Dec-25 SIP flows crosses 31K; but SIP Stoppage touches 85%

30 Jan 2026 , 01:03 PM

WHY SIP FLOWS ARE CRITICAL TO MUTUAL FUND FLOWS?

Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs) of mutual funds offer an elegant combination of disciplined savings, periodic investments, and cash flow pragmatism. Let me talk about the last point. Most people earn their incomes on a monthly basis. Hence expecting them to invest a large sum of money lumpsum is impractical. A better approach to invest in mutual funds is to allocate small chunks each month and gradually grow it over a period of time.

SIP flows give the advantage of synchronizing with your income flows. More importantly, they offer rupee-cost averaging. That means, when the markets are up, you get more value on your investment and when markets are down, you get more units for your fixed allocation each month. It is like “Heads I win, Tails I do not lose” situation. However, for SIPs to be successful, they have to be sustained for a long period of 15-20 years.

To understand the importance of SIPs in India, one must look at the SIP folios versus the overall folios. Overall mutual fund folios in India are more than 26 Crore and SIP folios are around 10.3 Crore. That means, these SIPs account for close to 40% of the total folios of mutual funds. Of course, the share of SIP AUM to overall AUM is much smaller at around 20%, but that is because SIP is more of a retail product. Now for the SIP flow numbers.

AFTER STRUGGLING AT 30K, SIP FLOWS CROSS 31K

Since July 2025, SIP flows have struggled between ₹28,000 Crore and ₹30,000 Crore. However, in December 2025, the SIP flows finally broke above 30K and 31K to settle at ₹31,002 Crore.

Monthly MF Data	Gross Monthly SIP Inflows (₹ Crore)
Dec-24	26,459
Jan-25	26,400
Feb-25	25,999
Mar-25	25,926
Apr-25	26,632
May-25	26,688
Jun-25	27,269
Jul-25	28,464
Aug-25	28,265
Sep-25	29,361
Oct-25	29,529
Nov-25	29,445
Dec-25	31,002

Data Source: AMFI

One point to note here. SIPs are report by AMFI on a gross flow basis and not on a net basis. So, when ₹31,002 Crore are shown as gross SIP flows, only the net effect (after SIP redemptions) will be adding to the SIP AUM. Gross monthly SIP flows averaged ₹27,536 Crore in the previous 12-month rolling period; the best in last 8 years. December 2025 marked the fifteenth month in a row when monthly SIP flows stayed above ₹25,000 Crore; but the first month when the flows were above ₹30,000 Crore. There was some late November flows that got bunched into December flows due to a series of holidays towards the end of November. However, the good news is that SIP flows got past 30K level.

SIP STORY FLATTENS; MILESTONES GET TOUGHER

Here are monthly SIP flows since April 2017, with each ₹1,000 Crore milestone highlighted.

Month	FY26	FY25	FY24	FY23	FY22	FY21	FY20	FY19	FY18
March		25,926	19,271	14,276	12,328	9,182	8,641	8,055	7,119
February		25,999	19,187	13,686	11,438	7,528	8,513	8,095	6,425
January		26,400	18,838	13,856	11,517	8,023	8,532	8,064	6,644
December	31,002	26,459	17,610	13,573	11,305	8,418	8,518	8,022	6,222
November	29,445	25,320	17,073	13,306	11,005	7,302	8,273	7,985	5,893
October	29,529	25,323	16,928	13,041	10,519	7,800	8,246	7,985	5,621
September	29,361	24,509	16,042	12,976	10,351	7,788	8,263	7,727	5,516
August	28,265	23,547	15,814	12,693	9,923	7,792	8,231	7,658	5,206
July	28,464	23,332	15,245	12,140	9,609	7,831	8,324	7,554	4,947
Jun	27,269	21,262	14,734	12,276	9,156	7,917	8,122	7,554	4,744
May	26,688	20,904	14,749	12,286	8,819	8,123	8,183	7,304	4,584
April	26,632	20,371	13,728	11,863	8,596	8,376	8,238	6,690	4,269

Data Source: AMFI

The pace of milestones has slowed in FY26, compared to FY25 and FY24 amid macro uncertainty. There have been just 4 milestones in first 9 months of FY26. There are 3 months to go so we could scale up to 6 milestones also. However, what is material is that the SIPs have finally got the momentum to cross the ₹30,000 Crore mark, and if that is sustained, then more milestones should not be an issue.

READING THROUGH THE SIP TICKET STORY

Since FY22, SIP flows have been progressively improving each year. If FY25 was the best full fiscal year; then FY26 (extrapolated) promises to be even better.

Financial Year	Gross Annual SIP flows (₹ Crore)	Average Monthly SIP Ticket (AMST)	YOY Accretion in (%)
FY16-17	₹43,921 Crore	₹3,660 Crore
FY17-18	₹67,190 Crore	₹5,600 Crore	53.01%
FY18-19	₹92,693 Crore	₹7,725 Crore	37.95%
FY19-20	₹100,084 Crore	₹8,340 Crore	7.96%
FY20-21	₹96,080 Crore	₹8,007 Crore	-3.99%
FY21-22	₹124,566 Crore	₹10,381 Crore	29.65%
FY22-23	₹155,972 Crore	₹12,998 Crore	25.21%
FY23-24	₹199,219 Crore	₹16,602 Crore	27.73%
FY24-25	₹289,352 Crore	₹24,113 Crore	45.24%
FY25-26 #	₹342,207 Crore	₹28,517 Crore	18.26%

Data Source: AMFI (# – 9 months data annualized)

The FY26 gross annual SIP flows is 9 months data annualized; which should, anyways, be fairly reflective of full-year trend. These trends have only been bettered in the past, going by empirical evidence. Despite the volatility in markets, average monthly SIPs in FY26 are 18.26% higher than FY25. Interestingly, the average monthly SIP flows are up nearly 2.75X since FY22 and 7.79X since FY17. That is phenomenal secular growth in a product that has virtually become the driving engine of mutual fund AUM growth and participation of retail investors in India.

