🎁 Gratuity Calculator

Calculate your gratuity amount under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 — with the statutory ₹20 lakh cap and 5-year eligibility check.

🎁 Service & Salary Details
If filled, this overrides the Date of Joining / Date of Leaving calculation above
📈 Results
⚠️ Not Yet Eligible for Gratuity Gratuity is generally payable only after 5 years of continuous service (except in case of the employee's death or disability). Based on your inputs, service currently rounds to . The amount below is shown for reference only and would not be payable under the Act at this point.
Years of Service Used
Gratuity Amount Payable
Statutory Cap (₹20L)

Calculation Basis

Service Period Used
Formula Applied
Gratuity as per Formula (uncapped)
Gratuity Payable (after ₹20L cap)
Note: The calculated amount exceeds the ₹20,00,000 statutory tax-exempt ceiling for covered employees and has been capped for this result. Any amount an employer pays above this cap is technically an ex-gratia payment and may not carry the same tax exemption under Section 10(10).
Gratuity Growth with Additional Years of Service
Years of Service vs Gratuity Amount
ScenarioYears of ServiceGratuity Amount
⚠️ Figures are illustrative estimates, not financial or tax advice. Actual gratuity payment rules, the statutory ceiling, and eligibility conditions are notified under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 and by the CBDT, and can change — confirm your exact entitlement with your employer's HR/payroll team.
🎁

Enter Your Service Details

Fill in your dates of service (or years directly) and salary to calculate your gratuity amount.

Guide

What Is the Gratuity Calculator?

Last updated: July 2026 · Reviewed by the NeftCal editorial team

A gratuity calculator projects the one-time, lump-sum payment an employer in India owes a long-serving employee under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 — a statutory reward for continuous service, not a savings or investment account you fund yourself. NeftCal's gratuity calculator works as a combined gratuity amount calculator, gratuity eligibility calculator, and gratuity tax-exemption calculator: enter your dates of service (or years directly) and your last drawn Basic + DA salary, and it applies the 15/26 formula used for employees covered under the Act — or the 15/30 variant some employers use voluntarily — capped at the statutory ₹20,00,000 tax-exempt ceiling.

Unlike PPF, EPF, or NPS — savings and investment accounts you build up over years through your own (and sometimes an employer's) contributions, earning interest or market-linked returns — gratuity is entirely employer-funded and pays out as a single lump sum triggered by a specific event: resignation after 5 years of continuous service, retirement, superannuation, death, or disablement. There's no account balance to check and no interest accrues; the amount is fixed at the moment of exit by a formula tied to your final salary and total tenure.

Who Should Use This Calculator

Salaried employees nearing a resignation, retirement, or job change who want to estimate their exit payout; HR and payroll teams estimating gratuity liability for departing staff; job seekers comparing the total exit-benefit value across job offers; and anyone doing long-term retirement or career planning alongside tools like NeftCal's EPF Calculator, PPF Calculator, or NPS Calculator.

Why It Matters for Financial Planning

Gratuity is often the single largest lump sum many salaried employees in India ever receive from an employer, yet it's frequently overlooked in financial planning because it depends entirely on tenure and final salary rather than personal savings discipline. Knowing your projected gratuity in advance helps you plan around a resignation date — a few extra months of service can round a service period up to the next full year and meaningfully change the payout — evaluate the total exit-benefit value of a job offer, and understand that gratuity is subject to a statutory tax-exempt ceiling above which special ex-gratia tax rules can apply.

