Direct vs regular calculator: price your fund's commission

What the direct vs regular calculator answers

Every mutual fund scheme sold through distributors has two plans. They hold the same stocks and are run by the same manager. The Regular plan's expense ratio includes a trail commission for the distributor; the Direct plan's does not. You never see that commission as a charge, because it is taken out before the NAV is published. The direct vs regular calculator turns the gap into rupees for a particular scheme.

Across the market, a Regular equity plan costs a median of about 1.2 points a year more than its Direct twin, as Direct vs Regular plans: how 1.2% a year costs lakhs found. This post shows how to price your own fund's gap.

The inputs

The 0.8% and 1.7% defaults are typical figures for an active equity fund, not any real scheme. When you pick a scheme, both fields fill with AMFI's disclosed expense ratios for its Direct and Regular plans, and a note confirms it: "Both figures are AMFI's disclosed TER for this scheme", followed by the spread. If AMFI discloses only one of the two, the note says so and leaves the other at the default for you to replace from your statement. If you type over either figure, the note changes to "Using the figures you typed."

The return field is labelled before fees for a reason. Both plans earn that return, and each then loses its own TER. Typing the fund's historical return would charge the fee twice, because past NAVs are already net of it.

The results

Three figures head the results:

• Direct after 20 yrs, with the net growth rate underneath (for example "grows at +11.20% net").
• Regular after 20 yrs, with its own net rate.
• Cost of the Regular plan: Direct minus Regular, with the gap as a share of the Direct corpus.

A chart, Both plans, year by year, shows the amount invested and the two plans' values diverging.

A worked example: Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund

Pick Mirae Asset Large Cap Fund in the scheme box. In our data, AMFI's figures dated 14 October 2026 give it a Direct TER of 0.76% and a Regular TER of 1.70%, a spread of 0.94 points. Keep the other defaults: ₹1 lakh lumpsum, ₹10,000 a month, 20 years, 12% before fees. You invest ₹25 lakh in total.

• Direct after 20 yrs: ₹98.62L, growing at 11.24% net
• Regular after 20 yrs: ₹86.74L, growing at 10.30% net
• Cost of the Regular plan: ₹11.88L, 12.0% of the Direct corpus

A 0.94-point fee gap ends up costing 12% of the money. The commission is charged every year on the whole balance, so it grows as the balance does. The horizon slider shows how fast:

At 30 years the gap, ₹60.70 lakh, is more than the ₹37 lakh you put in.

The same inputs for two other schemes

The spread differs a lot between funds, which is why picking the scheme matters more than any typical figure:

An index fund's two plans are close because there is little commission to pay. For active funds the spread is usually wider, and the 1.16-point equity fee gap has the median by category.

What the calculator assumes

1. One flat return, with the lumpsum compounded yearly and the SIP monthly, the same conventions as the lumpsum and SIP calculators.
2. A fixed TER for the whole horizon. AMFI's figure is one month's reading; expense ratios change, and usually fall as a fund grows.
3. No tax and no exit load. Both apply nearly equally to the two plans.
4. Nothing for the distributor's service. The Regular plan's extra cost pays for advice and paperwork. Whether that is worth ₹11.88 lakh to you is a judgement the calculator cannot make.

The fee gap shows up in real returns as well. Measured from NAVs, Direct plans beat Regular by a median 1.31 points a year over three years.

If you are thinking of switching

Moving from Regular to Direct in the same scheme counts as selling and buying again. It can create a capital gain and, on recent units, an exit load. A common approach is to stop new money going into the Regular plan first and move older units once they are past the load period. Direct vs Regular plans explains how the switch works, and what a fund really costs covers the costs outside the expense ratio.

Pick your own scheme in the direct vs regular calculator and set the horizon to your goal date. To see what any one-point gap in return does, whatever its source, the impact of 1% calculator runs the same plan at three rates. None of this is a recommendation of any scheme or plan.