Social Security Calculator

A Social Security calculator estimates your monthly retirement benefit from your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) using the 2026 formula: 90% of the first $1,286, 32% up to $7,749, and 15% above. An AIME of $5,000 (the value loaded above) yields a $2,345 benefit at Full Retirement Age 67, $1,642 at age 62 or $2,908 at age 70.

Social Security is only one leg of retirement income, so pick the right tool for your question: use this calculator for the government benefit, the Retirement Age Calculator to find your exact full retirement age, the Taxable Social Security Calculator to see how much of the benefit is taxed, the Retirement Calculator to check whether savings plus Social Security hit your target, and the 401(k) Calculator or Roth IRA Calculator for your own savings.

The benefit formula

Social Security pays a progressive benefit: it replaces a much larger share of income for lower earners than for higher earners. The Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) is built from your AIME in three slices using the 2026 bend points:

The result, rounded down to the next lower dime, is your benefit at Full Retirement Age. It is then multiplied by a claiming-age factor (reduced if you start before 67, increased if you wait) and rounded down to the whole dollar. The $1,286 and $7,749 figures are the bend points for people first eligible in 2026, meaning they turn 62 in 2026; they rise most years with national wage growth.

What AIME means

AIME is your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings. Social Security takes the 35 years in which you earned the most, adjusts (indexes) each year's earnings for wage inflation so old dollars are comparable to recent ones, adds them up, and divides by 420 (35 years × 12 months). If you worked fewer than 35 years, zeros fill the gaps, which pulls your average down. Only earnings up to the annual taxable maximum count ($184,500 in 2026), so very high salaries are capped and AIME cannot exceed about $15,375.

AIME to PIA: a step-by-step worked example

This is exactly how an AIME calculator turns your indexed earnings into a Primary Insurance Amount. Take an AIME of $5,400 and run it through the three 2026 brackets:

That PIA means a monthly benefit of $2,473 at Full Retirement Age. The same PIA becomes $1,731 if claimed at 62 (a 30% cut) or $3,067 at 70 (a 24% delayed-credit boost). Notice the third bracket is empty: only AIME above $7,749 is credited at 15%.

How to use this calculator

You only need two inputs to get a realistic estimate:

1. Enter your AIME. Your my Social Security statement lists your earnings record and benefit estimates. If you do not know your AIME, a rough starting point is your average inflation-adjusted monthly earnings over 35 years (count years without earnings as zero, and cap each year at the taxable maximum); the quick-fill buttons cover common ranges.
2. Pick a claiming age from 62 to 70. Age 67 is Full Retirement Age and gives you 100% of your PIA. The field shows the percentage adjustment versus 67 as you change it.
3. Read the result, which updates instantly: the headline monthly figure, then the PIA bracket breakdown that shows how each slice of your earnings contributes.
4. Scan the comparison table to see your benefit at every claiming age side by side, in both monthly and annual dollars, with your selected age highlighted.

Try a few AIME values and claiming ages. You will quickly see how progressive the formula is and how much the start age matters. Once you have a monthly figure, drop it into the Retirement Calculator to check whether Social Security plus your savings actually covers your target income.

Who this calculator is for

This tool is for anyone trying to turn a fuzzy idea of "my Social Security" into a concrete monthly number. That includes:

• Pre-retirees in their 50s and early 60s deciding when to claim.
• Mid-career workers sanity-checking how much Social Security will replace so they know how much to save on top of it.
• Couples coordinating two claiming dates to maximize lifetime and survivor benefits.
• Anyone comparing offers, for example weighing an early pension or buyout against waiting for a larger Social Security check.
• Curious savers who simply want to understand how the benefit formula and bend points work.

Key Social Security terms

• PIA (Primary Insurance Amount): your benefit at Full Retirement Age, before any early-claiming reduction or delayed credit.
• AIME (Average Indexed Monthly Earnings): the wage-indexed average of your 35 highest-earning years, the input the PIA formula works on.
• FRA (Full Retirement Age): 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later (66 and 10 months for 1959); the age you receive 100% of your PIA.
• Bend points: the AIME thresholds ($1,286 and $7,749 for 2026) where the 90% / 32% / 15% formula rates change.
• Delayed retirement credits: the 8%-per-year increase (2/3 of 1% per month) for claiming after FRA, up to age 70 (+24% total).
• COLA (cost-of-living adjustment): the annual inflation increase applied to benefits, 2.8% for 2026.

