In-Hand Salary Calculator (CTC to Take-Home)

How to use this in-hand salary calculator

1. Enter your CTC a year from your offer letter.
2. Set your basic pay as a share of CTC and your HRA as a share of basic. Your payslip or offer letter shows both; the calculator starts at 50% and 40%.
3. Choose how PF is worked out: 12% of your basic, 12% of wages up to the ₹25,000 ceiling, or no PF.
4. Pick your tax regime. For the old regime, add the rent you pay, your city and your deductions.
5. Open "More options" to remove gratuity from the CTC, change the professional tax or add variable pay.

CTC, gross salary and in-hand pay

Your CTC (cost to company) is everything your employer spends on you in a year. It includes money you never see in your salary account: your employer's PF contribution, gratuity set aside for the future and any variable pay that depends on performance.

Your gross salary is the fixed pay on your payslip before deductions: basic pay, HRA and other allowances. Your in-hand salary, also called take-home or net pay, is what reaches your bank after your own PF, professional tax and income tax are taken out. On a ₹12 lakh CTC with the calculator's defaults, gross salary is ₹10,99,154 and in-hand pay is ₹10,24,654, or 85.4% of the CTC.

What each part of your salary means

• Basic pay (plus any dearness allowance) is fully taxable. PF, gratuity and the HRA exemption are all worked out from it.
• House rent allowance (HRA) is taxable in the new regime. In the old regime part of it can be tax-free if you pay rent.
• Special allowance is whatever is left of your fixed pay after basic and HRA. It is taxable.
• Employer's PF: your employer pays 12% of your PF wages. Up to ₹2,083 a month of it goes to EPS, the pension scheme, and the rest into your EPF account. It is part of your CTC but not your gross salary. It is not taxed, except for any part of your employer's PF, NPS and superannuation contributions together above ₹7.5 lakh a year.
• Gratuity: many employers include it at 4.81% of basic. It is paid only when you leave after at least 5 years.
• Your PF: 12% of your PF wages is deducted from your pay. In the old regime it counts towards the ₹1.5 lakh limit for tax-saving investments.
• Professional tax is set by your state, and no state can charge more than ₹2,500 a year. The amount varies by state, so check your payslip and enter 0 if it shows none.
• Income tax is deducted each month as TDS, spread over the year.

How the calculator works

In-hand salary by CTC

New regime, tax year 2026-27, with basic at 50% of CTC, HRA at 40% of basic, PF at 12% of basic, gratuity in the CTC and ₹2,500 of professional tax:

On these assumptions a CTC of up to about ₹13.9 lakh pays no income tax in the new regime, because gross salary less the standard deduction stays within ₹12 lakh. Just above that, marginal relief keeps the tax small. For 14 common CTCs from ₹5 lakh to ₹50 lakh, the in-hand salary by CTC pages give the full breakup, both regimes and the PF options.

The old regime with HRA

In the old regime the tax-free part of your HRA is the lowest of three amounts: the HRA you receive, the rent you pay minus 10% of your basic pay, and 50% of basic pay (40% outside the eight cities). From 2026-27 the 50% limit applies in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmedabad. In-hand pay a month, with ₹1.5 lakh of investments including your EPF and ₹25,000 of health insurance:

Even with a large HRA exemption the new regime leaves more in hand at every level here. The old regime needs bigger deductions on top to catch up. Work out your exact exemption with the HRA calculator, and the deductions at which the old regime breaks even with the income tax calculator.

The labour codes and the 50% wage rule

The four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025. They define wages for PF, gratuity and other benefits as basic pay, dearness allowance and retaining allowance. Other payments, such as HRA, conveyance, overtime, commission and your employer's PF contribution, are left out, but only up to a point: if they add up to more than half of your total pay, the excess is counted as wages. Gratuity is not counted in this test, and variable pay such as performance incentives is not treated as wages.

The rule does not say your basic pay must be 50% of your CTC. It sets a floor under the wages used for PF and gratuity. The calculator applies it: with basic at 40% of a ₹12 lakh CTC, PF and gratuity are worked out on ₹48,826 a month, not ₹40,000. In-hand pay is ₹85,726 a month, about ₹2,540 less than if PF and gratuity used the ₹40,000 basic alone, and the difference goes into your EPF and gratuity instead. At the default 50% basic, the rule changes nothing.

PF and the ₹25,000 wage ceiling

You and your employer each contribute 12% of your PF wages. By law, contributions are limited to wages of ₹25,000 a month, the ceiling since 17 September 2026 (it was ₹15,000 before), so at most ₹3,000 each. You and your employer can jointly choose to contribute on your full wages instead. On a ₹12 lakh CTC, PF on the full ₹50,000 basic is ₹6,000 a month each; limited to the ceiling, it is ₹3,000 each and your in-hand pay rises to ₹91,388 a month, while ₹72,000 less a year goes into your EPF. The calculator uses today's ceiling for the whole year, so months before 17 September 2026 may differ on your payslip. See how your PF grows with the EPF calculator, and what you will be owed when you leave with the gratuity calculator.

What this estimate leaves out

The result is an estimate for a resident under 60 whose only income is salary. It does not include reimbursements, meal cards, an employer's NPS contribution, ESI deductions that can apply at lower salaries, or changes to your pay during the year. Your employer may also spread TDS differently, for example by deducting more in the months after a bonus. Treat the figures as a guide and compare them with your payslip.

This calculator gives estimates for education and planning. It is not financial advice, and your lender's figures may differ. See how we calculate.