Social Security Calculator Using Your Own Earnings Record

This Social Security calculator works out your benefit from your own earnings record: the list of taxed pay, year by year, that SSA keeps for you. Sign in at my Social Security, copy the table on your Earnings Record page or download your Statement data file, and put it in the box below. You get a monthly amount for every age from 62 to 70, worked out with the formula SSA publishes each year in the Federal Register.

Your record stays in your browser. The calculator reads it on your own device and sends nothing to this site or anyone else. It never needs your Social Security number. It is still an estimate, made with SSA’s published rules: the amount SSA works out when you apply is the exact one.

No record at hand? The calculator on the home page works from your yearly pay instead, and the table by salary shows typical amounts.

How do you get your earnings record from my Social Security?

You copy it from the Earnings Record page of my Social Security, SSA’s online account. That page has a table with three columns: “Work Year”, “Taxed Social Security Earnings” and “Taxed Medicare Earnings”. There is one row for each year.

1. Sign in at ssa.gov/myaccount.
2. On your account’s home page, find “Eligibility and Earnings” and choose “Review your full earnings record now”.
3. Select the table, from its headings down to the oldest year, and copy it. Copying the whole page works too: the calculator keeps only the lines that start with a year.
4. Paste it into the box above.

On a phone, press and hold on the first year in the table. Drag the selection handle past the last row, then tap Copy. Your account’s home page shows estimates, not the year-by-year table. If you paste that page by mistake, the calculator tells you. SSA changes the wording on its pages from time to time, so if a label differs, look for the closest match.

Can you use the file my Social Security lets you download?

Yes. My Social Security lets you download your Statement data as an XML file, and the calculator can open it. The link is in the Statement part of your account. It is a separate link from the PDF of your Statement. Save the file, then open it from the earnings-record box above.

The file lists every year on its own, with its Social Security and Medicare earnings. A year SSA has not posted yet is marked as not recorded. The file also holds your name and date of birth, so keep it somewhere safe. The calculator reads the years and their Social Security earnings, and it does so in your browser.

The PDF or paper Statement can be pasted too, but it gives less detail. It lumps early years into blocks, such as ten years shown as one total. The calculator spreads each block evenly over its years and marks those years as approximate. For an exact record, year by year, use the Earnings Record page or the XML file.

Is your earnings record sent to anyone?

No. The calculator is a script that runs in your browser, so what you paste or open is read and worked out on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and nothing is kept after you close the page. No estimate on this site needs your Social Security number or your bank details, and the site never asks for them. Your earnings record is optional, and it stays on your device.

What does the calculator show?

It shows one line for each age you could start, from 62 to 70. Each line gives the month your benefit would start, the monthly amount, the share of your full amount, and the total you would be paid by 85. For example, take someone born on June 15, 1966 whose pay has kept pace with average wages since 22 and is $60,000 now. By SSA’s formula, they would get $1,673 a month from July 2028, $2,377 at their full retirement age of 67, or $2,947 at 70.

Under the lines are the “break-even” ages. Each one is how long you would have to live for a later start to have paid more, in total, than an earlier one. With your record in, a table lists each year: the earnings SSA has on file, the same amount after indexing, and which 35 years count. “How this was worked out” then shows every step with its numbers, from your average earnings to the cut or increase for your age.

Every year of pay is a car: the 35 biggest make the train

AIME$5,000Best 35 years: $2,100,000 ÷ 420 months

45 years of pay: 35 in the train, 10 in the siding.

