Official U.S. inflation data · 1913–present
U.S. Inflation Calculator
Compare the buying power of U.S. dollars between any two years or months. You can also adjust a salary for inflation or project future prices.
Equivalent buying power
$200.43
$100 in 1999 has the same buying power as this amount in July 2026.
Price equivalent over time
Dollar value by year
The line uses annual CPI averages. The endpoint can use the latest monthly CPI when “today” is selected.
View year-by-year values
| Year | CPI-U | Equivalent value | Annual inflation |
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Inflation-adjusted salary and hourly wage calculator
Find the pay needed to preserve the buying power of an earlier salary or hourly wage, then compare it with actual current pay.
Pay needed to keep pace
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Future inflation and purchasing-power calculator
Project a future price using your own assumed inflation rate. This section is a scenario tool, not a BLS or Federal Reserve forecast.
Projected future cost
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How to use this U.S. inflation calculator
Enter a dollar amount, choose the starting date, and select the comparison date. The result shows how much money would provide approximately the same average buying power in the other period. You can calculate forward, such as “What is $30 from 1999 worth today?”, or backward, such as “What was today’s $100 worth in 1999?”
The latest official data available are for July 2026. CPI is published monthly rather than daily. Therefore, the word “today” in this calculator means the newest CPI month released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
How much is $30 from 1999 worth today?
Using the 1999 annual CPI average and the latest CPI for July 2026, $30 in 1999 has buying power equivalent to approximately $60.13. The number updates when BLS releases a newer month.
What was today’s $100 worth in 1999?
Reversing the comparison, $100 at the July 2026 price level equals approximately $49.89 at the average 1999 price level.
What is the current U.S. inflation rate?
The CPI-U all-items index changed 3.4% over the 12 months ending in July 2026. This rate updates automatically with each new official BLS release.
What this calculator measures
The calculator uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, usually called CPI-U. The selected series covers all items in the U.S. city average and is not seasonally adjusted. CPI-U represents the spending patterns of more than 90% of the U.S. population, but it remains a national average. Your personal inflation rate may differ because your spending mix, location, housing situation, medical costs, and transportation expenses are different.
- Dollar value by year or month: compare prices and purchasing power from 1913 through the latest release.
- Cumulative inflation: measure the total change in the CPI price level between two dates.
- Purchasing-power loss: estimate how much of a dollar’s buying power changed over time.
- Average annual inflation: calculate the compound annual rate across the selected interval.
- Salary and hourly wage adjustment: find the pay needed to maintain an earlier wage’s buying power and compare it with actual pay.
- Future inflation projection: test long-term scenarios using an inflation assumption you choose.
U.S. inflation calculator formula
The historical conversion follows a simple CPI ratio: equivalent value = original dollar amount × CPI in the target period ÷ CPI in the starting period. For example, when the target CPI is twice the starting CPI, a basket that cost $100 in the starting period would cost about $200 in the target period.
Annual selections use the official BLS annual average when it exists. For the incomplete current year, the interface clearly labels a year-to-date average of released months. Monthly selections use the index for the exact month. October 2025 is unavailable in the official CPI series because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations, so that month does not appear as a selectable observation.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an official U.S. government inflation calculator?
Economics.MBA created the interface and calculations. The underlying CPI-U observations come directly from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, series CUUR0000SA0. The plugin checks the official data source automatically and displays the newest available month.
Does this calculator use CPI or PCE inflation?
It uses CPI-U, not the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index. CPI-U is commonly used for consumer purchasing-power comparisons, contract adjustments, and historical dollar-value questions. PCE uses different weights, scope, and methods, so it can produce a different result.
Why is “today” one month behind?
BLS collects, processes, and releases CPI data on a monthly schedule. No official CPI exists for the current day. Labeling the latest released month is more accurate than pretending that inflation changes through a verified daily index.
What is the difference between the current inflation rate and cumulative inflation?
The current 12-month inflation rate compares the latest CPI with the same month one year earlier. Cumulative inflation compares the total price-level change across any two dates selected in the calculator, so it can cover a few months or more than a century.
Can I compare a newer year with an older year?
Yes. The calculator works in both directions. Swapping the dates answers questions such as how much $100 today would have represented in 1999.
Can CPI show my personal cost of living?
Not exactly. CPI-U measures average price change for a representative urban consumer basket. A household that spends unusually large shares on rent, health care, education, gasoline, or another category may experience a different rate of inflation.
Is the future inflation result a forecast?
No. The future tool compounds the rate entered by the user. It is useful for scenarios, budgets, and retirement planning, but it does not claim to predict future BLS data or Federal Reserve policy.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U series CUUR0000SA0. Also see the BLS CPI questions and answers and calculation methodology.
The U.S. inflation calculator above compares what dollars could buy in past years and months. It uses BLS Consumer Price Index data. As a result, you can convert old dollar values, adjust pay, and test future price paths in one place.
