Money
Social Security COLA 2027: 3.6% Raise and Your New Check
Social Security and SSI rise 3.6% for 2027: from the January 2027 payments for Social Security, and from December 31, 2026 for SSI.
From January 2027
$2,072
+$72 a month
With the 3.6% increase, a $2,000.00 benefit becomes about $2,072 a month from January 2027: $72 more, or $864 over the year, before any change in your Medicare premium.
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Sources (Social Security Administration unless named): Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information; 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Fact Sheet. Checked October 29, 2026.
Social Security benefits rise 3.6% for 2027. SSA announced the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) on October 14, 2026; it shows up in the Social Security payments for January 2027 (for people paid on the 3rd of the month, that payment arrives on December 31, 2026), and in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) from December 31, 2026. In all, 76 million people get the increase (SSA’s COLA page). To see your own new check, type your current benefit below.
The calculator multiplies your benefit by 1.036 and rounds down to the dollar, as SSA does with monthly benefits. SSA’s own figure can differ by a dollar or so, because it applies the increase to your full benefit amount before any cut for claiming early. The answer is before any change in your Medicare premium.
How much is the Social Security COLA for 2027?
It is 3.6%, after 2.8% for 2026 and 2.5% for 2025 (SSA). Technically the increase starts with benefits for December 2026, which are paid in January 2027 (SSA’s notice in the Federal Register, October 26, 2026).
SSA estimates that the average retired worker’s check goes from $2,095 to $2,170 a month in January 2027 (SSA’s 2027 fact sheet). For your own check, multiply what you get now by 1.036, or use the calculator above.
When does the 2027 increase show up?
In the Social Security payments made in January 2027, and in the SSI payment made on December 31, 2026. SSA says the increase begins with benefits payable to nearly 72 million people with Social Security in January 2027, and that higher payments to about 7.3 million people with SSI begin on December 31, 2026 (SSA). Some people get both. SSI is normally paid on the 1st of the month; the January 2027 payment comes early, which is why SSI’s increase starts in December.
Unless you have received Social Security since before May 1997 or also get SSI, you are paid on the second, third or fourth Wednesday of the month, by your day of birth: January 13, 20 or 27 in 2027 (SSA’s 2027 payment schedule). The 2027 payment schedule has every date, including the dates for people paid on the 3rd and for SSI.
Who gets the 2027 COLA?
Everyone who gets Social Security or SSI: retired workers, spouses, widows and widowers, children, and people on disability. You do not apply for it; the increase is automatic (20 CFR 404.270). It goes onto each person’s full benefit amount, so benefits that were cut for claiming early rise by the same percentage, after the same cut (20 CFR 404.413).
Do you get the COLA if you have not started benefits yet?
Yes, if you turned 62 in 2026 or earlier: the 3.6% is added to your full benefit amount now, whenever you start. If you turn 62 in 2027 or later, this increase does not apply to you. Your benefit is worked out with the 2027 formula, or a later one, and increases count from the year you turn 62 (SSA’s notice).
SSA’s own worked example shows how this adds up. A worker born in 1960, who reaches full retirement age in 2027, had a full benefit of $3,419.60 worked out for 2022, the year they turned 62. The increases since then, 8.7%, 3.2%, 2.5%, 2.8% and now 3.6%, raise it to $4,187.40, although no check was paid in those years (SSA’s benefit calculation example). See how benefits are calculated.
How is the COLA worked out?
The cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is the yearly increase in Social Security and SSI benefits that keeps them in step with rising prices. It is worked out from the CPI-W, a consumer price index: SSA compares its average for July, August and September 2026 with its average for the same three months of 2025 (SSA’s 2027 fact sheet; 20 CFR 404.274). Here are the figures from SSA’s notice in the Federal Register (October 26, 2026):
- July to September 2025: 316.349, 317.306 and 318.139, an average of 317.265.
- July to September 2026: 327.104, 328.481 and 330.654, an average of 328.746.
- 328.746 ÷ 317.265 = 1.0362, a rise of 3.62%, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent: 3.6% (20 CFR 404.275).
If prices have not gone up, there is no increase, and benefits do not go down. There was no COLA for 2010, 2011 or 2016 (SSA).
