How many mutual funds are under ₹100 crore? (2026)

The number

Of the 1,852 live schemes with an AMFI average-AUM figure for April–June 2026, 508 averaged less than ₹100 crore. That is 27.4% of the schemes, and they held ₹18,418 crore between them: 0.27% of the money.

The figures are AMFI's scheme-wise average AUM (AAUM) for the quarter, the latest complete one, covering all of a scheme's plans together. The 1,852 are the schemes we could match to a live fund; segregated portfolios are left out.

Where the money sits

The distribution is lopsided in both directions. The median scheme averaged ₹486 crore. The 152 schemes above ₹10,000 crore, 8% of the count, held two-thirds of the money. The 931 schemes under ₹500 crore, half the count, held under 2%.

Which categories are small

Small funds are mostly passive and debt. Index funds and ETFs alone account for 280 of the 508.

Some sub-categories are about half small. Half of the equity ETFs (28 of 54) and half of the overnight funds (31 of 61) averaged under ₹100 crore, as did 11 of 23 gilt funds.

Active equity is the exception. Only 32 of 515 equity schemes were that small, and only 11 of 232 sectoral and thematic funds, despite the number of themes being launched.

Most of them are new

Many small funds are simply young. Using the first NAV in each scheme's history:

• 143 of the 508 are under a year old
• 144 are one to three years old
• 90 are three to five years old
• 131 are more than five years old

So 287, more than half, started within the last three years. A fund raised in a new fund offer often begins small and grows, or does not.

The older group is the more telling one. Of the 131 small funds older than five years, 95 are equity, hybrid or debt funds rather than index funds, ETFs or fund-of-funds. After five years, these have not found many investors.

Small funds cost more

SEBI sets expense-ratio ceilings in slabs by fund size, with the highest percentage allowed on the smallest funds, and the data shows it. Using each scheme's Direct-plan expense ratio from AMFI's TER disclosure, mostly as of 30 September 2026:

The equity medians cover 29, 408 and 71 funds; the index medians 144, 211 and just 3, so the last index figure is thin.

For index funds the gap matters most, since they all try to deliver the same index return and cost is most of the difference between them. Debt funds show no such pattern: their medians are 0.16% to 0.19% at every size.

What this does not tell you

Small is not bad. A small fund can be well run, and a large one badly run. Size changes the costs a fund is allowed to charge and how easily it can trade, not the quality of its decisions.

These are quarterly averages. A fund that launched in June shows a small April–June average even if it closed the quarter much larger.

The match is not complete. AMFI lists schemes by name, and 779 of its names did not match a live fund in our data, mostly because of renamed schemes or closed ones. The counts above cover the 1,852 that did.

Where to go from here

The screener can filter any category by AUM. For the other end of the scale, see the largest equity funds by AUM, and for why there are so many schemes in the first place, how many mutual fund schemes India has. The guide to what a fund really costs explains why a few basis points add up.