Choose the tool that fits your question. Then enter an amount, pick the dates, and get the result. The tool also explains total inflation, changes in buying power, the yearly rate, and the CPI price-level multiplier.
How to use the U.S. inflation calculator
The tool has three tabs: Dollar value, Salary adjustment, and Future inflation. Each tab answers its own type of question. Therefore, start with the result you need.
- Use Dollar value to compare the buying power of money between two dates.
- Choose Salary adjustment to find the pay needed to maintain an earlier salary’s buying power.
- Select Future inflation to test how an assumed annual rate could affect a future price.
The status area shows the latest BLS CPI month and the current 12-month inflation rate. BLS releases CPI once per month. Therefore, “today” means the latest CPI month, not the current day.
1. Calculate dollar value between two dates
The Dollar value tab can answer a common question: “What is $100 from 1999 worth today?” It can also reverse the math and ask what today’s $100 was worth in 1999. The U.S. inflation calculator works in both ways.
First, enter the dollar amount you want to compare. Next, choose the start year and an annual average or exact month. After that, pick the target year and period. Finally, click Calculate dollar value.
You can also use a popular example button below the form. For instance, the presets include $30 in 1999, $100 in 1980, and $1 in 1913.
How to read the dollar-value result
The main result shows the sum with about the same buying power in the target period. In addition, the tool displays these measures:
- Equivalent buying power is the adjusted dollar amount for the target period.
- Cumulative inflation measures the total change in the CPI price level between the earlier and later dates.
- Dollar purchasing power shows how much a dollar’s buying power rose or fell over the period.
- Average annual inflation turns the full price change into a compound yearly rate.
- Price-level multiplier shows how many times higher or lower the CPI became.
For example, a multiplier of 2.000 means the CPI price level doubled. In that case, the dollar amount would also need to double. However, one unchanged dollar would lose 50% of its buying power, not 100%.
The chart tracks the adjusted value across the chosen years. Meanwhile, the table lists CPI-U, the converted sum, and the inflation rate for each year. You can download a CSV, copy the result, share a link, or print the page.
2. Adjust a salary or hourly wage for inflation
In the U.S. inflation calculator, the Salary adjustment tab helps you check if pay kept pace with prices. You may enter yearly pay, monthly pay, or an hourly wage. The same CPI ratio works for any dollar sum.
Begin with the old salary or wage. Then choose its year and period. Pick the target date. You can also add the actual target pay to check for a real gain or loss. Next, click Adjust salary for inflation.
The results answer four separate questions:
- Pay needed to keep pace shows the target pay with about the same buying power.
- Nominal raise needed gives the percent rise needed to match CPI inflation.
- Actual real gain or loss compares the pay you entered with the CPI target.
- Actual shortfall or surplus shows the gap between actual pay and the CPI target.
Suppose you earned $50,000 in an earlier year. The tool may show that you now need more pay to buy a like basket of goods and services. Your cash pay may have risen. However, your real buying power fell if the new pay is below the CPI target.
Still, this result does not say what your work should pay. Market pay also depends on your job, skills, years of work, results, location, field, and labor demand. Use this tool as a buying-power guide, not as the only number in a pay choice.
3. Project future prices and purchasing power
In the U.S. inflation calculator, the Future inflation tab uses a yearly rate that you choose. It can help with long-term budgets, school costs, retirement plans, savings goals, or a large future purchase.
Enter today’s amount and the number of years. Then add a yearly inflation rate and click Project future value. The tool accepts 1 to 100 years. Therefore, you can test both short and long plans.
The projected cost shows a future price if the same rate compounds each year. At the same time, Today’s money would buy shows what the first sum could buy then. The tool also gives total projected inflation and the price multiplier.
Try more than one rate instead of relying on one guess. For instance, test a low, middle, and high case. You will see how much the plan changes when the rate changes. Small gaps grow when they compound for many years.
This section is a planning tool, not a BLS forecast. It does not predict future CPI data, interest rates, returns, or Federal Reserve policy.
What does a U.S. inflation calculator measure?
This U.S. inflation calculator uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U. More precisely, it uses the all-items U.S. city average that is not seasonally adjusted. Its BLS code is CUUR0000SA0.
CPI tracks how prices change for a basket of goods and services. BLS has more than 200 item groups. They cover food, housing, clothes, travel, health care, free time, school, phone service, and other needs.
BLS says CPI-U covers more than 90% of the U.S. population in its Consumer Price Index questions and answers. However, it does not cover each home. For example, the group leaves out rural nonmetro areas, farm homes, military bases, and institutions.
The series includes food and energy. In contrast, “core CPI” leaves out those two groups so experts can study the price trend beneath them. This tool uses headline all-items CPI-U as a broad guide to buying power.
What CPI includes and excludes
CPI covers the things people buy. It also covers many sales and excise taxes tied to those goods. On the other hand, it leaves out income and Social Security taxes. It also leaves out stocks, bonds, real estate, and life insurance.