Common Scenarios

  • Estimating your payout before resigning, to time your exit around a service-year milestone
  • Comparing the total exit-benefit value (gratuity plus EPF balance) of two job offers
  • HR and payroll teams sizing gratuity liability for a departing employee
  • Checking whether you've crossed the 5-year continuous-service eligibility threshold
  • Planning a broader retirement corpus alongside PPF and NPS savings

Tips for Accurate Results

  • Enter only your last drawn Basic + DA, not your gross CTC — HRA, bonus, and special allowances are excluded from the statutory formula
  • Confirm with HR whether your establishment is "covered" under the Act (15/26) or pays gratuity voluntarily (15/30) — this changes the divisor and the result
  • If you've had breaks in service or moved between group companies, check with HR whether your tenure counts as continuous
  • Use the Years of Service override only when you're confident of the exact figure — the Date of Joining/Date of Leaving fields apply the statutory 6-month rounding rule automatically
  • Remember the ₹20,00,000 figure is a tax-exemption ceiling as used by this calculator, not a payment ceiling — confirm the current statutory limit with your employer, since it can be revised over time
Formula

How Gratuity Is Calculated

The formula uses your last drawn salary and rounded years of service, and is capped at the statutory tax-exempt ceiling

15/26 Formula (Covered Employees)
Gratuity = (15 × Last Drawn Salary × Years of Service) ÷ 26

15/30 Formula (Not Covered — Voluntary Scheme)
Gratuity = (15 × Last Drawn Salary × Years of Service) ÷ 30

Where:
Last Drawn Salary = Basic Salary + Dearness Allowance (DA) only — not gross CTC, HRA, bonus, or other allowances
Years of Service = completed years, rounded up if the final year's completed service is 6 months or more, rounded down otherwise
Result is capped at ₹20,00,000 (statutory tax-exempt ceiling, as used by this calculator)
📅

The Rounding Rule

If completed service in the final year of employment is 6 months or more, it rounds up to the next full year. Less than 6 months rounds down. So 9 years 7 months counts as 10 years, while 9 years 4 months counts as 9 years.

🔒

₹20 Lakh Tax-Exempt Ceiling

The statutory tax-exempt ceiling under Section 10(10) is used in this calculator as ₹20,00,000 for covered employees. Amounts above this cap that are paid voluntarily by the employer are treated as an ex-gratia payment and may not carry the same tax exemption.

💡

Things to Remember

  • 5 years of continuous service is generally required, waived for death or disability
  • Only Basic + DA is used — not gross CTC or other salary components
  • Gratuity can be forfeited for proven misconduct causing loss or damage to the employer
  • State-specific and employer-specific gratuity policies may offer terms more favorable than the statutory minimum

⚙️ Why This Formula Works

The 15/26 formula pays 15 days' wages for every completed year of service. The 26 in the denominator represents the number of working days typically assumed in a month (a 6-day work week, excluding 4 Sundays), so dividing the monthly salary by 26 gives an approximate daily wage rate, which is then multiplied by 15 days and by the number of years served. The 15/30 variant, used by some employers outside the Act, instead treats a month as a flat 30 calendar days — a smaller daily-wage denominator adjustment that produces a lower payout for the same inputs.

🎯 When to Use Each Formula

  • 15/26 (Covered) — most factories, shops, and establishments with 10 or more employees, where gratuity is a statutory right under the Act
  • 15/30 (Not Covered) — smaller establishments or employers who pay gratuity as a voluntary policy rather than a statutory obligation
  • Both use the same rounded years-of-service figure and the same ₹20,00,000 cap as coded into this calculator

📋 Assumptions

  • The last drawn salary you enter is already your Basic + DA figure, not gross CTC
  • Your salary stayed the same for the full tenure — the formula uses only the final, last-drawn figure
  • Service is continuous, with no unadjusted breaks that would reset or reduce your tenure count
  • The 6-months-or-more rounding rule is applied only at the boundary of the final year of service

⚠️ Limitations of the Formula

  • Doesn't verify your employer's actual coverage status under the Act — you must confirm that separately
  • Doesn't model forfeiture for proven misconduct, which can legally reduce or eliminate the payout
  • The ₹20,00,000 cap is a fixed figure in this calculator and won't reflect a future statutory revision automatically
  • Doesn't calculate the income tax payable on any ex-gratia amount paid above the cap
Walkthrough

Step-by-Step: How to Use the Gratuity Calculator

From dates of service to a final payout estimate in under a minute

Enter your Date of Joining and Date of Leaving

Input the date your continuous service began and the date you resigned, retired, or plan to leave. The calculator computes your exact tenure in completed years and months from these two dates.

