Fixed deposit calculator, and who pays the most
Get the exact maturity value for any amount, rate, term and compounding frequency — then see which bank in your country would have returned the most on the same deposit.
Deposit calculator
Fixed deposit, recurring deposit and a straight simple-versus-compound comparison. Switch country to change the currency and the bank list.
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What a deposit really returns
A fixed deposit is the simplest financial product there is: you hand over a sum, you cannot touch it for an agreed period, and you get it back with interest. The only variables are the rate, the term and how often interest is compounded — but those three interact in ways that a headline rate hides.
- P — the amount deposited.
- r — the annual nominal rate as a decimal.
- m — compounding periods per year: 4 for quarterly, 12 for monthly.
- t — the term in years.
Nominal rate versus effective yield
7% compounded quarterly is not 7% a year — it is closer to 7.19% once the compounding is accounted for. That effective figure is what a US bank would advertise as APY, which is why comparing a US CD's APY against an Indian bank's nominal rate is not a fair fight until you convert one of them. Set the compounding dropdown correctly and the calculator handles it.
Laddering instead of guessing
Locking everything into one long deposit is a bet that rates will not rise. Splitting the same money across several deposits maturing a year apart — a ladder — means something matures every year and can be reinvested at whatever the going rate then is. You give up a little yield for a lot of flexibility, and you stop needing to forecast.
A note on the Gulf
Four GCC currencies are pegged to the US dollar, and the Saudi riyal and UAE dirham move with it especially closely. In practice that means Gulf deposit rates track US policy rates with a lag. If you are deciding between a one-year and a three-year term deposit in the region, you are implicitly taking a view on the Federal Reserve.
Questions people actually ask
By compounding: interest is added to the balance at set intervals and then itself earns interest. Maturity equals P × (1 + r/m)^(m×t), where m is the number of compounding periods a year. Indian banks conventionally compound quarterly, so m is 4.
Over short terms, barely. Over long ones, meaningfully. The same nominal rate compounded quarterly rather than annually adds a small amount each year that itself compounds, so the gap widens the longer the deposit runs. The calculator shows the simple-interest equivalent alongside, so you can see the premium in money rather than in theory.
Mostly vocabulary. A fixed deposit in India, a certificate of deposit in the United States and a term deposit in the GCC are the same product: money locked for a fixed period at an agreed rate. The important differences are in the details — US CDs are quoted as APY with compounding already included, while Indian and Gulf banks usually quote a nominal rate plus a compounding frequency.
In most markets, yes, and the rules differ enough that you should check locally. In India, bank interest is taxable as income and TDS is deducted above a threshold, with a higher exemption for senior citizens. In the United States, CD interest is ordinary income reported on a 1099-INT. The GCC states generally do not levy personal income tax on deposit returns. This calculator shows gross returns — it does not deduct tax.
Almost every bank applies a penalty: typically it repays you at the rate that would have applied to the shorter period you actually held it, minus a penalty of around half a percentage point. That can wipe out a large share of the return on a deposit broken in its first year, so match the term to when you will genuinely need the money.
Up to a limit that varies by country — the DICGC scheme in India, FDIC insurance in the United States, and national deposit protection schemes across the GCC. Limits apply per depositor per bank, so splitting a large sum across institutions is a real strategy. Check the current limit with your regulator; it changes.