Reviewed by Finin2min Editorial Desk · Last reviewed 15 October 2026
Project an NPS corpus, lump sum and indicative annuity using editable return, contribution step-up and annuity assumptions.
Project retirement corpus and pension
Projection
Projected retirement corpus
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Indicative monthly annuity
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Component
Amount
Indicative lump-sum portion
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Corpus allocated to annuity
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Total projected contributions
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NPS is market-linked. The return and annuity rate are assumptions, not guaranteed outcomes. Exit and annuitisation rules applicable on the exit date prevail.
NPS exit options for your corpus
See how much can be taken as a lump sum and how much must buy an annuity under the PFRDA exit regulations, as amended in December 2025. Choose your category and the type of exit, then enter the corpus.
Income-tax Act, 2025 note: The NPS deduction under Section 80CCD discussed above becomes Section 124 (read with Schedule XV) under the Income-tax Act, 2025, effective FY 2026-27. For FY 2025-26 and earlier, Section 80CCD remains the correct citation. Section numbering note: This page uses Income-tax Act, 1961 terminology for AY 2026-27 references. If applying the Income-tax Act, 2025 for a later year, verify the corresponding provision and exact wording from the official Gazette or Income Tax Department before citing a section number.
How This Is Calculated
This calculator projects your NPS corpus by compounding monthly contributions (with optional annual step-up) at your expected return rate until retirement age. At exit, part of the corpus can be withdrawn as a lump sum and part must buy an annuity, and the split depends on your category and the kind of exit: a non-government subscriber at normal exit can withdraw up to 80% and must annuitise at least 20%, a government-sector subscriber can withdraw up to 60% and must annuitise at least 40%, and a premature exit generally allows up to 20% with at least 80% annuitised, with extra options for smaller corpuses. Enter the annuity share you plan to use in the calculator and check it against the minimum shown by the exit-options tool above. The annuity income is taxable as regular income when received, and how much of a lump sum is exempt from tax is a separate question under the Income-tax Act.
What the NPS exit rules allow
The PFRDA (Exits and Withdrawals under the National Pension System) Regulations, 2015, as amended by the Amendment Regulations published on 16 December 2025, set different exit schedules for non-government and government-sector subscribers. The familiar “at least 40% must buy an annuity” rule no longer applies to every subscriber.
Category and exit
Lump sum
Annuity
Smaller corpus
Non-government (All Citizen or Corporate), normal exit
Up to 80%
At least 20%
Corpus up to ₹8 lakh: the whole amount can be taken as a lump sum. Above ₹8 lakh and up to ₹12 lakh: up to ₹6 lakh as a lump sum, with the balance by systematic unit redemption (at least six years) or an annuity.
Government sector, normal exit
Up to 60%
At least 40%
The same ₹8 lakh and ₹12 lakh options as above.
Premature exit, either category
Up to 20%
At least 80%
Corpus up to ₹5 lakh: the whole amount can be taken as a lump sum.
Non-government subscriber who joined after age 60
Up to 80%
At least 20%
No vesting period. Corpus up to ₹12 lakh: the whole amount can be taken as a lump sum.
Death of the subscriber
Non-government: up to 100% to the nominee. Government sector: up to 20%.
Non-government: optional. Government sector: at least 80%.
Government sector: up to ₹8 lakh can be paid entirely as a lump sum; above that and up to ₹12 lakh, up to ₹6 lakh as a lump sum with the balance by systematic unit redemption or an annuity.
For the All Citizen model, PFRDA states that normal exit is available at age 60 or after 15 years of subscription, whichever is earlier; for the corporate and government sectors it is linked to retirement or superannuation. Subscribers can stay invested up to age 85.
Worked example. A corpus of ₹20 lakh at normal exit: a non-government subscriber can take up to ₹16 lakh as a lump sum and must use at least ₹4 lakh for an annuity; a government-sector subscriber can take up to ₹12 lakh and must use at least ₹8 lakh; on a premature exit the limits are up to ₹4 lakh and at least ₹16 lakh. A corpus of ₹7 lakh at normal exit can be withdrawn in full. None of these figures is a promised payout or a statement that the lump sum is tax-free.
Before you act on the output
Confirm whether you are a government-sector or non-government subscriber and whether the exit is normal, premature or on death — each has its own schedule.
Check the accumulated pension wealth in your CRA statement and ask your point of presence or nodal office which exit options your account allows.
Collect annuity quotations from more than one annuity service provider and compare the annuity type, survivor benefit and return of purchase price, not just the monthly figure.
Treat the return and the annuity rate as assumptions. NPS returns are market-linked and annuity rates change with interest rates.
Work out the tax on any lump sum separately, for the year in which you withdraw it. The exemption on closure or opting out is limited to 60% of the amount payable.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of my NPS corpus must go into an annuity at retirement?
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It depends on the type of NPS account and the kind of exit. Under the PFRDA exit regulations as amended in December 2025, a non-government subscriber (All Citizen or Corporate model) taking a normal exit can withdraw up to 80% as a lump sum and must use at least 20% to buy an annuity. For government-sector subscribers the standard normal-exit split is still up to 60% lump sum and at least 40% annuity. A premature exit generally allows up to 20% as a lump sum, with at least 80% going to an annuity. Smaller corpuses have extra options, including taking the whole amount as a lump sum. Use the exit-options tool on this page for your category.