Or enter Years of Service directly

If you already know your exact tenure, skip the two dates and use the optional Years of Service override instead — handy for quick what-if scenarios like "what if I stay one more year?"

Enter your last drawn monthly salary (Basic + DA)

Input only your Basic Salary plus Dearness Allowance — not your gross CTC, HRA, bonus, or other allowances. The default field shows ₹60,000 as a placeholder; replace it with your own figure.

Select your coverage status

Choose "Yes (15/26)" if your establishment is covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, or "No (15/30)" if your employer pays gratuity voluntarily outside the Act. Confirm this with HR if you're unsure.

Click Calculate Gratuity and review your results

The calculator applies the statutory rounding rule, computes your gratuity amount, checks it against the ₹20,00,000 cap, flags your eligibility status if you're under 5 years of service, and shows a chart of how the amount would grow with 1, 3, or 5 additional years.

Example

Worked Example

A realistic Indian employment scenario, calculated step by step

Scenario

Suppose an employee joins a company covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act and works there for 12 years and 7 months before resigning, with a last drawn monthly salary (Basic + DA) of ₹60,000.

Last Drawn Salary₹60,000
Actual Service12 yrs 7 mo
Rounded Years of Service13 years
CoverageCovered (15/26)
Statutory Cap₹20,00,000
EligibilityMet (5+ years)
Step 1 — Apply the rounding rule: 12 years 7 months of completed service — since 7 months is 6 months or more, it rounds up to 13 years.
Step 2 — Apply the 15/26 formula: Gratuity = (15 × 60,000 × 13) ÷ 26 = 1,17,00,000 ÷ 26 = ₹4,50,000.
Step 3 — Check against the statutory cap: ₹4,50,000 is well under the ₹20,00,000 tax-exempt ceiling, so the cap does not apply — the full amount is payable.
Step 4 — Compare to the 15/30 (not-covered) variant: if this same employee's establishment were not covered under the Act, the 15/30 formula gives (15 × 60,000 × 13) ÷ 30 = ₹3,90,000 — ₹60,000 less than the covered-employee formula, purely from the different divisor.
Rounded Years of Service
13 years
Gratuity Payable (15/26)
₹4,50,000
15/30 Comparison
₹3,90,000
ScenarioYears of ServiceGratuity Amount (15/26)
Current13₹4,50,000
+1 Year14₹4,84,615
+3 Years16₹5,53,846
+5 Years18₹6,23,077

Explanation: Notice how the rounding rule matters — this employee's actual tenure was 12 years and 7 months, but the calculation used 13 full years because 7 months exceeds the 6-month threshold. Had they left one month earlier at 12 years and 6 months, the same rule would still round up to 13; had they left at 12 years and 5 months, it would round down to 12 years instead — a difference of roughly ₹34,615 in gratuity from a single month's timing. This is why the calculator's what-if chart, comparing your current figure against 1, 3, and 5 additional years, is useful when deciding on a resignation date.

Cap example: to see the ₹20,00,000 ceiling in action, consider a senior employee retiring after 30 years at a last-drawn salary of ₹1,50,000. The raw 15/26 calculation is (15 × 1,50,000 × 30) ÷ 26 ≈ ₹25,96,154 — but since this exceeds the statutory ceiling as used by this calculator, the amount is capped at ₹20,00,000 for tax-exemption purposes, illustrating why high-salary, long-tenure employees are the group most likely to hit the cap.

Interpretation

Understanding Your Gratuity Amount

How gratuity scales as a share of your final annual salary, by tenure band

Since the 15/26 formula pays roughly half a month's salary for every year of service, a useful way to gauge a gratuity figure is to express it as a share of your final annual salary (last drawn monthly salary × 12). This isn't an official benchmark, but it's a quick way to sanity-check whether a number "looks right" for a given tenure.

