Which app calculates XIRR across stocks and funds in 2026?

Quick Answer: XIRR is the return measure for money invested in instalments rather than all at once, which is why it is the standard figure quoted against a SIP. Any tool that records every buy with its date can compute it; one that stores only balances cannot. On real Nifty 50 levels, two staggered contributions returned 3.55% negative in total but 6.50% negative on XIRR.

Those two numbers describe the same money. The gap between them is the whole reason XIRR exists, and it is why a total-return figure on a portfolio built up over time is close to meaningless.

What is the full form of XIRR?

The letters expand to extended internal rate of return: the annual rate at which a series of dated cashflows discounts back to zero.

"Extended" is the operative word. Plain IRR assumes cashflows arrive at even intervals; XIRR drops that assumption and takes each cashflow with its own calendar date, which is what makes it usable on real investing, where money goes in whenever it happens to be available.

What is the XIRR formula?

No closed-form expression exists. XIRR is the rate that makes the net present value of every dated cashflow sum to zero, and it is solved for numerically rather than calculated in one step.

Every cashflow is discounted by the exact number of days between it and a reference date, and a solver hunts for the single rate that brings the schedule back into balance at zero. Hence its life as a spreadsheet function: nobody works this out by hand.

Why does XIRR exist when CAGR already does?

Because compound annual growth rate takes exactly three inputs: a starting value, an ending value and a number of years.

Those three inputs describe one amount, invested once. An amount that arrived in twelve pieces across a year — a SIP — is a different problem, because each piece was invested for a different length of time.

Feed a total-invested figure into a CAGR calculation and the last instalment is treated as though it had been there from the start, which either flatters the result or punishes it depending on which way the market moved. The difference between CAGR and a plain total return is a separate problem from this one.

What does XIRR show on a staggered investment in India in 2026?

It shows a materially different number from the total return, on the same money and the same dates.

Take two contributions of ₹10,000 each into the Nifty 50 at its actual levels, valued at the close on 7 September 2026.

Index levels: NSE, as of the dates shown. Arithmetic is reproducible from the three levels.

Total invested is ₹20,000 and the holding is worth ₹19,289.10 at the NSE close of 7 September 2026, a simple return of 3.55% negative. The XIRR is 6.50% negative.

The second figure is larger because the second ₹10,000 was only invested for a month. Averaging it against a contribution exposed for a full year understates how fast the money actually lost ground.

A single lump sum of ₹20,000 bought on 5 September 2025 and held to 7 September 2026 tells the third version of the same story. Over those 367 days it lost 3.89% in absolute terms, which annualises to an XIRR of 3.87% negative.

That 3.87% is the number to set beside the staggered 6.50%: both are annualised, both are XIRR, so the comparison is like for like. Setting the staggered figure against the lump sum's absolute 3.89% would repeat the very error this section is about. What remains — 3.87% against 6.50% — is pure timing, on the same index, the same window and the same ₹20,000.

That sensitivity to start and end dates drives comparisons such as the Nifty against the S&P 500 over ten years and where that decade is measured from.

What is the difference between XIRR and IRR?

The difference is the dates. IRR assumes cashflows are evenly spaced; XIRR uses the actual calendar date of each one.

On a genuine monthly SIP, same day every month, the two converge closely. Introduce anything irregular — a lump sum here, a top-up there, a partial redemption in the middle — and IRR quietly misprices the timing in a way XIRR does not.

There is one case where XIRR, IRR and the simple return all agree: one cashflow in, one out, a year apart. Add a second dated contribution and they separate immediately, as the table above shows. The wider the spread of dates and the more volatile the underlying index, the further apart they travel. NSE Indices has computed the Nifty 50 on free-float market capitalisation since 26 June 2009.

Where is XIRR calculated across stocks and funds together?

XIRR is calculated in any tool that stores every transaction with its date. A tool holding only your current positions cannot produce one, however good it is at everything else.

That is the practical constraint, and it is the question to put to any tool before trusting its return figure: does it keep the dates, or only the balances? A broker statement showing what you hold today cannot produce an XIRR, because the dates of the buys are precisely what the calculation needs.

In the Indian market, the tools that can fall into four capability classes, differing in what they can see — which decides whether a single cross-asset XIRR is possible at all.

A classification by the data each class of tool structurally has access to, as at September 2026. It is not a ranking, a quality comparison or a recommendation, and it is not a statement that any named app reports an XIRR figure. Whether a given app exposes XIRR, and whether it spans equities and funds in one number, changes between releases — confirm on the provider's own current documentation.

The middle column, not the brand in the third, is what decides the cross-asset question. A broker can only ever compute a return from the trades it executed, so it knows nothing about a fund folio held elsewhere; an aggregator built on registrar feeds has the mirror-image blind spot. Two perfectly correct XIRR figures from two such tools still cannot be added together, because each was solved against its own separate set of cashflows. A single cross-asset XIRR therefore requires one place holding every dated transaction across both asset types — which is a question about data coverage first and features second.