- Your pay, every yearEach year’s earnings that paid Social Security tax
- CappedOnly pay up to each year’s taxable maximum counts ($192,300 in 2027)
- IndexedPay before the year you turn 60 is lifted to that year’s wage levels
- Best 35 yearsThe 35 highest years count; missing years count as zero
- AIMETheir total ÷ 420 months, down to the dollar
- PIA90% of the first $1,340, 32% up to $8,077, 15% above
- COLAsEvery cost-of-living increase from the year you turn 62
- Your age at the startLess before full retirement age, more up to 70
- Your checkRounded down to the dollar
How do average checks change in 2027?
The average retired worker’s check rises from $2,095 to $2,170, by SSA’s estimate for January 2027. SSA’s other estimates (2027 fact sheet):
- A retired couple, both getting benefits: $3,238 before, $3,355 after.
- A widow or widower living alone: $1,936 before, $2,005 after.
- A widowed mother or father with two children: $3,932 before, $4,074 after.
- All disabled workers: $1,642 before, $1,701 after.
- A disabled worker with a spouse and one or more children: $2,970 before, $3,077 after.
For a check on those estimates: in September 2026, the 55.1 million retired workers getting Social Security received $2,088.79 a month on average (SSA’s monthly statistical snapshot). These are averages over millions of people. What you get depends on your own earnings record and the age you started; see average Social Security benefits.
What else changes for 2027?
Several other amounts change for 2027 too, most of them because average wages rose (SSA’s 2027 fact sheet):
- Taxable maximum: pay taxed for Social Security goes up from $184,500 to $192,300. The tax rates do not change: 6.2% each for you and your employer, plus 1.45% each for Medicare on all pay, and 15.3% in all for the self-employed.
- One work credit: $1,970 of earnings, up from $1,890. See work credits.
- Earnings limit before full retirement age: $25,560 a year, up from $24,480; in the year you reach full retirement age, $67,920, up from $65,160. See the earnings limit.
- Maximum benefit at full retirement age: $4,188, up from $4,152.
- Disability work limit (substantial gainful activity): $1,770 a month, up from $1,690, or $2,950 for people who are blind, up from $2,830. A trial work month counts from $1,270, up from $1,210.
- SSI: the federal payment rises from $994 to $1,029 a month for one person and from $1,491 to $1,544 for a couple. The resource limits stay at $2,000 and $3,000.
- Benefit formula for people who turn 62 in 2027: the bend points move to $1,340 and $8,077, from $1,286 and $7,749 (SSA).
What about Medicare premiums?
The 2027 Medicare Part B premium is not part of SSA’s COLA announcement. SSA says information about Medicare changes for 2027 will be at medicare.gov, and that people enrolled in Medicare can see their 2027 premium in the my Social Security Message Center from late November; anyone who has not chosen online messages gets the COLA notice by mail in December (SSA, October 14, 2026). If you get Social Security and are enrolled in Part B, the law has the premium taken out of your monthly benefit, with a few exceptions (42 U.S.C. 1395s). Then the deposit you see in January is your new benefit minus the new premium, so any rise in the premium uses up part of the COLA. The calculator above shows the increase before any change in your premium.
Why might your check rise by less than the COLA?
Usually because something is taken out of it. A higher Medicare premium taken from your payment uses up part of the increase. Each monthly benefit is rounded down to the whole dollar after the increase (20 CFR 404.304), so a few cents can go. And if SSA is holding back benefits because you earn over the earnings limit, the increase goes onto a benefit you are not being paid yet. The full benefit amount itself rises by 3.6% for everyone who turned 62 before 2027; what reaches your bank account can differ.
Does the COLA change how your benefits are taxed?
It can. Part of your benefits becomes taxable when half of your benefits plus your other income passes $25,000 for a single filer or $32,000 for a married couple filing jointly (IRS Publication 915). Those amounts are written into the tax law as fixed dollar figures, so a COLA can push your total over one of them even when nothing else changed. Our page on taxes on Social Security works out your taxable part.
How does the 2027 COLA compare with past ones?
It is higher than the 2.8% for 2026 and the 2.5% for 2025, and well below the 8.7% for 2023, the largest since 1981. The largest in SSA’s table, which starts in 1975, was 14.3%, paid from July 1980 (SSA’s COLA history).