Scenario 1: a long career, average earnings

Maria has an AIME of $6,000. Her PIA is $2,665.80 (90% of $1,286 plus 32% of the remaining $4,714), so she would get $2,665 a month at 67. If she retires at 62 the benefit falls to $1,866; if she waits to 70 it climbs to $3,305. Maria is healthy with a family history of longevity, so delaying toward 70 to lock in the larger lifetime check is worth considering.

Scenario 2: a higher earner above the second bend point

James has an AIME of $9,000, which is above the upper bend point. His PIA is $3,413.20: 90% of $1,286 ($1,157.40), plus 32% of $6,463 ($2,068.16), plus 15% of the $1,251 over $7,749 ($187.65), rounded down to the dime. Notice how little the top slice adds (just 15 cents per dollar), which is why high earners get a smaller percentage of their pay back from Social Security and why other retirement savings matter more for them. James leans on a 401(k) and a Roth IRA to fill the gap that Social Security leaves above the second bend point.

Scenario 3: claiming early to bridge a gap

Dana, AIME $4,000, has a PIA of $2,025.80. She is laid off at 62 and needs income now. Claiming at 62 gives $1,418 a month for life: permanently lower, but it bridges the years until her other savings and a small pension kick in. The calculator's table lets her see exactly what each year of waiting would have added, so she can make the trade-off with eyes open.

How much Social Security will I get by AIME and claiming age?

This scenario matrix runs the 2026 PIA formula across common AIME levels, then applies the claiming-age adjustment and SSA's rounding down to the whole dollar. Find the row closest to your AIME to estimate your monthly benefit at 62, 65, Full Retirement Age 67, and 70. All figures are today's dollars, before COLA and tax.

Two patterns stand out. Doubling AIME from $3,000 to $6,000 raises the PIA by far less than double (from $1,705.80 to $2,665.80) because the higher slice is credited at only 32%. And every row's 62-to-70 spread is about 77%: the claiming-age percentages are identical no matter your earnings.

What changes the result the most

• Your AIME: the biggest driver, but with diminishing returns: dollars above the second bend point add only 15 cents each to your PIA.
• Claiming age: moving from 62 to 70 raises the monthly check by roughly 77%, the largest lever you fully control.
• Years worked: filling in low or zero years among your top 35 raises your AIME and therefore your PIA.
• Wage indexing: the bend points and indexing factors update yearly, so the same career produces slightly different numbers depending on your eligibility year.

Social Security claiming age chart: benefit per $1,000 of PIA

The claiming-age percentages are fixed for anyone with a Full Retirement Age of 67, so this quick-reference works for any benefit. Multiply your PIA by the factor, or read the monthly and annual columns per $1,000 of PIA (rounded down to the dollar, as SSA does) and scale to your own number.

Example: a $2,400 PIA claimed at 70 pays 124%, or $2,976 a month, which is $1,296 more than the $1,680 you would get by starting at 62. Waiting from Full Retirement Age to 70 raises the benefit by 24% for life.

Tips to get the most from Social Security

• Check your earnings record at ssa.gov for errors; missing or understated years lower your benefit.
• Work at least 35 years when you can, so zeros are not averaged into your AIME.
• Consider delaying if you are healthy and can afford to wait; each year past 67 adds 8% for life.
• Coordinate as a couple: a higher earner who delays also raises the survivor benefit the other spouse may later receive; the Survivor Benefits Calculator shows that side.
• Mind the earnings test if you plan to keep working before FRA ($24,480 a year in 2026, $65,160 in the year you reach FRA).

The break-even age: when waiting pays off

The most useful way to read the comparison table is to find your break-even age: the age at which the larger checks from waiting finally add up to more total dollars than the smaller checks you would have collected by starting early. Take a $2,000 PIA. Claiming at 62 gives $1,400 a month; waiting to 67 gives the full $2,000, a difference of $600 a month. By starting at 62 you collect five extra years of checks ($84,000) before the FRA claimant gets a dollar, so the higher benefit has to close an $84,000 head start at $600 a month, which takes 140 months, about 11.7 years. That puts the break-even point at about age 79 (before interest, taxes and COLAs). If you expect to live past your late 70s, waiting wins on lifetime dollars; if not, claiming early does. Because no one knows their lifespan, treat this as a risk decision, not a math puzzle: delaying is essentially insurance against living a long time and running short, while claiming early is insurance against the opposite. The same longevity question drives how aggressively you can spend other accounts, which is what the Retirement Withdrawal Calculator helps you test.

