ReckonBoxHow the Atal Pension Yojana calculator works
Atal Pension Yojana is a government scheme where you contribute a fixed monthly amount until age 60 to receive a guaranteed pension of ₹1,000 to ₹5,000 a month for life. This calculator takes the age you join and the pension you want, then reads the official contribution chart to show what you pay each month, how long you pay, the total you contribute, and the corpus your nominee eventually receives. The monthly amount is set by the government, so it is a lookup, not a projection.
Join at 30 and target the top ₹5,000 pension, and you pay ₹577 a month for 30 years, about ₹2,07,720 in total. In return you get ₹5,000 every month from 60 for life, and your nominee later receives an ₹8,50,000 corpus.
The contribution comes from a fixed chart
The APY monthly contribution is fixed by an official PFRDA chart keyed to your entry age and chosen pension, not calculated from an interest rate. Younger entrants pay less because they contribute over more years. For the ₹5,000 pension the monthly amount runs from ₹210 at age 18 up to ₹1,454 at age 40, and for the ₹1,000 pension from ₹42 up to ₹291.
One quirk trips up calculators that try to shortcut the chart. The five pension columns are rounded independently, so a higher pension is close to but not an exact multiple of the ₹1,000 figure. At age 30 the ₹1,000 pension costs ₹116, yet the ₹5,000 pension costs ₹577, not ₹580.
Reading the right row matters as much as reading the right column. One widely cited chart lists ₹264 and ₹1,318 against age 40; those are the age-39 figures, and the true age-40 amounts are ₹291 and ₹1,454. A 40-year-old budgeting from that row would set up a mandate ₹136 a month short on the top pension. The figures below are the official ones at every age.
| Entry age | ₹1,000 | ₹2,000 | ₹3,000 | ₹4,000 | ₹5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | ₹42 | ₹84 | ₹126 | ₹168 | ₹210 |
| 25 | ₹76 | ₹151 | ₹226 | ₹301 | ₹376 |
| 30 | ₹116 | ₹231 | ₹347 | ₹462 | ₹577 |
| 35 | ₹181 | ₹362 | ₹543 | ₹722 | ₹902 |
| 40 | ₹291 | ₹582 | ₹873 | ₹1,164 | ₹1,454 |
Why starting early costs so much less
The same pension costs far less per month the younger you start, because you spread the contributions over more years. A ₹5,000 pension bought at 18 costs ₹210 a month, where the same pension bought at 40 costs ₹1,454 a month, nearly seven times as much. Even the total you pay in over the years is lower when you start young.
Run the numbers and the gap is stark. Starting at 18 you pay about ₹1,05,840 in total across 42 years; starting at 40 you pay about ₹3,48,960 across 20 years, for the identical ₹5,000 pension. The comparison table above lays this out for whichever pension you pick.
What your nominee receives
On top of the lifelong pension, APY returns a fixed corpus to your nominee, from ₹1.7 lakh for the ₹1,000 pension up to ₹8.5 lakh for the ₹5,000 pension. The pension runs for your life, then continues in full to your spouse, and only after both of you does the nominee receive the corpus. So the scheme covers two lives of income before the lump sum is paid out.
That corpus is the same regardless of the age you joined, since it tracks the pension level and not the contribution. A person who joined at 40 and one who joined at 18 both leave an ₹8.5 lakh corpus behind on a ₹5,000 pension, even though the younger saver paid far less to get there.
Who can join, and what the rules cost you
Atal Pension Yojana is open to Indian citizens aged 18 to 40 with a bank account and Aadhaar, but not to anyone who is or has ever been an income-tax payer. That bar took effect on 1 October 2022, and it has teeth: an account opened on or after that date by someone later found to have been a taxpayer is closed and the accumulated amount returned.
The practical shape of it:
- You contribute until 60, so joining at 40 means at least 20 years of payments and joining at 18 means 42.
- The money is auto-debited from your bank account monthly, quarterly or half-yearly.
- Holding an NPS account as well is allowed. The two schemes sit side by side, despite some pages saying otherwise.
- Miss a payment and the bank charges ₹1 a month for every ₹100 of contribution, or part of it.
- An unpaid account is frozen after 6 months, deactivated after 12 and closed after 24.
- Leaving before 60 returns your contributions plus the income actually earned on them, without the guaranteed pension, and only on narrow grounds such as terminal illness or death.
One ambiguity worth knowing if you are close to the ceiling. The government's own scheme page gives the age range as "between 18 and 40 years" in one line and "18 years to 39 years 364 days" in another, and at least one published calculator refuses to price an entry age of 40 at all. The official contribution chart carries a full age-40 row, which this calculator reproduces, so if you are 40 the answer you get depends on which sentence your bank is reading.
