What is the effective rate the tool prints?

It is the yearly rate that would produce the same result if it compounded only once a year. Quarterly compounding at seven per cent gives an effective 7.186 per cent, and comparing effective rates is the only fair way to compare two offers with different compounding.

Should I take the interest as a payout or let it accumulate?

Accumulate it if you do not need the money, because compounding is worth real amounts over five years. Take the payout if the deposit exists to produce an income, and accept that the total will be lower.

Is the interest taxed even if I do not withdraw it?

Yes. It is taxable in the year it accrues, which for a cumulative deposit means a liability every year with no cash arriving to meet it. This surprises people at maturity more than any other feature of the product.

What happens if I break the deposit early?

Banks apply a penalty, typically by paying the rate that applied to the shorter period actually completed, minus a percentage. The maturity figure here assumes you hold to term.

FD Calculator

Fixed deposit maturity, cumulative or paid out, before and after tax.

Everything runs inside your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Result

The result appears here as you type.

Ask about FD Calculator

Questions about what this tool does, which option to pick, or what it can and cannot handle.

The question you type here is sent to an AI provider to be answered — your files and whatever you put in the tool above are not, and the assistant cannot see them. Answers are generated and can be wrong. The tool itself is not guessing: it runs deterministic code on your device.

About the FD Calculator

A fixed deposit pays a rate agreed on the day you open it, for a term agreed on the same day, and nothing that happens to rates afterwards changes either. That certainty is the product. This works out what the deposit matures at, and separates the two arrangements banks offer for the interest.

In a cumulative deposit the interest stays in and compounds, usually every quarter, so the maturity value is larger than the rate alone suggests. Seven per cent compounded quarterly is really 7.186 per cent a year, and the tool prints that effective figure because it is the number to compare against another bank's offer. In a payout deposit the interest leaves at the end of each period and the principal comes back untouched at the end — nothing compounds, and the total interest is lower, which is the price of receiving an income.

The tax field is there because deposit interest is where a headline rate and a real one diverge most sharply. Interest is taxable at your slab in the year it accrues, not the year it reaches you, so a five-year cumulative deposit generates a tax liability in each of those five years even though no money has arrived. At a thirty per cent slab, a seven per cent deposit returns under five per cent after tax, which is worth knowing before comparing it against anything.

Deduction at source is a separate mechanism from the tax itself. Once interest crosses a yearly threshold the bank withholds part of it and pays it in against your name; the amount shows up in your annual statement and settles part of the bill rather than adding to it.

How to use it

1Enter the deposit, the rate your bank is offering and the term.
2Choose whether the interest is reinvested until maturity or paid out as it accrues.
3Set the compounding or payout frequency to match the offer document.
4Put your tax slab in the last field to see what the deposit really returns after tax.

Questions

What is the effective rate the tool prints?: It is the yearly rate that would produce the same result if it compounded only once a year. Quarterly compounding at seven per cent gives an effective 7.186 per cent, and comparing effective rates is the only fair way to compare two offers with different compounding.
Should I take the interest as a payout or let it accumulate?: Accumulate it if you do not need the money, because compounding is worth real amounts over five years. Take the payout if the deposit exists to produce an income, and accept that the total will be lower.
Is the interest taxed even if I do not withdraw it?: Yes. It is taxable in the year it accrues, which for a cumulative deposit means a liability every year with no cash arriving to meet it. This surprises people at maturity more than any other feature of the product.
What happens if I break the deposit early?: Banks apply a penalty, typically by paying the rate that applied to the shorter period actually completed, minus a percentage. The maturity figure here assumes you hold to term.