Social Security Calculator

The short answer

• Your benefit comes from your top 35 years of earnings, run through a formula that replaces a bigger share of lower earnings.
• Full retirement age is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full benefit; waiting to 70 pays 124%.
• Someone earning $70,000 a year for 35 years gets about $2,612 a month at 67, $1,828 at 62 or $3,239at 70, in today’s dollars.
• Waiting from 67 to 70 breaks even at about 82 and a half. Live longer and waiting pays more in total.

How your benefit is worked out

Social Security turns your working life into a monthly check in three steps:

1. Average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Each year’s earnings, up to that year’s taxable maximum, are raised in line with national wage growth. The highest 35 years are added up and divided by 420 months.
2. Primary insurance amount (PIA). A three-step formula turns your AIME into the monthly benefit you get at full retirement age.
3. The claiming adjustment. Claim before full retirement age and the PIA is cut; claim after and it is increased, up to age 70.

After that, a cost-of-living adjustment raises the check every January. The calculator follows these steps and shows the answer in today’s dollars, which is the clearest way to compare claiming ages.

Step 1: your average indexed earnings

Earnings from years before you turn 60 are indexed: multiplied by the ratio of the national average wage index in the year you turn 60 to the index in the year you earned them. That puts a salary from the 1990s on the same footing as one from today. Earnings at 60 and later count at face value.

The calculator’s salary option uses a simple version of this: it assumes every year you work earns the same as your salary now, after indexing, and divides by 35 years. A $70,000 salary for 35 years gives an AIME of about $5,833. With 25 years it falls to about $4,166, because the 10 missing years count as zero.

Step 2: the 2026 benefit formula

For people who turn 62 in 2026, the PIA is 90% of the first $1,286 of AIME, plus 32% of AIME between $1,286 and $7,749, plus 15% of anything above $7,749. These two cut-off points, the bend points, rise each year with average wages.

The formula is deliberately progressive. The first $1,286 of average earnings is replaced at 90%, the top slice at only 15%. A low earner might get back more than half their pre-retirement pay; a high earner far less. That is why Social Security alone rarely covers retirement for middle and higher earners, and why a 401(k) or IRA matters.

Your full retirement age

Full retirement age (FRA) is when you get 100% of your PIA. It was raised by the 1983 Social Security amendments and has now reached its final step.

Anyone born on January 1 is treated as born the year before, and Social Security considers you to reach an age the day before your birthday. Anyone turning 62 in 2026 was born in 1964 and has a full retirement age of 67.

Claiming early: the reduction

You can claim from 62, but the benefit is reduced by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age, and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that. With an FRA of 67, claiming at 62 is 60 months early: 20% for the first 36 months plus 10% for the next 24, a 30% cut.

Waiting: delayed retirement credits

For each month you wait past full retirement age, your benefit rises by 2/3 of 1%, or 8% a year, until 70. With an FRA of 67, claiming at 70 pays 124% of your PIA. The credits stop at 70, so there is no reason to wait any longer; if you haven’t applied by then, apply.

Unlike the cut for claiming early, the delayed credits are permanent increases, and COLAs are then applied to the larger amount. If you are the higher earner in a marriage, the larger check also becomes your spouse’s survivor benefit.

Your benefit at every age

The difference between the earliest and latest claim is large: $1,411 a month, or about $16,932 a year, for the rest of your life. Social Security rounds each monthly benefit down to the dollar, which the calculator does too.

The break-even age

Waiting means giving up checks now for bigger checks later. The break-even age is when the running total from the later claim catches up. Because the percentages are the same for everyone with the same FRA, the break-even ages barely change with income.

These figures ignore taxes and what you might earn by investing early checks. If you would invest them and earn a real return, the break-even moves a little later. If you would otherwise draw down savings to wait, the comparison depends on what those savings earn.

Lifetime totals

The same $70,000 earner’s total benefits, in today’s dollars, depend on how long they live:

To 90, waiting until 70 brings in about $163,152 more than claiming at 62. Many people underestimate how long they will live: a 65-year-old today has a good chance of reaching 90, especially as part of a couple where either partner may live that long.