The train: the 35 biggest years, biggest first

1. 1988: $60,000 after indexing (earned $15,935)
2. 1989: $60,000 after indexing (earned $16,565)
3. 1993: $60,000 after indexing (earned $19,065)
4. 1994: $60,000 after indexing (earned $19,577)
5. 1995: $60,000 after indexing (earned $20,362)
6. 1999: $60,000 after indexing (earned $25,112)
7. 2000: $60,000 after indexing (earned $26,501)
8. 2001: $60,000 after indexing (earned $27,133)
9. 2003: $60,000 after indexing (earned $28,075)
10. 2004: $60,000 after indexing (earned $29,381)
11. 2005: $60,000 after indexing (earned $30,456)
12. 2007: $60,000 after indexing (earned $33,301)
13. 2008: $60,000 after indexing (earned $34,067)
14. 2009: $60,000 after indexing (earned $33,553)
15. 2010: $60,000 after indexing (earned $34,346)
16. 2013: $60,000 after indexing (earned $36,996)
17. 2014: $60,000 after indexing (earned $38,309)
18. 2015: $60,000 after indexing (earned $39,642)
19. 2016: $60,000 after indexing (earned $40,090)
20. 2017: $60,000 after indexing (earned $41,474)
21. 2018: $60,000 after indexing (earned $42,977)
22. 2019: $60,000 after indexing (earned $44,588)
23. 2020: $60,000 after indexing (earned $45,848)
24. 2021: $60,000 after indexing (earned $49,924)
25. 2022: $60,000 after indexing (earned $52,578)
26. 2023: $60,000 after indexing (earned $54,908)
27. 2024: $60,000 after indexing (earned $57,566)
28. 2025: $60,000
29. 2026: $60,000, at today’s pay
30. 2027: $60,000, at today’s pay
31. 2028: $60,000, at today’s pay
32. 2029: $60,000, at today’s pay
33. 2030: $60,000, at today’s pay
34. 2031: $60,000, at today’s pay
35. 2032: $60,000, at today’s pay

The siding: years that do not count

1. 1990: $60,000 after indexing (earned $17,331)
2. 1991: $60,000 after indexing (earned $17,977)
3. 1992: $60,000 after indexing (earned $18,903)
4. 1996: $60,000 after indexing (earned $21,358)
5. 1997: $60,000 after indexing (earned $22,604)
6. 1998: $60,000 after indexing (earned $23,787)
7. 2002: $60,000 after indexing (earned $27,405)
8. 2006: $60,000 after indexing (earned $31,855)
9. 2011: $60,000 after indexing (earned $35,423)
10. 2012: $60,000 after indexing (earned $36,529)

• Pay as earned that year
• Added by indexing to 2025 wages
• Years still to come, at today’s pay
• In the siding: not counted

Smallest car in the train: 2032, $60,000.00. Biggest in the siding: 1990, $59,999.99. With steady pay every year comes to about the same, so it makes no real difference which 35 count.

Shunt againLook along the train

Amounts are in today’s dollars. If you turn 62 after 2027, the calculator uses the newest formula and wage index SSA has published. It makes no guess at future inflation or pay rises. If you have already turned 62, it adds every cost-of-living increase since then. All amounts are before any Medicare premium or tax is taken out of a check. Which age to pick is a separate question, covered in when to claim.

How is your estimate worked out?

The calculator follows the same steps as SSA’s own benefit calculation examples, in this order:

1. Taxed earnings. Each year counts up to that year’s taxable maximum, which is $192,300 in 2027 (SSA).
2. Indexing. Years before the year you turn 60 are raised in step with the national average wage index. Old pay then counts at the wage level of the year you turn 60, or of the newest year SSA has published if you are younger. Later years count as they are (20 CFR 404.211).
3. Your 35 best years. The 35 highest indexed years are added up. If you worked fewer than 35 years, the missing years count as zeros.
4. Average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). The total is divided by 420, the number of months in 35 years, and rounded down to the dollar.
5. Primary insurance amount (PIA). For people turning 62 in 2027, the formula pays 90% of the first $1,340 of AIME, 32% of the AIME up to $8,077, and 15% of the rest, rounded down to the dime (SSA). The PIA is your benefit at full retirement age.
6. Cost-of-living increases. From the year you turn 62, each December’s increase is added to your PIA, whether or not you have started. The increase for 2027 is 3.6% (SSA).
7. Your age. Each month you start before full retirement age cuts the PIA by 5/9 of 1% for the first 36 months, and by 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that (20 CFR 404.410). Each month you wait after it adds 2/3 of 1%, up to 70 (20 CFR 404.313). The result is rounded down to the dollar.

