Inflation calculator
Enter an amount and two years, see what it is worth.
How does the inflation calculator work?
It scales the amount by the Consumer Price Index: value = amount × CPI in the later year ÷ CPI in the earlier year. $100 in 2020 buys what $121.20 bought in 2024, because the CPI rose from 258.811 to 313.689.
What is the CPI?
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — the average price of a basket of goods and services, set to 100 for 1982–84. The calculator uses its annual averages from 1913 to 2025.
How much is $100 from 1913 worth today?
In 2025 dollars, $3,251.95 — prices rose about 32 times since 1913, an average of about 3.2% a year.
Why is 2025 marked differently?
BLS did not collect October 2025 prices because of the lapse in federal funding, so the 2025 annual average is the mean of the other 11 months, as BLS published it.
Does it work for my own costs?
The CPI is an average for city households. Your own costs — rent, tuition, health care — can rise faster or slower than the index.
What does the "latest" option use?
The most recent monthly CPI-U reading the site holds (August 2026, 334.98), compared with the annual average of the starting year. Because it compares a single month with a yearly average, it can differ slightly from a year-to-year result. $100 from 2025 is $104.05 in August 2026 dollars.
How do I turn a total price change into a yearly rate?
Take the ratio of the two index values, raise it to the power 1 ÷ the number of years, and subtract 1. Averaging by simple division gives a wrong answer because inflation compounds: 3.2% a year for 112 years is not 112 × 3.2%. The calculator shows this compound yearly rate beside the total change.
Can prices fall from one year to the next?
Yes, though it is rare. The CPI annual average fell from 215.303 in 2008 to 214.537 in 2009, and it fell in several years of the early 1930s. A fall is shown as a negative change and the amount buys more than before.
The arithmetic
The calculator multiplies your amount by a ratio of two index values: later CPI ÷ earlier CPI. The index is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, series CUUR0000SA0, with 1982–84 equal to 100. A value of 321.943 for 2025 means that the basket that cost $100 on average in 1982–84 cost $321.94 in 2025. Only the ratio matters; the base period cancels out. Both directions work: to find what a past amount is worth now, put the past year first; to find what today’s amount would have been worth then, reverse the years.
Worked example
A $50,000 salary in 2000, expressed in 2025 dollars: the CPI was 172.2 in 2000 and 321.943 in 2025, so 50,000 × 321.943 ÷ 172.2 = $93,479. Prices rose 87.0% in total, an average of 2.53% a year. Reversed, $50,000 in 2025 buys what only $26,744 did in 2000. So if that 2000 salary has since grown to anything less than $93,479, its buying power has fallen. For a deflation case, $100 in 2008 is $99.64 in 2009 dollars, a change of -0.36%.
Things to watch
- Annual averages blur the timing. A purchase in December 2020 and one in January 2020 share the same yearly CPI, but not the same prices; for a short span the monthly figures from BLS are more exact.
- Percentages from different years do not add. A rise of 10% followed by 10% is 21%, not 20%.
- CPI-U measures consumer goods and services, not wages, house prices or investments. An item’s own price history can differ widely from the average.
- For the “real” return on an investment, take inflation out with the real return calculator rather than subtracting percentages by eye.
Estimates for planning only — not financial advice. CPI data: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, series CUUR0000SA0. How we check our calculators.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items (series CUUR0000SA0), annual averages and the monthly index. Related tools: real return calculator, salary calculator, compound interest calculator.