The 2026 cost-of-living adjustment

Benefits rose by 2.8% from January 2026, based on the rise in the CPI-W measure of inflation from the third quarter of 2024 to the third quarter of 2025. SSA estimates the average retired worker now gets about $2,071 a month. The maximum benefit for someone claiming at full retirement age in 2026 is $4,152 a month.

COLAs apply from age 62 whether or not you have claimed, so waiting doesn’t mean missing out on them. That is why the calculator works in today’s dollars: the future checks will be larger in dollars, but buy about the same.

Working while you claim

If you claim before full retirement age and keep working, the retirement earnings test may hold back some of your benefits.

The money isn’t lost for good. At full retirement age SSA recalculates your benefit as if you had claimed later by the months withheld. Only wages and self-employment income count; pensions, investment income and IRA withdrawals don’t.

Tax on Social Security

Whether your benefits are taxed depends on your provisional income: your other income plus tax-exempt interest plus half your benefits.

The thresholds were set in 1983 and 1993 and have never been raised, so more retirees pay tax on benefits each year. Most states don’t tax Social Security; a handful do, often with their own exemptions. Our federal income tax calculator shows your full return.

The senior deduction

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added a deduction of $6,000 for each person aged 65 or over, for 2025 to 2028. It is reduced by 6% of modified AGI above $75,000 ($150,000 for married couples filing jointly), and it comes on top of the standard deduction and its extra amount for people 65 and over.

It doesn’t change how much of your benefit is taxable, but it lowers the taxable income the benefits sit in. The calculator includes it. In the example above, it is part of why the extra tax is only $1,225 on $11,300 of taxable benefits.

Spouses, survivors and ex-spouses

A spouse gets the larger of their own benefit and the spousal benefit, not both. A divorced spouse can claim on an ex’s record if the marriage lasted 10 years and they haven’t remarried. Because the survivor keeps the larger check, the higher earner waiting to 70 is often the best move for a couple, even if the lower earner claims earlier.

Fewer than 35 years of work

The formula always divides by 35 years. Years at home raising children, studying or out of work count as zero. With 25 years of $70,000 earnings instead of 35, the full retirement age benefit drops from about $2,612 to $2,079 a month.

Each extra year of work replaces a zero, which is why working a few more years, even part-time, can raise your benefit noticeably. Once you have 35 years, a new year only helps if it beats your lowest indexed year.

High earners and the wage cap

Social Security tax and benefits stop at the taxable maximum, $184,500in 2026. Earnings above it don’t raise your benefit. Earning at the cap for 35 years in today’s terms gives an AIME of about $15,375 and a full retirement age benefit near $4,369 in our simple estimate.

SSA’s official maximum for someone reaching full retirement age in 2026 is lower, $4,152, because the caps and bend points used are from earlier years. For high earners, Social Security replaces a small share of pay, and the rest must come from savings.

How to decide when to claim

• Health and family history. If you expect to live past your early 80s, waiting usually pays more.
• Marriage. The higher earner’s claiming age sets the survivor benefit, often the most important number for a couple.
• Other income. If you need the money and have no savings to draw on, claiming early may be the only option.
• Work. If you are still earning well above $24,480, claiming before full retirement age mostly gets withheld anyway.
• Taxes. Waiting and drawing on IRAs first can lower lifetime taxes and leave room for Roth conversions before benefits start.

Bridging the gap with savings

If you retire at 62 but want to claim at 70, your savings must cover eight years on their own. That is a large draw, but it buys a bigger, inflation-protected income for life, which works like longevity insurance. Our retirement calculator checks whether your savings can cover the bridge, and the RMD calculator shows the withdrawals the IRS will require from 73 or 75.

1. Age 62Earliest claim

   70% of the full benefit with an FRA of 67.

2. Age 65Medicare

   Enroll even if you delay Social Security; premiums are then paid directly.

3. Age 67Full retirement age

   100% of your PIA; the earnings test stops.

4. Age 70Maximum benefit

   124% of your PIA. Apply by now.

Check your own record

Sign in at ssa.gov/myaccount to see your full earnings history and SSA’s estimates at 62, full retirement age and 70. Check every year’s earnings: a missing year from an employer error lowers your benefit, and it is easier to fix while you still have W-2s. Then enter the full retirement age figure into the calculator under "My statement" to compare ages, break-even and tax with your real numbers.

Key numbers