Is the NPS lump-sum withdrawal at retirement taxable?
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What PFRDA allows you to withdraw and what is exempt from income tax are separate questions. The Income-tax Act exempts the amount paid on closure of the NPS account or on opting out of the scheme only up to 60% of the total amount payable, so the extra lump sum (up to 80%) that some non-government subscribers can now take should not be assumed to be tax-free; check the tax law for the year of withdrawal. The pension received from the annuity portion is taxable as regular income in the year it is received.
What is the tax deduction available for NPS contributions?
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Individual contributions up to ₹50,000 are deductible under Section 80CCD(1B), over and above the ₹1.5 lakh Section 80C limit. Employer contributions to NPS are separately deductible under Section 80CCD(2), subject to salary-linked limits that differ between the old and new tax regimes — check the site's tax-regime comparison for the exact current percentages.
Can I choose how my NPS money is invested?
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Yes, within limits — NPS offers a choice between Active Choice (you set the equity/debt/government-securities/corporate-bond allocation, with equity capped by age-based rules) and Auto Choice (a lifecycle fund that automatically reduces equity exposure as you approach retirement).
Can I withdraw my whole NPS corpus if it is small?
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Often yes. At a normal exit, a corpus of ₹8 lakh or less can be taken entirely as a lump sum (or through systematic lump-sum withdrawal or systematic unit redemption). For a corpus above ₹8 lakh and up to ₹12 lakh, up to ₹6 lakh can be taken as a lump sum and the balance goes through systematic unit redemption over at least six years or into an annuity; the percentage split for your category is an alternative. On a premature exit the whole-corpus option applies only up to ₹5 lakh. A non-government subscriber who joined NPS after age 60 can take a corpus of up to ₹12 lakh entirely as a lump sum.
What changed in the NPS exit rules in December 2025?
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PFRDA’s Exits and Withdrawals Amendment Regulations, 2025 (published on 16 December 2025) raised the maximum lump sum for non-government subscribers at normal exit from 60% to 80% (minimum annuity 20% instead of 40%), raised the corpus up to which everything can be withdrawn from ₹5 lakh to ₹8 lakh at normal exit and from ₹2.5 lakh to ₹5 lakh at premature exit, removed the five-year minimum lock-in for premature exit under the All Citizen Model, and raised the entry and exit age to 85. The government-sector normal-exit split of 60% lump sum and 40% annuity did not change. A later amendment published in July 2026 deals with specific-purpose schemes and does not alter these splits.
Scope: Projects the retirement corpus accumulated under the National Pension System (NPS), based on contributions, assumed investment return, and the resulting annuity purchase and lump-sum withdrawal split at exit.
Calculation logic
Project the corpus year by year, compounding monthly/annual contributions (employee, and employer where applicable) at the assumed rate of return for the asset allocation selected (equity/corporate debt/government securities mix).
At exit, apply the annuitisation requirement of the PFRDA exit regulations for your category: at a normal exit a non-government subscriber can withdraw up to 80% of the corpus as a lump sum and must use at least 20% to buy an annuity, a government-sector subscriber can withdraw up to 60% and must use at least 40%, and at a premature exit up to 20% can be withdrawn and at least 80% must go to an annuity. The annuity is bought from an annuity service provider empanelled by PFRDA.
Where the corpus is small, the regulations allow additional options: at a normal exit a corpus of ₹8 lakh or less can be withdrawn entirely as a lump sum, and for a corpus above ₹8 lakh and up to ₹12 lakh up to ₹6 lakh can be taken as a lump sum with the balance through systematic unit redemption (at least six years) or an annuity; at a premature exit the whole-corpus option applies up to ₹5 lakh.
Inputs and assumptions
Return convention: the expected annual return is treated as an effective annual rate, so the monthly rate is (1 + r)1/12 − 1 and 12% a year compounds to exactly 12% over a year. Calculators that divide the annual rate by 12 give slightly higher results for the same input; the SIP calculator uses that convention.
Assumed investment returns for each asset class (equity, corporate bonds, government securities) are user-entered planning assumptions, not guaranteed or predicted returns — actual NPS returns vary with market performance and the specific pension fund manager selected.
The minimum annuitisation percentage depends on the category and type of exit (20%, 40% or 80%) and follows the PFRDA exit regulations as amended in December 2025; the tax treatment of the lump sum follows the Income-tax Act provisions for closure of an NPS account or opting out, under which the exemption is limited to 60% of the amount payable.
Exclusions and edge cases
The monthly pension shown is only an illustration: it applies your assumed annuity rate to the annuity portion. The actual pension depends on the annuity plan, its type (single life, joint life, return of purchase price) and the rates offered by the chosen annuity service provider at the time of purchase, which cannot be predicted in advance.
A premature exit has a more restrictive annuitisation requirement (at least 80% of the corpus, against 20% or 40% at a normal exit). The exit-options tool shows the schedule for the category and type of exit you choose; death, disablement, deferment, partial withdrawals and systematic withdrawal plans are not modelled.
Finin2min is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as an Investment Adviser or as a Research Analyst. This tool performs an arithmetic calculation on the figures you enter and is published for general information and educational purposes only. It is not investment advice, it is not personalised to your financial circumstances, objectives or risk tolerance, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, scheme or product. Projected values are illustrative and follow directly from the assumptions you supply; actual returns will differ, and past performance does not indicate future results. Consider consulting a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser before acting on any investment decision.