Future Value Calculator
Calculate future value of investments
Future Value Calculator tool
Future Value Results
Future Value:
$0.00
Total Interest:
$0.00
Total Contributions:
$0.00
Future Value Calculator: key facts
- What it does
- Calculate future value of investments
- Category
- Financial Calculators
- Cost
- Free, with no account, sign-up, or install.
- Your data
- Runs entirely in your browser — the files and text you enter are never uploaded to a server.
- Last reviewed
- . Report an incorrect result.
What the Future Value Calculator does
Money today is worth more than the same money later, and the Future Value Calculator shows exactly how much more. Enter a present sum, an interest rate, and a time horizon, and it projects what that money will grow to with compounding — optionally adding a regular monthly deposit along the way.
Savers use it to see where a nest egg lands in ten years; planners use it to test whether a savings habit reaches a goal. The compounding-frequency control lets you model daily, monthly, quarterly, or annual compounding on a lump sum, while the monthly-deposit option layers in steady contributions for a more realistic savings picture. Because contributions and interest are reported separately, it also doubles as a reality check on how much of a projected balance is genuinely growth rather than your own deposits.
Using the Future Value Calculator, step by step
- Enter the present value — the amount you are starting with.
- Enter the annual interest rate and the time period in years.
- Choose a compounding frequency (daily, monthly, quarterly, or annually) for the lump sum.
- Optionally add a monthly deposit to model regular contributions.
- Read the projected future value, total contributions, and total interest earned, then Copy the result.
Projecting a balance forward
Given an amount today, a growth rate, and a period, this returns what the balance becomes. With the monthly contribution left at zero it is the plain compound growth calculation: the rate is divided by your chosen compounding frequency and the exponent is that frequency times the number of years.
Entering a monthly contribution changes the mechanics. The tool moves to monthly compounding — the frequency dropdown stops affecting the result at that point — and values the contribution stream as an ordinary annuity, meaning each deposit is treated as arriving at the end of its month and compounding only for the months that follow.
The two figures printed alongside the result are worth separating in your head. Total contributions is the money you actually supplied, opening amount included; total interest is the balance minus that. On long horizons with regular deposits, growth eventually overtakes contributions, and watching where that happens is more instructive than the headline number.
- $5,000 at 7% for 10 years compounded annually — the values loaded by default — grows to $9,835.76, of which $4,835.76 is growth.
- Leave that alone but add $200 a month and total contributions become $29,000 while the balance passes $40,000, illustrating how quickly regular deposits dominate a modest opening amount.
- Extend the default entry to 30 years instead and it reaches roughly $38,061 — the same money and the same rate, with time doing the work.
What makes this one worth using
- It models both a one-time lump sum and ongoing monthly deposits, so you can project realistic savings, not just idle capital.
- Four compounding frequencies let you match how your account actually compounds, which changes the result more than people expect.
- It separates total contributions from total interest, making it clear how much growth came from your money versus from compounding.
- It runs entirely client-side with no sign-up, so your financial figures stay private.
What a projection cannot tell you
A constant rate is a modelling convenience, not a description of any real investment. Markets deliver their average through a sequence of good and bad years, and if you are drawing money down the order of those years affects the result materially. Run a pessimistic rate as well as a hopeful one and treat the pair as a range.
The projection is in nominal terms, so it ignores inflation entirely: a balance thirty years out will not buy what the same number buys today. Tax and charges are likewise excluded. None of this makes the arithmetic wrong, but it does mean the figure is an upper bound on a single assumption rather than an expectation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is future value?
Future value is what a sum of money today will be worth at a later date once interest or returns have compounded. It is the core idea behind savings growth: a dollar invested now becomes more than a dollar later because it earns on itself over time.
Why does compounding frequency change the result?
The more often interest is compounded, the sooner earned interest starts earning its own interest. Daily compounding produces slightly more than annual compounding at the same rate, because growth is credited and reinvested more frequently.
What happens when I add a monthly deposit?
The calculator then treats your contributions as a monthly series compounded over the full term, on top of the growth of your starting balance. This models a regular savings habit rather than a single deposit left to grow.
