🕰 Present Value Calculator
A dollar tomorrow is worth less than a dollar today, because today's dollar can be invested. Present value reverses compounding: it discounts a future sum back through each year at your chosen rate until only today's equivalent remains.
Investors use it to judge whether a future payoff justifies its price, and borrowers use it to compare loan offers. Pick a discount rate that reflects your real alternative — a safe rate for conservative answers, a higher one for risky projects.
How to use this calculator
Enter a future amount, the discount rate and how many years away it is to find what it is worth in today's money.
- Enter the Future value you expect to receive.
- Type the Discount rate as a percentage.
- Set the Years in the future.
- Press Calculate to see the present value and the time-value discount.
Frequently asked questions
What is present value?
It is a future sum discounted back to today at a chosen rate. $10,000 arriving in 5 years at a 6% discount rate is worth about $7,472.58 today.
How do I pick the discount rate?
Use the return of your best alternative: a safe rate for conservative answers, a higher rate for risky projects. The rate you choose drives the answer.
What is the discount row?
The difference between the future value and the present value ($2,527.42 in the example): the amount erased by the time value of money.
Can the rate be zero?
Yes. At 0% the present value simply equals the future value, since money is assumed not to lose value over time.