Minimum ₹500 per month
Must be between 18 and 70 years (PFRDA raised the entry ceiling from 65 in 2021)
Must be between 60 and 75 years
Select your investment strategy

What is NPS and How Does It Build Your Pension?

The National Pension System invests your contributions in a mix of equity and debt, and lets them compound until you exit at 60. When you exit, part of the corpus buys an annuity, which is what pays your monthly pension for life. The rest comes to you as a lump sum.

The Current Exit Rules

The rules changed on 15 December 2025 through a PFRDA amendment, and the changes are significant. If you are a private-sector subscriber, only a minimum of 20% of your corpus must now buy an annuity, down from 40%. Up to 80% can be taken as a lump sum or systematic withdrawal, and a corpus up to ₹8 lakh can be withdrawn fully. Government subscribers continue with the earlier 40% annuity and 60% lump sum split. You can also stay invested up to age 85 now, up from 75.

One caution on tax: the income tax law currently exempts only 60% of the corpus. So even though the pension rules let you withdraw up to 80% as lump sum, anything beyond 60% is taxable at your slab until the tax law catches up.

What Tax Benefits Does NPS Give?

Under the default new tax regime, the benefit that matters is the employer's contribution under Section 80CCD(2). It is deductible up to 14% of your basic salary plus DA from FY 2025-26. You can see what it does to your tax bill in the income tax calculator. The old regime additionally allows your own contributions within the ₹1.5 lakh 80C limit, plus an extra ₹50,000 under 80CCD(1B).

How Should You Choose Your Allocation?

NPS gives you two options. Active choice lets you set the equity, corporate debt and government securities mix yourself, with equity allowed up to 75%. Auto choice adjusts the mix for you, starting equity-heavy when you are young and gliding towards debt as you approach 60. Younger subscribers generally benefit from more equity, since a 30-year-old's contributions have three decades to compound. If you would rather not revisit the account, Auto choice is the safe default. The allocation decision matters far more than which pension fund manager you pick.

Why NPS is So Cheap

NPS fund management fees are capped at a few hundredths of a percent, roughly 0.03% to 0.09% a year, compared with 0.5% to 2% for mutual funds. Over 30 years, that fee gap alone can add several percent to your final corpus. This is why NPS is hard to beat as a locked-in retirement vehicle, despite the annuity requirement, and why it often compares favourably with PPF for long retirement money.

Remember that returns are market-linked, and the annuity rate on the day you buy sets your pension. NPS is one pillar of a plan: size your full goal with the retirement calculator and project your EPF corpus alongside it.

FAQs about NPS Calculator

It depends on your corpus at exit, how much of it you annuitise (minimum 20% for private-sector subscribers since December 2025) and the annuity rate then prevailing (recently around 6–7%). The calculator shows the pension for your chosen annuity share.
PFRDA cut the mandatory annuity for non-government subscribers from 40% to 20% (with up to 80% as lump sum), allowed 100% withdrawal for corpora up to ₹8 lakh, and raised the maximum stay-invested age from 75 to 85. Government subscribers remain at 40/60.
Only 60% of the corpus is tax-free under current tax law. Although the rules now permit withdrawing up to 80%, the portion beyond 60% is taxable at your slab rate until the tax law is amended. Annuity income is taxable as received.
The employer's contribution under Section 80CCD(2), deductible up to 14% of basic salary plus DA from FY 2025-26 — the only significant NPS deduction in the new regime. Self-contributions get benefits only in the old regime.
Auto choice suits anyone who will not revisit the account: it de-risks automatically with age. Active choice suits engaged investors who want the maximum 75% equity while young. The allocation decision matters far more than which pension fund manager you select.
Partial withdrawals (up to 25% of your own contributions) are allowed after 3 years for specific purposes like education, marriage, home purchase or illness, up to three times. Full premature exit requires annuitising 80% of the corpus, so NPS is best treated as genuinely locked until 60.