Tenure BandGratuity as Share of Final Annual Salary (approx., 15/26)What It Means
Under 5 years0% (not yet payable)Below the minimum eligibility threshold, except in case of death or disablement
5 – 14 years~24% – 67% of final annual salaryMeets eligibility; a moderate lump sum that grows steadily with each additional year
15 years and above~72% of final annual salary or more, rising with tenureA substantial exit benefit — often one of the largest lump sums a long-serving employee receives

For near-term planners: if you're approaching the 5-year mark, a small delay in your resignation date can be the difference between receiving nothing (under the Act) and becoming fully eligible — worth confirming your exact join date and any breaks in service with HR before deciding when to leave.

For long-tenure employees: since the payout scales linearly with both salary and years of service, high earners with long tenures are the group most likely to hit the ₹20,00,000 statutory cap — at that point, any additional years or salary growth stop increasing the tax-exempt amount, though your employer may still pay the full formula amount as a partly taxable ex-gratia sum.

Risk considerations: this calculator assumes your service is continuous and that your employer's coverage status and the statutory cap are as you've entered them. It doesn't verify continuity of service, doesn't model forfeiture for misconduct, and doesn't account for an uncovered employer being unable or unwilling to pay a voluntary gratuity scheme in full.

ℹ️

This tool provides a general estimate for educational purposes only and does not constitute personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Confirm your exact entitlement, coverage status, and current statutory ceiling with your employer's HR/payroll team or a licensed advisor.

Use Cases

Practical Use Cases for the Gratuity Calculator

Where this gratuity calculator earns its keep

🚪

Resignation timing

Check whether staying a few more months would round your tenure up to the next full year before you hand in your notice.

🏖️

Retirement planning

Estimate the lump sum you'll receive at superannuation as part of your broader retirement income picture.

📋

Comparing job offers

Factor gratuity into the total exit-benefit value of a new role, not just the headline CTC.

🧮

HR and payroll estimation

Quickly estimate gratuity liability for a departing employee ahead of a formal full-and-final settlement.

🤝

Negotiating exit terms

Understand your statutory floor before discussing a severance package or negotiated exit date.

🕊️

Estate and nominee planning

Estimate the death-in-service gratuity payable to a nominee, where the 5-year eligibility condition is waived.

🩺

Disablement scenarios

Model the gratuity payable if service ends early due to disablement, another case where the 5-year rule doesn't apply.

🎯

Eligibility milestone tracking

Check exactly when you cross the 5-year continuous-service threshold required under the Act.

⚖️

Benchmarking an employer's offer

Compare an employer's stated gratuity policy against the statutory 15/26 minimum for covered establishments.

🧾

Cross-checking a settlement statement

Sanity-check the gratuity line item on your official full-and-final settlement against the statutory formula.

🔀

Coverage-status comparison

See exactly how much the 15/26 versus 15/30 divisor changes your payout for the same salary and tenure.

🧭

Long-term retirement corpus planning

Add your projected gratuity to EPF, PPF, and NPS projections for a fuller retirement-income picture.

Pros & Cons

Advantages and Limitations

What understanding your gratuity does for your planning, and where this calculator can't replace HR or a licensed advisor

✅ Advantages of Understanding Your Gratuity

  • Reveals an employer-funded lump sum you may not have budgeted for elsewhere in your financial plan
  • Applies the exact statutory 6-month rounding rule automatically instead of manual guesswork
  • Instantly compares covered (15/26) versus not-covered (15/30) scenarios side by side
  • Flags whether you've met the 5-year eligibility threshold before you rely on the figure
  • Shows how the payout would grow with 1, 3, or 5 additional years of service
  • Applies the ₹20,00,000 statutory cap automatically, so you don't overestimate a high-salary, long-tenure payout
  • Helps you time a resignation date around a service-year milestone
  • Useful for HR and payroll teams estimating exit liabilities across a workforce
  • Helps you compare the total exit-benefit value of competing job offers, not just take-home pay
  • Free, instant, and requires no signup or personal information
  • Runs entirely in your browser — your service dates and salary are never sent to a server
  • Downloadable plain-text summary of your inputs and results for your own records