The tax break, and who can actually use it
APY contributions qualify for a deduction under Section 80CCD(1), with the additional Section 80CCD(1B) available within the overall limits, and both only under the old tax regime. Almost every page about this scheme leads with that. It is true, and for most readers it is beside the point.
Income-tax payers cannot join. So the deduction reaches two groups only: people who joined before October 2022 and have since started paying tax, and people who join as non-taxpayers and later cross into the tax net. If you are weighing APY today and the size of the deduction is what decides it, you are by definition not eligible to open the account.
The government co-contribution has the same problem in reverse, and it is worth saying plainly because search results still describe it in the present tense. The government did once pay in 50% of the contribution or ₹1,000 a year, whichever was lower. That applied only to subscribers who joined between 1 June 2015 and 31 March 2016, and it ran for five years to FY 2019-20. Nobody joining now receives it.
The NPS calculator covers the market-linked pension option with a larger possible corpus, and the EPS pension calculator covers the employee pension from your provident fund.
What this does not promise
The pension amounts and the contribution chart are set by the government and can be revised, so the figures here follow the current official chart. The corpus values are the scheme's stated returns to the nominee, and the tax treatment depends on your regime and total contributions across schemes. APY rules are set by PFRDA, and this is not investment or tax advice, so a qualified adviser can confirm how the scheme fits alongside your other retirement savings and your specific tax position.
Frequently asked questions
What is an Atal Pension Yojana calculator? An Atal Pension Yojana calculator finds the fixed monthly contribution you need for a chosen guaranteed pension, based on the age you join, using the official PFRDA chart. It also shows the number of years you pay in, the total you contribute, and the corpus your nominee receives.
How much do I pay per month in APY? The monthly contribution is set by the official age-wise chart, not a formula. For a ₹5,000 pension you pay ₹210 a month if you join at 18, ₹577 at 30, and ₹1,454 at 40. For a ₹1,000 pension it is ₹42 at 18, ₹116 at 30, and ₹291 at 40.
What pension can I get from Atal Pension Yojana? APY offers a guaranteed monthly pension of ₹1,000, ₹2,000, ₹3,000, ₹4,000 or ₹5,000 from age 60. The pension continues to your spouse after you, and after both of you the nominee receives the built-up corpus.
Who can join Atal Pension Yojana? Indian citizens aged 18 to 40 with a bank account and Aadhaar, provided they are not and have never been an income-tax payer. That exclusion took effect on 1 October 2022, and an account opened after it by someone later found to have been a taxpayer is closed. Contributions run until 60, so joining at 40 means at least 20 years of paying in and joining at 18 means 42.
Can an income-tax payer join APY? No. Anyone who is or has ever been an income-tax payer has been barred since 1 October 2022. It is also why the Section 80CCD deduction that nearly every APY page leads with reaches so few people: it only helps someone who joined before the bar, or who became a taxpayer after joining.
What happens if I miss an APY contribution? The bank charges ₹1 a month for every ₹100 of contribution, or part of it. An account with unpaid dues is frozen after 6 months, deactivated after 12 months and closed after 24, so a long gap ends the pension rather than merely delaying it.
What corpus does my nominee get? The nominee receives a corpus that scales with the pension: ₹1.7 lakh for a ₹1,000 pension, ₹3.4 lakh for ₹2,000, ₹5.1 lakh for ₹3,000, ₹6.8 lakh for ₹4,000, and ₹8.5 lakh for ₹5,000. This is paid after both the subscriber and the spouse.
Does starting APY early save money? Yes, a lot. The same ₹5,000 pension costs ₹210 a month if you start at 18 but ₹1,454 a month if you start at 40, and the total you pay in over the years is about ₹1.06 lakh versus ₹3.49 lakh. Joining younger spreads a smaller amount over more years.
Does APY give a tax benefit? Contributions qualify under Section 80CCD(1) with the additional Section 80CCD(1B) inside the overall limits, and both only under the old regime. The catch is that income-tax payers cannot join, so the deduction only reaches people who joined before October 2022 or who became taxpayers after joining. The tax treatment depends on your regime and your total contributions across schemes, so confirm the specifics with a qualified adviser.
Does the government still add a co-contribution to APY? No. The government co-contributed 50% of the contribution or ₹1,000 a year, whichever was lower, but only for subscribers who joined between 1 June 2015 and 31 March 2016, and only for five years to FY 2019-20. Search results still describe it in the present tense; nobody joining now receives it.