PV Function in Excel: What a Future Amount Is Worth Today

PV Function in Excel: What a Future Amount Is Worth Today featured illustration

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⏱ 2 min readUpdated 5 October 2026

FinancialLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. PV in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

PV returns today’s value of future payments at a discount rate — how much loan an EMI can support, or what an annuity is worth.

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Syntax

=PV(rate, nper, pmt, [fv], [type])
Argument What it means
pmt Payment per period (negative).

Examples

Example 1

=PV(9%/12, 20*12, -40000)

Loan amount a ₹40,000 EMI supports at 9% for 20 years — about ₹44.5 lakh.

PV in practice

Where you will use it

  • Loan you can afford for a given EMI
  • Value today of a pension stream
  • Lump sum vs instalments

Worked example

Loan size for the EMI, 20 years at 8.5%.

EMIFormulaResult
25000=TEXT(PV(0.085/12,240,-A2),"#,##0")28,80,771
40000=TEXT(PV(0.085/12,240,-A3),"#,##0")46,09,234
60000=TEXT(PV(0.085/12,240,-A4),"#,##0")69,13,850

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
Rate per periodMonthly rate for monthly EMIs
SignPayment negative gives a positive PV

FV · PMT · NPV

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📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Financial: EMI, SIP, NPV, IRR, depreciation23 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 35 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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