Every COLA, newest first
| First paid | Increase |
|---|---|
| January 2027 | 3.6% |
| January 2026 | 2.8% |
| January 2025 | 2.5% |
| January 2024 | 3.2% |
| January 2023 | 8.7% |
| January 2022 | 5.9% |
| January 2021 | 1.3% |
| January 2020 | 1.6% |
| January 2019 | 2.8% |
| January 2018 | 2% |
| January 2017 | 0.3% |
| January 2016 | 0% |
| January 2015 | 1.7% |
| January 2014 | 1.5% |
| January 2013 | 1.7% |
| January 2012 | 3.6% |
| January 2011 | 0% |
| January 2010 | 0% |
| January 2009 | 5.8% |
| January 2008 | 2.3% |
| January 2007 | 3.3% |
| January 2006 | 4.1% |
| January 2005 | 2.7% |
| January 2004 | 2.1% |
| January 2003 | 1.4% |
| January 2002 | 2.6% |
| January 2001 | 3.5% |
| January 2000 | 2.5% |
| January 1999 | 1.3% |
| January 1998 | 2.1% |
| January 1997 | 2.9% |
| January 1996 | 2.6% |
| January 1995 | 2.8% |
| January 1994 | 2.6% |
| January 1993 | 3% |
| January 1992 | 3.7% |
| January 1991 | 5.4% |
| January 1990 | 4.7% |
| January 1989 | 4% |
| January 1988 | 4.2% |
| January 1987 | 1.3% |
| January 1986 | 3.1% |
| January 1985 | 3.5% |
| January 1984 | 3.5% |
| July 1982 | 7.4% |
| July 1981 | 11.2% |
| July 1980 | 14.3% |
| July 1979 | 9.9% |
| July 1978 | 6.5% |
| July 1977 | 5.9% |
| July 1976 | 6.4% |
| July 1975 | 8% |
Download this table (CSV, opens in Excel) Every cost-of-living adjustment since 1975: the year SSA lists it under, the month it was first paid and the increase.
Source (Social Security Administration unless named): Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information. Checked October 29, 2026.
From 1975 to 1982 the increases were paid from July; since then they have been paid from January. The chart and table show every one since 1975, with a CSV file to download.
Increases build on each other, because each one goes onto a benefit already raised by the ones before. Together, the five for 2023 to 2027 (8.7%, 3.2%, 2.5%, 2.8% and 3.6%) add up to about 22%: a benefit of $1,000 at the end of 2022 is about $1,224 in 2027 (our arithmetic on SSA’s percentages).
Every COLA since 1975, on one belt
Raised by the 5 COLAs since, each step rounded down to the dime, a check of $1,000.00 in December 2022 comes to $1,224.30 by January 2027: about $1,224 a month.
Every COLA in SSA’s table since 1975, each flap showing when it was first paid. The flap in the window is the first increase applied: each increase after it is applied in turn and rounded down to the dime, as SSA’s rule does today (20 CFR 404.275). It shows how the increases add up, not what SSA paid anyone in a given year. Our arithmetic on SSA’s percentages, before any Medicare premium.
Source (Social Security Administration unless named): Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information. Checked October 29, 2026.
The COLA for 2028 is not known yet. It will be measured the same way, from the third quarter of 2026 to the third quarter of 2027, so it cannot be worked out before the CPI-W for September 2027 is published (20 CFR 404.274).
Figures checked October 29, 2026.
Questions people ask
How much is the Social Security increase for 2027?
3.6%. It applies to Social Security and SSI, from the January 2027 Social Security payments and the SSI payment of December 31, 2026 (SSA).
When was the 2027 COLA announced?
On October 14, 2026 (SSA). It uses prices through September 2026, so it could not be worked out sooner.
When will I get the 2027 COLA?
In your January 2027 Social Security payment: on January 13, 20 or 27, by your day of birth, if you are paid on a Wednesday. SSI’s higher payment arrives on December 31, 2026.
Do disability benefits get the 2027 COLA?
Yes. SSA estimates the average disabled worker’s check goes from $1,642 to $1,701 a month (SSA).
How much will my Social Security check be in 2027?
About your current benefit times 1.036, rounded down to the dollar, before any change in your Medicare premium. The calculator at the top of this page does the sum for you.
What will the COLA be for 2028?
Nobody knows yet. It depends on prices from July to September 2027 compared with the same months of 2026.