Daily SIP vs monthly SIP, with the maths

A ₹100 Daily SIP raises an obvious question: is daily actually better than monthly, or is it a gimmick? The answer is that the maths is nearly a tie, and the behaviour is not. Here are the numbers so you can decide for yourself.

Same money, different rhythm

A Daily SIP runs only on market days: weekdays, minus exchange holidays. That is about 250 days a year, around 21 a month. So ₹100 a day is about ₹2,083 a month and ₹25,000 a year, against ₹24,000 for a ₹2,000 monthly SIP. Both go into the same fund, both buy units at the day's NAV, and both are collected by the same UPI AutoPay mandate. The only differences are how often the money moves and how many separate purchases you make.

On weekends and market holidays nothing is debited; the SIP simply resumes on the next market day. Each instalment is a separate purchase at that day's NAV, with its own tiny stamp duty of 0.005%.

The maths, honestly

Here is ten years of ₹100 every market day against ten years of ₹2,000 a month, both at an assumed 12% a year. The assumption is for illustration only.

The daily SIP finishes ahead, but look at the invested row: it also put in ₹10,000 more, because 250 market days × ₹100 is a little more than 12 × ₹2,000. Almost the whole gap comes from that extra money, not from any magic in daily buying. If you matched the rupees exactly, by running the daily SIP at ₹96 a day (₹24,000 a year), the two would finish about ₹600 apart on a pot of over ₹4.6 lakh.

So the honest conclusion is: over the long run, daily and monthly SIPs of the same total amount produce nearly the same result. Anyone claiming daily SIPs earn meaningfully more is overselling.

Where daily really differs

If the maths is a tie, why does daily exist? Because of how people behave with money.

• Smaller bites. ₹100 leaving your account is invisible. ₹3,000 on the 5th, right after rent and the credit card bill, is a decision. Decisions get postponed.
• No single bad day. A monthly SIP buys at one NAV. If that happens to be the month's peak, that is your price. A daily SIP buys on 20 or more days a month, so no single day matters.
• A failed debit costs less. If your balance is short on one day, you miss ₹100, not a whole month's investment.
• It builds the habit faster. Seeing a tiny purchase every day makes investing feel normal, which is the part most people struggle with.

Daily also has two honest downsides. Your statement has many more lines, which can look cluttered, and you need to keep a small balance in the account every day rather than once a month.

Which one should you pick?

Pick by cash flow and temperament, not by returns.

1. Salaried, disciplined, prefer a tidy statement: monthly, on the day after salary lands.
2. Irregular income, or you find big debits painful: daily, in an amount you will not miss.
3. Brand new to investing: daily ₹100 for three months, to prove to yourself that you can, then raise it.

There is no wrong answer. The wrong answer is the SIP you never start.