How the Social Security Calculator Works
Social Security pays a monthly benefit to retired workers in the United States. The amount depends on two things: how much you earned during your working life, and the age when you start to collect. The Social Security Calculator estimates your monthly benefit in three steps. It finds your average earnings, turns them into a basic benefit, and then adjusts that benefit for your claiming age.
What you enter
- Average yearly earnings: what you earned on average over your best 35 years. Include zeros if you worked fewer than 35 years.
- Years worked (optional): the number of years with earnings. Each missing year counts as a zero.
- Year of birth: it sets your full retirement age.
- Claiming age: the age when you start to collect, from 62 to 70.
Step 1: your average monthly earnings
Social Security looks at your 35 highest-earning years. Your earnings from earlier years are first raised to today's wage levels, which is called indexing. The total is divided by 420, the number of months in 35 years. The result is your average indexed monthly earnings, or AIME:
AIME = total of your 35 best indexed years / 420
If you worked fewer than 35 years, the missing years count as zero, and they pull the average down. Working a few more years can replace a zero year with a real one.
Step 2: your basic benefit
Your basic benefit is called the primary insurance amount, or PIA. It is what you receive if you claim at your full retirement age. It is worked out with a formula that gives a higher share of low earnings than of high earnings. For someone who turns 62 in 2025, it is:
| Slice of your AIME | Share you receive |
|---|---|
| The first $1,226 | 90% |
| From $1,226 to $7,391 | 32% |
| Above $7,391 | 15% |
The two dollar limits, called bend points, change every year, and the ones that apply to you are set by the year you turn 62. Check the current figures with the Social Security Administration (SSA). The result is rounded down to the next lower ten cents.
A worked example
Your AIME is $6,000 a month, which is about $72,000 a year.
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| 90% of the first $1,226 | $1,103.40 |
| 32% of the next $4,774 ($6,000 - $1,226) | $1,527.68 |
| Total, rounded down (PIA) | $2,631.00 a month |
The basic benefit is 43.9% of the average monthly earnings. Lower earners get a higher share, and higher earners get a lower share:
| Average monthly earnings | Basic benefit | Share of earnings |
|---|---|---|
| $2,000 | $1,351.00 | 67.6% |
| $4,000 | $1,991.00 | 49.8% |
| $6,000 | $2,631.00 | 43.9% |
| $8,000 | $3,167.50 | 39.6% |
| $10,000 | $3,467.50 | 34.7% |
$2,000 ████████████████ $1,351 $4,000 ███████████████████████ $1,991 $6,000 ██████████████████████████████ $2,631 $8,000 █████████████████████████████████████ $3,168 $10,000 ████████████████████████████████████████ $3,468
Doubling your earnings from $4,000 to $8,000 raises the benefit by less than 60%.
Step 3: the claiming age
Your full retirement age depends on the year you were born:
| Year of birth | Full retirement age |
|---|---|
| 1955 | 66 and 2 months |
| 1956 | 66 and 4 months |
| 1957 | 66 and 6 months |
| 1958 | 66 and 8 months |
| 1959 | 66 and 10 months |
| 1960 or later | 67 |
You can claim as early as 62, or as late as 70. Claiming early lowers your benefit for life. Waiting raises it:
- Before your full retirement age: the benefit is cut by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months you claim early, and by 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that.
- After your full retirement age: the benefit is raised by 2/3 of 1% for each month you wait, which is 8% a year, up to age 70.
For someone whose full retirement age is 67 and whose basic benefit is $2,631:
| Claim at | Share of the basic benefit | Monthly benefit | Yearly benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | 70.0% | $1,841.70 | $22,100 |
| 63 | 75.0% | $1,973.25 | $23,679 |
| 64 | 80.0% | $2,104.80 | $25,258 |
| 65 | 86.7% | $2,280.20 | $27,362 |
| 66 | 93.3% | $2,455.60 | $29,467 |
| 67 (full) | 100.0% | $2,631.00 | $31,572 |
| 68 | 108.0% | $2,841.48 | $34,098 |
| 69 | 116.0% | $3,051.96 | $36,624 |
| 70 | 124.0% | $3,262.44 | $39,149 |
Chart: the monthly benefit by claiming age
Red bars are reduced benefits, green is the full benefit, and blue bars are increased benefits.
62 ███████████████████████ $1,842 63 ████████████████████████ $1,973 64 ██████████████████████████ $2,105 65 ████████████████████████████ $2,280 66 ██████████████████████████████ $2,456 67 ████████████████████████████████ $2,631 68 ███████████████████████████████████ $2,841 69 █████████████████████████████████████ $3,052 70 ████████████████████████████████████████ $3,262
Waiting from 62 to 70 raises the monthly benefit by 77%.
Is it better to wait? The break-even age
Claiming early means more checks, but smaller ones. Claiming late means fewer checks, but larger ones. The break-even age is the age when the total you have collected by waiting catches up. This table adds up the benefits in the example, without inflation adjustments or interest:
| Total collected by age | Claim at 62 | Claim at 67 | Claim at 70 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 75 | $287,305 | $252,576 | $195,746 |
| 80 | $397,807 | $410,436 | $391,493 |
| 85 | $508,309 | $568,296 | $587,239 |
| 90 | $618,811 | $726,156 | $782,986 |
- Claiming at 67 overtakes claiming at 62 at about age 78 and 8 months.
- Claiming at 70 overtakes claiming at 67 at about age 82 and 6 months.
- Claiming at 70 overtakes claiming at 62 at about age 80 and 5 months.
By age 90 Claim at 62 ████████████████████████████████ $618,811 Claim at 67 █████████████████████████████████████ $726,156 Claim at 70 ████████████████████████████████████████ $782,986
If you live past your early 80s, waiting pays more. If you do not, claiming early pays more. Nobody knows how long they will live, so this is a bet. Waiting also works like insurance against a long life, because the larger check lasts for as long as you live.
Things to think about
- Your health and family history. A longer expected life favors waiting.
- Your other income. If you can live on savings or work until 67 or 70, waiting is easier.
- Your spouse. A surviving spouse can receive the larger of the two benefits, so the higher earner waiting can protect the spouse for life.
- Working while you claim early. If you claim before your full retirement age and keep working, your benefit can be reduced for a time, if you earn above a yearly limit.
- Taxes. Some of your benefit can be taxed, depending on your other income.
What this calculator does not include
- Cost-of-living increases, which raise benefits over time. This calculator shows amounts in today's dollars.
- The exact indexing of your earnings year by year. Use the AIME from your SSA statement for a precise figure.
- Spousal, survivor, disability and children's benefits.
- Income tax on your benefit, and Medicare premiums, which are often taken from it.
- Future changes to the law.
This tool gives an estimate for general information only. It is not financial advice, and it is not from the Social Security Administration. For your own numbers, create a "my Social Security" account at ssa.gov.