Taxes, spousal and survivor benefits

This calculator shows your gross retirement benefit, but two things outside the core formula often change what a household actually keeps. First, Social Security can be taxable: if your "combined income" (adjusted gross income, plus tax-exempt interest, plus half of your benefits) is between $25,000 and $34,000 as a single filer, up to 50% of the benefit can be taxed, and above $34,000 up to 85%; for joint filers the thresholds are $32,000 and $44,000, and they are not indexed for inflation. For 2025 through 2028, people 65 or older can also claim an extra deduction of up to $6,000 each, which phases out above $75,000 of modified AGI ($150,000 for joint filers). Retirees with pensions, large withdrawals, or part-time wages often cross the thresholds, so run your numbers through the Taxable Social Security Calculator and the Income Tax Calculator before assuming the headline figure here is take-home. Second, spousal benefits let a lower-earning spouse receive up to 50% of the higher earner's PIA at full retirement age if that exceeds their own benefit, and survivor benefits let a widow or widower step up to roughly 100% of what the deceased was receiving. This is the strongest argument for the higher earner in a couple to delay: a bigger PIA does not just raise their own check, it raises the survivor benefit the longer-living spouse may collect for years. None of these adjustments are modeled here: use this tool for the base benefit, then layer the household rules on top.

Why the bend points shift each year

The $1,286 and $7,749 bend points are not fixed in law as dollar amounts: they are recalculated every year from the national Average Wage Index, so they creep upward as wages rise (from $1,226 and $7,391 for 2025). The bend points that apply to you are the ones in effect for the year you turn 62 (your "year of eligibility"), even if you claim later. That is why two people with identical careers but different birth years can see slightly different PIAs: the formula brackets moved between their eligibility years. The annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) works differently: it is applied from the year you turn 62, tied to inflation rather than wages, and does not change the bend points used for your PIA. Because this tool uses the 2026 bend points, it is most accurate for people turning 62 in 2026; the 2027 figures will be published with the 2027 COLA in October 2026, and if your year of eligibility is several years out, treat the result as today's-dollars estimate and expect the actual brackets to be a little higher.

Limitations and assumptions

This is a planning estimate, not an official projection. Keep these assumptions in mind:

• It uses a single AIME figure you supply rather than your full year-by-year indexed earnings.
• It applies the 2026 bend points and an FRA of 67; people with an earlier FRA or a different eligibility year will see slightly different numbers.
• It does not include COLAs, so figures are in today's dollars.
• It excludes spousal, survivor, disability, and dependent benefits, the earnings test, and federal income tax on benefits.
• It uses SSA's monthly reduction and delayed-credit rates for claiming ages in whole years; claiming in a month between birthdays falls between the table rows.

How it compares to related calculators

Social Security is usually one leg of a three-legged retirement stool. If you have a different question, a sister tool fits better:

• To see whether your savings plus Social Security cover your goal, use the Retirement Calculator.
• To project an employer plan with matching, use the 401(k) Calculator.
• To estimate tax-free growth, use the Roth IRA Calculator.
• To model lump-sum and recurring investments, use the Investment Calculator.
• To understand how money grows over time, use the Compound Interest Calculator.
• To plan how fast you can safely draw down savings alongside your benefit, use the Retirement Withdrawal Calculator, and to see how rising prices erode a fixed check, the Inflation Calculator.

Sources

• Social Security Administration (SSA): Primary Insurance Amount and bend points ($1,286 and $7,749 for 2026).
• SSA: Social Security benefit amounts: AIME, PIA formula and rounding.
• SSA: Retirement age and benefit reduction (full retirement age by birth year).
• SSA: Delayed retirement credits.
• SSA: 2026 COLA fact sheet (2.8% COLA, $184,500 taxable maximum, earnings test limits).
• SSA: Summary of the 2026 Trustees Report.
• SSA: Income taxes and your Social Security benefit; IRS: enhanced deduction for seniors (2025 to 2028).
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): Planning your Social Security claiming age.
• SSA: my Social Security (personalized statement).