⚠️ Limitations of This Calculator

  • Doesn't verify whether your employer or establishment is actually "covered" under the Act — confirm that with HR
  • Can't account for state-specific or employer-specific gratuity policies more generous than the statutory minimum
  • Doesn't model forfeiture for proven misconduct, which can legally reduce or eliminate the payout
  • Doesn't verify continuity of service across breaks, transfers, or group-company moves
  • Assumes the salary figure you enter is already an accurate Basic + DA figure, not a share of gross CTC
  • Doesn't account for solvency risk if a non-covered employer's voluntary gratuity scheme is informal or unfunded
  • The ₹20,00,000 ceiling is coded as a fixed figure and won't automatically track a future statutory revision
  • Not a substitute for your employer's official full-and-final settlement calculation
  • Doesn't calculate the income tax payable on any ex-gratia amount paid above the statutory cap
Reference

Covered vs. Not Covered Under the Act

Quick-reference comparison of the two gratuity formulas this calculator supports

FeatureCovered Under the Act (15/26)Not Covered (Voluntary, 15/30)
Legal basisStatutory right under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972Employer's voluntary policy or contract
Formula divisor26 (assumed working days in a month)30 (calendar days in a month)
Formula15 × Last Drawn Salary × Years ÷ 2615 × Last Drawn Salary × Years ÷ 30
Payout for same inputsHigher (smaller divisor)Lower
Tax-exemption ceiling₹20,00,000 under Section 10(10), as used by this calculatorSame ceiling may apply per rules, but the payment itself isn't statutorily guaranteed
EnforceabilityLegally mandated once eligibility conditions are metDepends entirely on the employer's own contract or policy
Typical establishmentsEstablishments with 10+ employees (factories, shops, companies)Very small establishments or discretionary employer schemes

Common Mistakes and Expert Tips

❌ Common Mistakes

  • Using gross CTC instead of just Basic + DA as the last drawn salary figure
  • Forgetting the 6-month rounding rule and undercounting (or overcounting) years of service
  • Assuming the ₹20,00,000 figure is a payment limit rather than a tax-exemption ceiling
  • Confusing "covered" and "not covered" status and applying the wrong divisor
  • Assuming gratuity is payable only on retirement, not on resignation after 5 years
  • Not accounting for forfeiture risk in a misconduct-related termination

💡 Expert Tips & Best Practices

  • Confirm your employer's coverage status with HR before relying on the 15/26 figure
  • If you're close to a service-year boundary, check whether staying a few more months crosses the 6-month rounding threshold
  • Keep a personal record of your Basic + DA history, since it can change over a long tenure
  • Cross-check this calculator's output against your employer's official full-and-final settlement statement
  • Factor gratuity into total exit-benefit value, not just take-home salary, when comparing job offers
FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about gratuity

