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CAGR calculator

Two amounts and the years between them give the compound annual rate, the total change and the time to double.

Revenue up 61% over five years and revenue up 10% a year are the same fact. Only the second one compares to anything.

CALCULATOR

Run it with your own figures

Use any unit you like for the amounts — millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of won — as long as you use one of them throughout. The answers come back in that same unit, and nothing is converted.

Compound annual growth rate9.99%(End / start)^(1 / years) − 1
Total change
61.0%
(End − start) / start × 100
Multiple reached
1.61×
End / start
Years to double
7.3 yrs
ln 2 / ln(1 + rate)
Rate needed for the target
—
(Target / end)^(1 / years) − 1
AGAINST 50 FILERS

54% of the 50 companies collected here are at or below this figure.

Closest to: Salesforce 9.82% · Oracle 10.48% · Adobe 10.52%

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How you count the years changes the answer

The commonest mistake in a CAGR is counting one year too many. Comparing 2020 revenue with 2025 revenue involves six figures but five intervals, and the exponent takes five. Using six understates the rate.

A five-year summary table in an annual report makes this easy to get wrong: five rows are four intervals. Use the difference between the first and last year, not the number of rows.

There is one more wrinkle for a company that does not close in December. Apple's "fiscal 2025" begins at the end of September 2024. When comparing two companies' growth, line up the period start and end dates rather than the fiscal year labels.

A CAGR erases the path it took

A compound rate uses two points and ignores everything between them. A company that grew 10% every year and one that surged for three years then shrank for two can both come out at 10% a year.

So never quote a CAGR without looking at the years in between. Check whether the series moves in one direction or whether a single exceptional year is carrying the average, and only then use the rate.

The choice of starting year alone can change the conclusion. Anchoring on a year when revenue collapsed makes everything after it look like a trend rather than a recovery. Check whether the base year was an ordinary one first.

It cannot span a loss

If the starting amount is zero or negative, this calculator reports no rate. That is not a gap in the tool: there is no compound rate across such a span. The ratio of 100 to −50 is negative, and no root of a negative ratio means anything.

This comes up most often when applying a CAGR to operating or net income. With a loss year in the span, use the change in absolute amounts instead, or move the base year to the first profitable one. Revenue cannot go negative, which is why a CAGR is usually quoted on it.

Run it backwards for a more honest question

Fill in the target field and the tool gives the annual rate needed to reach it from where things stand. It is a quick way to test whether a company's stated ambition or an analyst's forecast is a plausible one.

"Double revenue in five years" means 14.9% a year. If the company has been growing at 4%, the target asks for more than three times its own trend. Stated as a rate, it becomes something you can weigh.

Practise on an original filing

Every figure these calculators ask for comes off a filed financial statement. Which document to open, and how to line up periods and currencies, is covered in the reading guides.

Browse the reading guides · How this site sources its data

These are educational calculators for reading filings. What you type stays in this browser and is not stored. The results are not investment advice about any security, and a real decision needs the statements and their notes alongside. If a formula or an explanation here is wrong, report it on the corrections page.