SIP FOLIOS CLOSE THE YEAR AT 10.11 CRORE UNITS

SIP folios in December 2025 bounced for the eighth month in a row to touch 10.11 Crore folios.  It is only now that the clean-up impact is finally neutralized. SIP folios at 1,010.73 Lakhs is still short of the December 2024 peak of 1,032.03 Lakhs. Gross SIP folio accretions in December 2025 were higher MOM at 60.46 Lakhs; but SIP closures were also sharply higher at 51.57 Lakhs, resulting in elevated SIP stoppage ratio of 85.3%. Since April 2025 (post SIP folios clean-up), the outstanding SIP folios have bounced 13.7% from a low of 889.08 Lakhs.

SIP AUM is less representative of retail spread compared to SIP Folios, but it is still useful to look at the growth in SIP AUM? Between November 2025 and December 2025, SIP AUM grew from ₹16,52,665 Crore to ₹16,63,369 Crore; as MTM gains offset the higher SIP stoppage ratio. However, the relatively high level of SIP stoppage ratio does remain a concern; which is what we focus on now.

SIP STOPPAGE RATIO – SPIKES TO 85% LEVELS

The gap between gross SIP folios reported by AMFI and net SIP flows is explained by SIP stoppage ratio; the ratio of SIP accounts discontinued to new SIP accounts opened.

Month	SIP Stoppage
January 2025	109.15%
February 2025	122.76%
March 2025	128.27%
Fiscal FY25	75.63%
April 2025	352.79%
May 2025	72.12%
June 2025	77.77%
July 2025	62.66%
August 2025	74.51%
September 2025	76.27%
October 2025	74.85%
November 2025	75.57%
December 2025	85.30%
Fiscal FY26 #	98.98%

Data Source: AMFI (# 9 months data)

After a long gap, the annualized SIP stoppage ratio has fallen below 100% and still has a long road to normalize. There is still the SIP clean-up distortion and the April effect; but even otherwise, the SIP stoppage ratio has averaged well above 75% in the last 4 months. The SIP folio clean-up eliminated 1.43 Crore folios; and since then, only 1.22 Crore folios have been recovered. The base is cleaner, but it will take time to recoup previous peaks. However, that still does not address the issue of inflated SIP stoppage ratio.

However, the clean-up has meant that the Contributing SIP Ratio (ratio of contributing SIP folios to total SIP folios) has come in at 96.9%. The Contributing SIP ratio was in the seventies about a year back, which later stabilized in the eighties. However, post the clean-up, the contributing SIP ratio has consistently remained above the 95% mark on average. That is the positive takeaways from the SIP folio clean-up exercise undertaken.

KEY TAKEAWAYS ON SIPS FOR INDIAN INVESTORS

Here are some key takeaways that investors must glean from the SIP story.

• SIPs are a systematic and disciplined approach to investing, wherein you allocate a fixed sum of money each month. For long term goals, such SIPs are best done in equity funds that can give the benefits of capital appreciation in the long run.
• For SIP to be successful, it is time and not timing that matters. It is important to stay invested in the SIP for a long time so that the full benefits of compounding and returns on returns can be realized. When the SIP is scheduled, does not matter.
• SIPs are about making money work hard for the investor. Here the principal plays the more important role in wealth creation in the first 6-7 years. After that, it is the returns on returns that compound and make bulk of the contribution to SIP returns.
• SIPs can be done on equity funds, passive funds or debt funds. However, they work best when the fund has a large equity component where there is price volatility. That is when the idea of rupee cost averaging works best.
• December 2025 saw SIP folios touching nearly 40% of the overall mutual fund folios. However, SIP AUM is much smaller and is less than 20% of the overall AUM. That is because SIP is more of a small ticket retail product.
• One of the concerns in recent months has been the rising SIP stoppage ratio, which is the ratio of discontinued SIPs to newly added SIPs. This normally explains the gap between gross SIPs and net SIPs.

 

LLM Summary In the month of December 2025, SIP flows crossed ₹30,000 Crore for the first time; even clocking a record level of ₹31,002 crore for the month. These are the gross SIP flows, and not the net SIP flows, which is after redemptions. SIP folios are getting back to the pre-cleanup levels and is just about short of the peak level of 10.32 Crore, clocked in December 2024. SIP folios at 10.11 Crore now account for about 40% of the total folios of mutual funds. SIP stoppage ratio continues to be elevated. In December 2025, while the overall gross SIP additions were higher, the stoppages were also higher with the SIP stoppage ratio being closer to 85.3% for the month. That is among the highest in normal market conditions. However, the positive side of the story is that the clean-up has ensured that the Contributing SIP ratio as a share of total SIP Folios, has consistently remained above 95 in the past few months, indicating that SIP folios are predominantly productive.