a year and the account is treated as discontinued until you revive it by paying the arrears plus the default fee the scheme rules set.
Does depositing in April really earn more than depositing in March?
Yes, and it is the single easiest thing to get right. Interest is calculated on the lowest balance in the account between the close of the fifth day of a month and the last day of that month, so money that lands on the 5th of April earns for all twelve months while the same money paid in March earns for none of that year. This calculator assumes the whole year's deposit is in at the start, so it shows you the best case — depositing later in the year will come out lower.
Can I take money out before 15 years?
Partly. From the seventh year you may make one withdrawal a financial year, capped at 50% of the balance at the end of the fourth year preceding the withdrawal, or 50% of the balance at the end of the previous year, whichever is lower. In years three to six you can instead take a loan against the balance, on which the scheme charges interest above the rate your account is earning. Closing the account early is allowed only after five years and only on the grounds the rules list — a serious illness, higher education, a change of residency — and the interest already credited is recomputed one percentage point lower as the price.
Is PPF really completely tax-free?
The interest and the maturity amount are exempt, and no TDS is cut. The deduction on the money going in is the part that is conditional: it is a section 80C deduction, and 80C does not exist under the new default tax regime. If you file under the new regime the growth is still untaxed but the deposit buys you no relief, which changes the arithmetic of choosing PPF over anything else. Check which regime you are filing under before you count the tax saving.
What happens to the account after 15 years?
Three things are possible, and the choice above the calculator is exactly this one. You can close it and take the money. You can extend in five-year blocks and keep depositing, which needs the prescribed form filed within a year of maturity — miss the window and you cannot later add money to it. Or you can leave it untouched and extended by default, earning the declared rate with no fresh deposits, and draw from it once a year. The calculator's extension options assume you keep depositing the same amount.
This page starts from typical figures. In Hundo the same calculator opens on your own — the loan, the deposit, the salary already on the ledger — and says where each number came from.