Social Security Estimator

What this estimate assumes

• The claiming-age adjustment (the percentage your benefit is reduced before, or increased after, your Full Retirement Age) uses the SSA's official published formula: 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, 5/12 of 1% per month beyond that, and 2/3 of 1% (8%/year) per month of delay up to age 70.
• Your Full Retirement Age is calculated from your birth year using the SSA's standard table (66 for anyone born 1943–1954, rising in two-month steps to 67 for anyone born 1960 or later).
• "Estimate from my current salary" mode is a rough approximation: it treats your current salary as if it represented your average earnings across your career and applies the 2026 bend-point formula (90% / 32% / 15%). It ignores your real earnings history, so it can be significantly off — especially early or late in a career. Use "I know my benefit" mode with the number from your ssa.gov statement whenever possible.

Trying to decide when to claim? Read When Should You Claim Social Security?

How to use this calculator

1. Pick your input mode. If you have a recent Social Security statement from your ssa.gov/myaccount, choose "I know my Full Retirement Age benefit" and enter that dollar figure directly — it's far more accurate than any salary-based guess. If you don't have a statement handy, switch to "Estimate from my current salary" instead.
2. Enter your birth year. This determines your Full Retirement Age (FRA) — the age at which you receive 100% of your calculated benefit, no reduction and no delay bonus.
3. Enter the age you're planning to claim, between 62 (earliest allowed) and 70 (latest age the delay credit keeps growing).
4. Click "Estimate my benefit." The calculator adjusts your Full Retirement Age benefit up or down based on the gap between your claiming age and your FRA.
5. Read the result box: it shows your estimated monthly benefit at the claiming age you entered, along with a comparison chart so you can see how claiming earlier or later would change that number.
6. Re-run the numbers with a different claiming age a few times — claiming at 62 versus 70 can change your monthly check by more than 75%, so it's worth comparing before you decide.

Worked example

Say you were born in 1985, which puts your Full Retirement Age at 67 years and 0 months (804 months). You don't have your ssa.gov statement handy, so you switch to "Estimate from my current salary" and enter your current salary of $75,000/year.

The calculator treats your salary as a rough stand-in for your lifetime average monthly earnings: $75,000 ÷ 12 = $6,250. It then runs that $6,250 through the 2026 bend-point formula, which pays a much higher percentage of lower earnings than higher earnings:

• 90% of the first $1,286: 0.90 × $1,286 = $1,157.40
• 32% of the amount between $1,286 and $6,250 (your earnings don't reach the second bend point, $7,749, so this piece stops at $6,250): 0.32 × ($6,250 − $1,286) = 0.32 × $4,964 = $1,588.48
• 15% of anything above $7,749: $0, since $6,250 doesn't reach that bend point

Add those up: $1,157.40 + $1,588.48 = $2,745.88. That's your estimated Full Retirement Age benefit (PIA).

If you claim exactly at your FRA (67y0mo), there's no reduction or bonus, so your monthly check is the full $2,745.88 — about $2,746/month.

Now compare what happens if you claim earlier or later instead:

• Claim at 62 (744 months): you're claiming 60 months early. The first 36 months of early claiming cost 5/9 of 1% each (36 × 5/9% = 20%), and the remaining 24 months cost 5/12 of 1% each (24 × 5/12% = 10%). Total reduction: 30%, so your factor is 0.70. $2,745.88 × 0.70 ≈ $1,922/month — about $823 less than waiting for FRA, every month, for life.
• Claim at 70 (840 months): you're delaying 36 months past FRA (the maximum — delay credits stop accruing at 70). Each month of delay adds 2/3 of 1%, so 36 × 2/3% = 24%, giving a factor of 1.24. $2,745.88 × 1.24 ≈ $3,405/month — about $659 more than FRA, and nearly $1,483 more per month than claiming at 62.

That's roughly a $1,483/month swing — over $17,700 a year — between the earliest and latest claiming ages, based purely on timing. (Remember: because this example uses "estimate from salary" mode, the $2,745.88 PIA itself is a simplification; the claiming-age math above is the exact SSA formula.)

Frequently asked questions

Why does "Estimate from my current salary" give a different number than my actual Social Security statement?

Because it's a shortcut. The SSA calculates your real benefit from your highest 35 years of inflation-adjusted earnings, not your current salary alone. If your income has grown over your career, is seasonal, or you haven't worked 35 years yet, this mode's number can be noticeably higher or lower than your actual benefit. Whenever you have a statement from ssa.gov/myaccount, switch to "I know my Full Retirement Age benefit" and enter that number directly for a far more accurate result.

What exactly is "Full Retirement Age," and why does it matter?

Full Retirement Age (FRA) is the age at which the SSA pays you 100% of your calculated benefit — no early-claiming reduction and no delayed-retirement bonus. For anyone born in 1960 or later, FRA is 67. Claiming before FRA permanently reduces your monthly check; claiming after FRA (up to age 70) permanently increases it. This calculator uses your birth year to determine your FRA automatically.

Why does claiming just a few months early or late matter so much?

Because the adjustment is calculated in whole months, not whole years, and it's permanent. Early claiming costs 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months, then 5/12 of 1% per month beyond that — so even a 6-month difference in your claiming date can shift your lifetime benefit by hundreds of dollars a month, locked in for as long as you collect.

Is it ever better to claim early at 62 instead of waiting?

This calculator only shows the monthly dollar amount, not your personal break-even point, health, or other income needs — which are the real deciding factors. Generally, the longer you expect to live past your FRA, the more waiting pays off, because the higher monthly amount eventually overtakes the extra years of smaller checks you'd have collected by claiming early. Our guide on when to claim Social Security walks through that trade-off in more depth.

Does this calculator account for spousal or survivor benefits?

No. This tool estimates only your own retirement benefit based on your own earnings record and claiming age. Spousal benefits, survivor benefits, divorced-spouse benefits, and the Windfall Elimination Provision/Government Pension Offset for public-sector workers all have their own separate rules that this calculator doesn't model.

What happens if I enter a claiming age older than 70?

Delayed retirement credits stop accruing at age 70 — the SSA doesn't pay you more for waiting past that point, so there's no benefit to delaying further. This calculator caps the delay credit at age 70 even if you were to enter a later claiming age, since that's the maximum age at which the formula applies.