Inflation calculator
See how inflation erodes purchasing power over time, in both directions.
Your numbers
What this means
The two questions inflation actually answers
People usually come to an inflation calculator with one of two questions in mind, even if they don’t phrase it that way. Either: “what will things cost by the time I need to buy them,” or “is the money I’m planning to have actually going to be worth what I think it’s worth.” Those are the same math problem run in opposite directions, which is why this tool shows both at once instead of making you pick a mode.
Say you’re planning around $50,000 for something ten years out — a renovation, a kid’s education, whatever. Run it through at a 3% assumption and that $50,000 today turns into roughly $67,000 by the time you get there. Flip it around: if you’re expecting to have $50,000 in ten years and want to know what that’s really worth, it comes out closer to $37,000 in today’s terms. Same numbers, same rate, completely different-feeling answer depending on which direction you’re solving for.
About that 3% default
3% is roughly the long-run historical average for U.S. inflation, which is why it’s sitting in the field as a starting point. It is absolutely not a prediction of what inflation will actually do over your specific time horizon — some years it’s under 2%, some years (recent ones included) it’s spiked well above that. If you’re modeling something specific — a known high-inflation category like healthcare or education, which tend to run hotter than the general rate — swap in a higher number and see how much the answer moves. It moves more than people expect.
Where this gets genuinely useful
Retirement planning is probably the single best use case here. A number that sounds comfortable today — say, $80,000 a year in expenses — looks very different in today’s purchasing power once you push it out 25 or 30 years. This is part of why “I’ll need less money than I make now” retirement plans sometimes fall apart: the target itself keeps moving.
Does inflation affect everyone equally? No, and this is worth remembering. Overall inflation numbers are an average across a huge basket of goods, but your personal inflation rate depends on what you actually spend money on. If a big chunk of your budget goes to healthcare or housing in a hot market, your real experience of inflation can run well above the headline number.