Calculator
Direct vs Regular calculator
A 1% yearly commission sounds tiny — until you compound it over 15 years.
- Direct plan value₹1.25 Cr
- Regular plan value₹1.14 Cr
- Commission drag−₹11.22 L
Hover the chart for the yearly gap.
Regular plans pay ~0.5–1.5% yearly trail commission to distributors — modelled here as a return drag on the expense ratio. Same fund, same manager, less in your pocket.
What this calculator answers
A ₹25,000 monthly SIP for 15 years at 12% grows to about ₹1.25 crore in a direct plan. The same SIP at 11% — a 1% expense drag — reaches about ₹1.14 crore, so the regular plan costs roughly ₹11.22 lakh. Set the instalment, years and drag to size it for your own fund.
How it is calculated
Two identical SIP projections are run, one at the return you enter and one at that return minus the expense drag, and the difference between the final values is the cost of the regular plan.
The drag is a return assumption, not a fee charged by this tool. The default 1% sits in the middle of the trail-commission range the page notes for regular plans.
Common questions
Why is a 1% difference in return so large in rupees?
The drag applies to the whole corpus every year and compounds, not only to that year's contribution, so a small annual gap becomes a large difference over long periods.
Do all regular plans charge the same?
No. Trail commissions differ by fund and category, and the page notes roughly 0.5–1.5% a year. Move the drag slider to match the plan you are comparing.
Does the direct plan always win?
On cost, yes — the same portfolio is being managed. Whether you want advice is a separate question from this arithmetic.
Source & freshness
- Source
- Deterministic formula in lib/calculators.ts
- Timeliness
- Static-verified
- Method
- calculated
- Note
- Illustrative projection from your inputs — not a market quote.