Estimate your monthly Social Security retirement benefit based on your earnings history, birth date, and the age you plan to claim. This calculator applies the same core methodology used by the Social Security Administration: it computes your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME), applies the progressive Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) formula, and adjusts for early or delayed retirement.
Before you begin, gather a few key pieces of information: your date of birth, your estimated average annual earnings (or your actual earnings record if you have it), and the age at which you expect to stop working or start collecting benefits. The results are shown in today’s dollars and reflect the 2026 benefit formula and cost-of-living adjustments.
Estimates are in today’s dollars and assume steady earnings. Actual benefits may differ.
How this estimate works: We compute your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) from your average annual salary, apply the 2026 PIA formula (90%/32%/15% bend points), then adjust for early or delayed claiming.
Assumes steady earnings, no gaps, and today’s dollars.
Enter your birth year. This determines your full retirement age (FRA), which is the age at which you receive 100% of your primary insurance amount. People born in 1960 or later have an FRA of 67.
Input your average annual earnings. Use your best estimate of the yearly income that was subject to Social Security tax. If you have your Social Security statement, you can use your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME) as a reference, but this calculator will approximate it from your annual figure.
Choose your claiming age. You can start as early as 62, but benefits are reduced. Waiting until your FRA gives you 100%, and each year you delay past FRA up to age 70 increases your benefit by a percentage.
Click “Calculate Benefit”. The result appears instantly, showing your estimated monthly payment, your full retirement age, and the adjustment applied for early or delayed claiming.
Adjust and recalculate. Change any input to see how your benefit changes. For example, try claiming at 62 vs. 70 to see the long-term trade-offs.
This calculator provides a simplified but structurally accurate estimate of a retired worker’s Social Security benefit. It follows the standard Social Security Administration methodology:
The monthly benefit shown is the amount you could expect to receive each month if you claim at the selected age and if your earnings history matches the average you entered. The “Primary Insurance Amount” is your benefit at full retirement age before any age-related reduction or increase. The adjustment percentage tells you how much your benefit is reduced or increased relative to FRA.
This tool is for educational and planning purposes only. It does not account for:
For a precise, personalized estimate, create a my Social Security account at ssa.gov or use the SSA’s detailed calculator. This page is a standalone tool and does not connect to any external service.
Social Security is designed to be roughly actuarially fair: claiming early gives you more smaller payments, while claiming later gives you fewer larger payments. The reduction for early claiming is about 6.7% per year for the first three years and 5% per year thereafter. Delaying past FRA increases your benefit by 8% per year up to age 70.
Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which you become eligible for 100% of your primary insurance amount. It ranges from 65 to 67 depending on your birth year. For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67.
It is a reasonable approximation for steady earners, but it simplifies the complex wage-indexing and record-keeping that the SSA uses. If your earnings varied significantly year to year, or if you had periods of zero earnings, your actual benefit could differ meaningfully. Use this as a starting point for planning, not as a substitute for your official statement.
No. All calculations run entirely in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, and no data is saved or transmitted. You can close this page and your inputs will not be retained.
