The corpus is the number every NPS calculator shows and the number nobody receives. At least 40% of it has to buy an annuity, and what that annuity pays is a separate question with a separate answer.
Assumptions last reviewed 20 August 2026
At 60 you must use at least 40% of that to buy an annuity. On a 40% share you would take ₹2,11,79,483 as a lump sum and receive about ₹70,598 a month before tax.
That ₹70,598 a month arrives in 2056 rupees. In today’s money it is worth about ₹12,292 a month, and the lump sum is worth ₹36.88 L. An annuity bought at a fixed rate does not rise with inflation afterwards, so its purchasing power keeps falling for as long as it is paid.
Past performance may or may not be sustained in future and is not a guarantee of any future returns. The rate is capped at 13% p.a., being the mean of 10-year rolling returns of the Nifty 50 between 1 June 2013 and 30 May 2023 (12.93%), the basis AMFI prescribes for illustrations.
40% is the statutory minimum, not a default you can go below
What the annuity provider will pay. Nobody can promise this decades ahead
| Age | Paid in this year | Growth | Corpus | In today’s money |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 | ₹1.20 L | ₹86,515 | ₹8.25 L | ₹6.16 L |
| 40 | ₹1.20 L | ₹2.55 L | ₹23.23 L | ₹12.97 L |
| 45 | ₹1.20 L | ₹5.62 L | ₹50.46 L | ₹21.05 L |
| 50 | ₹1.20 L | ₹11.18 L | ₹99.91 L | ₹31.15 L |
| 55 | ₹1.20 L | ₹21.29 L | ₹1.90 Cr | ₹44.21 L |
| 60 | ₹1.20 L | ₹39.67 L | ₹3.53 Cr | ₹61.46 L |
Many Indian return calculators let you type 20%, and some go to 30%. This one stops at 13%, which is roughly what the market has actually delivered over a decade.
Mean of every 10-year rolling return between 1 June 2013 and 30 May 2023. Source: AMFI Best Practices Guidelines Circular 109/2023-24 of 1 November 2023, which sets these as the rates a mutual fund illustration in India may use. Nifty 50 at 12.93% is the highest of them, which is where the 13% ceiling comes from.
Your settings above, ₹10,000 a month for 30 years, at three different assumptions.
The gap between those figures is not a return. It is an assumption.
12.93% is the average of every ten-year stretch in that period. Some stretches were better and several were a great deal worse, and you get one of them rather than the average of all of them. So a calculator set to 20% is not being optimistic. It is quietly moving the goalposts, because a higher assumed rate makes the monthly amount you need look smaller than it is. That is the one error in this arithmetic that costs you money, and it only shows up twenty years later, when the corpus is short.
AMFI sets this ceiling for every mutual fund illustration in India. It is also the number we would have picked.
The accumulation is an ordinary monthly contribution compounding at the rate you assume, treated as paid at the start of each month. NPS is market-linked, so the return is an assumption and is capped at 13% like every other mutual fund illustration on this site.
The exit is where NPS differs. At least 40% of the corpus must be used to buy an annuity at normal exit, and only the balance can be withdrawn as a lump sum. The monthly pension is the annuity purchase multiplied by the annuity rate and divided by twelve.
That annuity rate is an input, not a constant, and it is the least knowable number on the page. It depends on what annuity providers are offering in the year you retire, which may be decades away. 6% is a reasonable working figure and it is an assumption.
An annuity bought at a fixed rate does not rise with inflation. A pension of ₹70,598 a month sounds substantial until you notice it is in the rupees of the year you retire and then stays flat for the rest of your life while prices do not. Thirty years of 6% inflation reduces its purchasing power to about a sixth.
The return assumption applies one constant rate across decades, and NPS returns depend on the asset allocation you choose and on how the auto-choice glide path de-risks as you approach exit. This page does not model that glide path, so the later years are probably optimistic.
It does not model partial withdrawals, exit before 60, or the different rules on death. It also does not model the tax on the annuity income, which is taxed as ordinary income at your slab.
And the annuity rate is a guess about a market decades away. Treat the pension figure as the shape of an outcome, not a number to plan a monthly budget around.
On the default figures, about ₹70,598 a month before tax: ₹10,000 a month from age 30 to 60 at an assumed 12%, building a corpus of ₹3.53 crore, with 40% of it buying an annuity at an assumed 6%.