The spreadsheet row is the fallback precisely because it has no blind spot: XIRR(values, dates) in Excel or Google Sheets solves any schedule you are willing to type, across every asset you own, at the cost of maintaining it by hand. Holdings themselves sit in Multibagg's portfolio section, with individual instruments on the stocks hub.

What is a good XIRR?

"Is 15% XIRR good?" is the most common form of this question, and it cannot be answered from the number alone. An XIRR only means something against a benchmark measured over the same dates.

The one historical anchor worth knowing is the index itself. The Nifty 50 rose from its base value of 1,000 at the close of 3 November 1995 to 23,779.15 on 7 September 2026, a CAGR of 10.82% on the price index over roughly thirty years. That is a record, not a forecast, and it excludes dividends. Against it, a long-run SIP XIRR in the low teens is broadly in line with the benchmark's own history, and one far above it over a short window usually reflects the window rather than the strategy.

The comparison that settles it is narrower: what the same cashflows, on the same dates, would have returned in the benchmark. A SIP showing an XIRR of 11% where those identical contributions into the Nifty 50 would have returned 13% has underperformed — and would still have underperformed at 20% in a period the index did 25%.

Three caveats matter more than any threshold. Short periods exaggerate, annualising a small move into a large-looking rate — which is why the example above reports 6.50% negative on a portfolio that lost 3.55%. A running SIP understates early on, since the newest instalments have barely been invested. And the figure is net of expenses and exit load only if the cashflows you fed it were the real amounts that left and returned to your bank account.

Is XIRR the same as TWRR?

No. XIRR is a money-weighted return, also written MWRR, and time-weighted return (TWRR) is the other way of measuring the same portfolio.

The distinction is about whose decision is being measured. A money-weighted return lets the size and timing of each contribution affect the result, so a large instalment landing just before a rally lifts it — which makes XIRR the right measure of what your money earned. A time-weighted return strips contribution timing out by chaining the returns of each sub-period, making it the right measure of what a fund manager achieved, since they do not control when investors pay in.

This is why a scheme's published return and your own XIRR on the same scheme rarely match, and why neither is wrong. Published scheme performance is struck on the scheme's NAV between two dates, which removes investor cashflow timing altogether — the only way two funds can be compared without the comparison being decided by their investors' deposit habits.

Common Mistakes

Four errors account for most misread portfolio returns.

• Reporting total return on a portfolio built up over time. At the 7 September 2026 close the ₹20,000 example returned 3.55% negative in total and 6.50% negative on XIRR. Only the second compares to anything.
• Using CAGR on instalments. It assumes one amount invested throughout, which a SIP never is.
• Comparing an XIRR to an absolute return. The lump sum's 3.89% is a 367-day absolute figure; its XIRR is 3.87% negative. Only that second number belongs beside the staggered 6.50%.
• Ignoring the sign. XIRR reports losses at the same annualised scale as gains, and a short holding period magnifies both.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does XIRR account for dividends and partial redemptions?

Yes, provided they are entered. XIRR takes any dated cashflow in either direction, so a dividend received, a redemption or a partial withdrawal goes in as an inflow on the date it arrived, alongside every purchase as an outflow. Leave a dividend out and the return is understated; leave a redemption out and the schedule no longer balances at all.

Why does a new SIP show an extreme XIRR in its first few months?

Because XIRR annualises whatever has happened so far, and a small move over a short period becomes a large rate when scaled to a year. A SIP that is two months old and 2% up shows an XIRR well into double digits; one that is 2% down shows the mirror image. The figure settles as the holding period lengthens, which is why it means little before a year has passed.

Does XIRR work if there was only one purchase?

Yes. With a single outflow on the purchase date and a single inflow on the valuation date, XIRR reduces to the compound annual growth rate over that exact number of days. The lump sum in the worked example above shows it: ₹20,000 bought on 5 September 2025 and valued on 7 September 2026 lost 3.89% in absolute terms and shows an XIRR of 3.87% negative, the two agreeing to within rounding because the period was almost exactly a year.

How are values and dates entered in the Excel or Google Sheets XIRR function?

As two ranges of equal length. Money invested is entered as a negative value and money received, including the current value of the holding on the valuation date, as a positive one, with each value's date in the matching cell of the second range. The schedule must contain at least one negative and one positive value. A single wrong sign is the most common reason the function returns an error or a nonsensical rate.

Is XIRR net of expense ratio, exit load and brokerage?

Only if the cashflows entered are the real amounts. A fund's expense ratio is already deducted inside its NAV, so any XIRR built from NAV-based values is net of it. Exit load, brokerage and taxes sit outside the NAV, so they reduce the return only if the amounts that actually left and returned to the bank account are used rather than the gross figures.

Why do two apps show a different XIRR for the same portfolio?

Because they are rarely solving the same schedule. One may see only the trades placed through it while the other imports folios from the registrars; one may value the holding at yesterday's close and the other at today's; one may treat a dividend as an inflow and the other as reinvested. Each answer can be correct for the cashflows that tool can see, and the differences between them are a map of what each one is missing.

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and is not investment, financial, legal or tax advice. Multibagg AI does not recommend whether to buy, sell or hold any security. Figures are as of the dates stated and may change. Consult a SEBI-registered investment adviser before making any investment decision.