Who is eligible for gratuity?
An employee is generally eligible for gratuity after completing 5 years of continuous service at an establishment with 10 or more employees, under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972. The 5-year requirement is waived in case of the employee's death or disability, where gratuity becomes payable regardless of the length of service.
How is years of service rounded for gratuity calculation?
If the completed service in the final year of employment is 6 months or more, it is rounded up to the next full year. If it is less than 6 months, it is rounded down and ignored. For example, 8 years and 7 months of service is treated as 9 years, while 8 years and 4 months is treated as 8 years.
What salary components count towards gratuity calculation?
Only Basic Salary plus Dearness Allowance (DA) is used in the gratuity formula — not your gross CTC, and not components like HRA, special allowance, bonus, or other perquisites. Use your last drawn Basic + DA figure, not your full monthly salary.
What is the tax-exempt ceiling for gratuity?
The current statutory tax-exempt ceiling under Section 10(10) of the Income Tax Act is ₹20,00,000 (₹20 lakh) for employees covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act. If your calculated gratuity exceeds this amount, the excess is capped for exemption purposes — any amount an employer voluntarily pays above the cap is technically an ex-gratia payment and may not carry the same tax exemption.
Is gratuity payable if I resign versus if I am terminated?
Yes, gratuity is payable on resignation as well as on termination, retirement, or superannuation, as long as the 5-year minimum continuous service condition is met. However, gratuity can be wholly or partially forfeited if the employee's services are terminated for proven misconduct that causes loss or damage to the employer, as provided under the Payment of Gratuity Act.
What is the difference between gratuity and EPF?
Gratuity is a one-time, lump-sum payment funded entirely by the employer and paid out on exit after 5 years of continuous service (with exceptions for death or disablement). EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) is a savings account funded jointly by employee and employer contributions throughout employment, which accrues interest and is withdrawn as an account balance rather than a formula-based lump sum. Use NeftCal's EPF Calculator to estimate your EPF corpus separately.
Is gratuity taxable?
Gratuity received by government employees is fully tax-exempt. For employees covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act, the exemption is available up to the statutory ceiling — ₹20,00,000, as used by this calculator — under Section 10(10) of the Income Tax Act; any amount received above that ceiling is generally taxable as salary income. Confirm your exact tax treatment with a chartered accountant or the Income Tax Department, since ceilings and rules can change.
What happens if I switch jobs before completing 5 years?
If your continuous service with that employer is less than 5 years when you leave, you are generally not eligible for gratuity under the Act, except in case of death or disablement. This calculator flags this with an eligibility warning, though it still shows the formula-based figure for reference.
Can gratuity be paid in installments?
No. Gratuity under the Payment of Gratuity Act is payable as a single lump sum, typically within 30 days of it becoming due. Employers who delay payment beyond this period can be liable to pay simple interest on the delayed amount.
What is the maximum gratuity payable under the Act?
There is no cap on the gratuity formula itself, but the amount eligible for income-tax exemption is capped at the statutory ceiling — ₹20,00,000, as used by this calculator. An employer can pay more than the formula amount, but any excess is generally treated as an ex-gratia payment for tax purposes rather than statutory gratuity.
Do government employees receive gratuity under the same rules?
Central and state government employees are typically covered under separate pension and gratuity rules rather than the Payment of Gratuity Act, though the underlying lump-sum, service-linked structure is broadly similar. This calculator models the Payment of Gratuity Act formula used across most private-sector establishments; government employees should confirm their exact rules with their department.
What's the difference between the 15/26 and 15/30 gratuity formulas?
The 15/26 formula applies to employees covered under the Payment of Gratuity Act and treats a month as 26 working days. The 15/30 formula is sometimes used by employers who pay gratuity voluntarily outside the Act, treating a month as 30 calendar days. Because 26 is a smaller divisor than 30, the 15/26 formula produces a higher gratuity for the same salary and years of service.
Is gratuity mandatory for all employers in India?
The Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972 applies to establishments with 10 or more employees on any day in the preceding 12 months, including factories, mines, plantations, ports, railways, shops, and other notified establishments. Smaller establishments aren't legally required to pay gratuity under the Act, though some choose to offer it voluntarily using a similar formula.
What documents are typically needed to claim gratuity?
Employees usually submit a written application (commonly Form I) to their employer, along with proof of employment dates and identification and bank details for payment. Exact documentation requirements can vary by employer — check with your HR or payroll team for your organization's specific process.
How is gratuity different from a pension or the National Pension System (NPS)?
Gratuity is a one-time lump sum tied to your tenure and final salary, paid once at exit. A pension or NPS annuity instead provides a recurring periodic payment after retirement, funded by ongoing contributions — and, for NPS, market-linked investment growth — over your working years. Model long-term retirement income separately with NeftCal's NPS Calculator.
Learn More

Authoritative Resources on Gratuity

Official guidance to complement this calculator — not a substitute for licensed financial or legal advice

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