1. Your pay, every yearEach year’s earnings that paid Social Security tax
2. CappedOnly pay up to each year’s taxable maximum counts ($192,300 in 2027)
3. IndexedPay before the year you turn 60 is lifted to that year’s wage levels
4. Best 35 yearsThe 35 highest years count; missing years count as zero
5. AIMETheir total ÷ 420 months, down to the dollar
6. PIA90% of the first $1,340, 32% up to $8,077, 15% above
7. COLAsEvery cost-of-living increase from the year you turn 62
8. Your age at the startLess before full retirement age, more up to 70
9. Your checkRounded down to the dollar

The drawing shows the same path, from paychecks to a monthly check. How Social Security is calculated works through SSA’s own 2027 examples step by step, with every rounding rule.

Why is it different from your Social Security Statement?

Often because SSA’s Statement assumes you keep working until each age it shows, at about your latest pay. SSA’s rule for the Statement it mails uses your latest recorded earnings “as your earnings for the current year and future years” (20 CFR 404.812). This calculator counts future years only at the yearly pay you type, and none at all if you leave it blank. If you will stop work before you claim, leave the pay out: you get a lower figure than the Statement’s, and a more realistic one.

Other reasons the two can differ:

• A year not yet posted. The newest year often reads “Not yet recorded” until SSA posts it. The calculator uses the pay you type for that year. It treats a $0 in last year’s row the same way, and says so in a note.
• Newer figures. SSA updates the wage index, the bend points and the cost-of-living increase each fall. The 2027 figures came out in its notice of October 26, 2026. A Statement made before then used the older figures.
• Rounding. SSA rounds at several steps: the AIME down to the dollar, the PIA and each cost-of-living increase down to the dime, the cut for an early start up to the dime, and the benefit down to the dollar. A calculator that rounds only at the end can be a few dollars off. This one rounds where SSA’s rules do.

What should you check if a year looks wrong?

Compare each year with the Social Security wages on your W-2 forms, or with your self-employment tax return, and tell SSA about a mistake soon. Until 3 years, 3 months and 15 days after a year, SSA corrects that year for any reason if the evidence shows its record is wrong (20 CFR 404.802 and 404.821).

Things worth checking:

• a zero, or a missing year, when you know you worked;
• a year lower than your W-2 forms show;
• self-employment income that is missing;
• a Social Security figure above that year’s taxable maximum, which usually means the Medicare column was copied by mistake. The calculator counts only up to the maximum and says so.

After the time limit, SSA can still fix some errors. Examples are wages entered for the wrong person or the wrong year, a plain clerical mistake, and a record that does not match a tax return of wages (20 CFR 404.822). A request to correct your record must be in writing and signed. It should say which year is wrong and describe or include your evidence, such as your W-2 forms (20 CFR 404.820). You can file it at a Social Security office. SSA’s phone number is 1-800-772-1213 (TTY 1-800-325-0778), as its yearly notice lists.

While you wait for SSA, type the right amount over the wrong one in the box above. The board shows what the correction is worth to you.

Figures checked October 29, 2026.

Questions people ask

How do I find my Social Security earnings record?

Sign in at my Social Security and choose “Review your full earnings record now” under “Eligibility and Earnings”. You can also ask SSA for a statement of your earnings by writing, calling or visiting an office (20 CFR 404.810).

Can I download my Social Security earnings record?

Yes. My Social Security lets you download your Statement as a PDF and your Statement data as an XML file. The XML file lists every year on its own, and this calculator can open it in your browser.

What is the Social Security Statement XML file?

It is a data copy of your Statement: your name and date of birth, SSA’s benefit estimates, and one row per year with your Social Security and Medicare earnings. A year SSA has not posted yet is marked as not recorded.

Why does my earnings record say “Not yet recorded”?

SSA has not posted that year’s earnings yet, usually for the year just ended. The calculator uses the pay you type for that year. Check your record again later in the year.

Is this the same as SSA’s own calculator?

No. This is an independent site, not SSA, though it uses the formula SSA publishes. SSA has its own tools, such as its Quick Calculator and the estimates in my Social Security.

Does the estimate include a spouse’s benefit?

No. It is the benefit on your own record. A spouse’s benefit can be as much as half of the worker’s full amount (SSA); see spousal benefits.

Updated November 7, 2026