The honest version of that number is smaller. ₹70,598 in thirty years has the purchasing power of about ₹12,292 today, and because the annuity does not rise afterwards, its real value keeps falling for every year it is paid.
Because NPS is designed as a pension rather than as a savings scheme, and the annuity requirement is the mechanism. At normal exit at 60, up to 60% can be withdrawn as a lump sum and at least 40% must buy an annuity. Where the corpus is small, currently at or below ₹5 lakh, the whole amount can generally be withdrawn. Exit before 60 flips the ratio and requires the larger share to be annuitised, which is the strongest argument for treating NPS money as genuinely locked.
The lump sum withdrawn at exit is tax free. The annuity income is not: it is added to your income and taxed at your slab rate in each year you receive it. So the headline pension figure on this page is a pre-tax number, and somebody in the 30% bracket in retirement keeps considerably less of it.
Under the old regime, contributions qualify under Section 124 of the Income-tax Act 2025, formerly Section 80CCD, with an additional deduction of up to ₹50,000 under what was Section 80CCD(1B) and is now Section 124(3), over and above the ₹1.5 lakh Section 123 limit. An employer contribution is separately deductible and is available under the new regime too, which makes it the more valuable route for most salaried people now that the new regime is the default.
It depends entirely on your asset allocation. NPS lets you choose the split between equity, corporate bonds and government securities, with equity capped at 75% under the active choice and tapering with age under the auto choice. A heavily equity-weighted account should be assumed at something like an equity rate; a government-securities account at something close to AMFI’s 7.2% fixed-income basis. Using 12% for an account that is mostly bonds will overstate the corpus badly.
They trade different things. NPS is cheaper than almost any other managed product in India, has a genuine additional tax deduction under the old regime, and locks the money until 60 with a compulsory annuity at the end. A fund is liquid, has no annuity requirement, and gives you full control of the exit. The lock-in is a cost and a feature: it is the reason the money is still there at 60. Which matters more is a question about you.
The pension falls proportionally, and it is worth testing. At 5% rather than 6%, the same ₹1.41 crore annuity purchase pays about ₹58,800 a month instead of ₹70,598, a sixth less for one percentage point. This is the single most sensitive assumption in the whole calculation and it is the one furthest outside your control, which is a reason to be conservative with it rather than optimistic.
A larger annuity share buys more guaranteed income and leaves less capital, and the right balance depends on what else you hold and on whether you have anyone to leave money to. An annuity is longevity insurance, and its value is precisely that it keeps paying if you live longer than expected. What it is not is an investment, and comparing its rate with a market return misses what it is for. This is a decision worth taking with someone rather than from a slider.
On ₹10,000 a month from 30 to 60 at an assumed 12%, the corpus reaches about ₹3.53 crore, and annuitising the minimum 40% at an assumed 6% pays roughly ₹70,598 a month before tax. In today's purchasing power that is about ₹12,292.
At least 40% of the corpus at normal exit at 60, with up to 60% available as a tax-free lump sum. Exiting early requires a larger share to be annuitised. Very small corpuses, currently at or below ₹5 lakh, can generally be withdrawn in full.
The lump sum at exit is tax free. The annuity income is taxed at your slab rate in each year you receive it, so the pension figure quoted by any NPS calculator, including this one, is a pre-tax number.
Yes. Active choice lets you set the split across equity, corporate bonds and government securities, with equity capped at 75%. Auto choice applies an age-based glide path that reduces equity as you approach 60. Your assumed return should reflect whichever you have picked.
Tier I is the retirement account: locked until 60, tax deductible, with the annuity requirement at exit. Tier II is a voluntary account with no lock-in and, for most subscribers, no tax deduction. This calculator models Tier I.
AMFI Best Practices Guidelines Circular 109/2023-24 caps the return used in any market-linked illustration at 13%. NPS is market-linked, so the cap applies here as it does on the SIP pages, even though the scheme itself is a pension product.
Talk to the desk
How much to annuitise, when to exit and what the rest of your retirement money is doing are all part of one question, and the annuity rate you will actually be offered is not knowable today. Bring your figures and we will work through what is in your control.
Calculator outputs are indicative projections on assumptions you select, not assurances, and not a projection of the performance of any scheme. Annuity rates shown are assumptions, not quotations, and no annuity provider is named.