As a result, the tool should not measure the return on a house, stock fund, or other asset. It also cannot tell you how one exact price changed. Home values, tuition, gas, health care, and food can move far from the all-items index.
U.S. inflation calculator formula
The historical conversion uses a CPI ratio:
Equivalent value = original amount × target-period CPI ÷ starting-period CPI
For a simple example, assume the start CPI is 200 and the target CPI is 300. A $100 sum would become $150 because:
$100 × 300 ÷ 200 = $150
Therefore, $150 in the target period would have about the same broad buying power as $100 in the start period. This does not mean each item rose by 50%. Instead, the result shows the average change in CPI-U.
The tool also calculates cumulative inflation:
Cumulative inflation = later CPI ÷ earlier CPI − 1
In addition, it converts that total change into a compound average annual rate:
Average annual inflation = (later CPI ÷ earlier CPI)^(1 ÷ years) − 1
For future scenarios, the calculator uses a different formula because no future CPI observation exists:
Future price = amount today × (1 + assumed annual inflation rate)^years
For more detail, read the BLS CPI calculation method. You can also check the source on the BLS CUUR0000SA0 data page.
Annual average or exact month: which should you choose?
In the U.S. inflation calculator, choose an annual average for a whole-year question. For example, it works well for yearly pay, an old price with no month, or a broad match between 1980 and now.
Select an exact month when time matters. It may fit a dated receipt, contract, home sale, or job that began in a known month. However, read any legal terms before you use CPI. A contract may name another CPI series, place, time span, or rule.
For a year that is not yet done, the annual option shows the average of all months released so far. It does not act as if a final yearly value exists. Therefore, the current-year value can change with the next release.
When you choose Latest, the target is the newest BLS CPI value. The latest month lags the calendar because BLS must gather, check, and post the data.
One gap also appears in the data. October 2025 is missing because BLS could not gather the needed survey data during the 2025 funding lapse. Consequently, the tool leaves out that month instead of making up a value. BLS explains the gap in its notice about the 2025 shutdown’s CPI impact.
Current inflation, cumulative inflation, and annual inflation
These terms sound much alike, but they answer other questions. The U.S. inflation calculator keeps them apart so each result is clear.
The current 12-month inflation rate compares the newest CPI with the same month one year before. It shows only the latest one-year change. Therefore, it does not show the full rise since 1999.
By comparison, cumulative inflation shows the full CPI change between two dates. The time may cover a few months, many decades, or more than a century.
Finally, average annual inflation turns a long-term change into one compound yearly rate. It helps you match time spans of unlike length. However, the real rate did not stay the same in each year.
If you want to explore the historical pattern behind the calculator, read U.S. Inflation Rate History: 1900-2025 Explained. You can also compare economic periods in U.S. Inflation by President: 1900-2025.
What does purchasing-power loss mean?
Buying power means how much a unit of money can buy. When the broad price level rises, one dollar buys less of the CPI basket.
For example, imagine that the price level doubles. A basket that cost $100 would then cost $200. Consequently, one dollar keeps half of its old buying power. That is a 50% loss even though cumulative inflation is 100%.
This gap matters because inflation and the loss of buying power do not move one-for-one. The tool does the reverse math for you.
Inflation also links to pay, interest rates, money demand, and beliefs about the future. For a broader guide, see Money and Inflation: Interest Rates, Money Demand, and Prices.
When this inflation calculator is useful
The U.S. inflation calculator can help with many real-life tasks. For example, you can use it to:
- translate an old price into current-dollar buying power;
- compare a past salary or hourly wage with a newer offer;
- measure the broad real change in pay over time;
- make an inflation-adjusted case for class or study;
- review a long past period with a chart and CSV file;
- test a future cost at several rates;
- create a link that preserves a calculation for another reader; or
- print a clear record of the result.
Still, the result needs context. CPI-U is a U.S. average over time. It does not show price gaps between cities, one home’s exact costs, or the price path of one product.
Why your personal inflation rate may be different
Each home spends money in its own way. A renter with high health bills may face more price growth than a homeowner who spends more on trips. Your city, family size, car use, insurance, school costs, and energy use also matter.
For that reason, CPI-U does not copy your own cost of living. BLS calls it an average for a large group. In fact, a U.S. average will rarely match one person’s bills.
The CPI also cannot match living costs in Fayetteville, New York, Los Angeles, or another city. It tracks price change over time, not price gaps between places. Instead, use a regional price-parity or cost-of-living source for that task.
CPI-U, CPI-W, and PCE inflation are not the same
Several U.S. indexes track inflation, and they can show other rates.
CPI-U tracks the spending of all urban consumers and covers more than 90% of the U.S. population. This tool uses that series.
CPI-W covers a smaller group of urban wage earners and office workers. The Social Security Administration uses CPI-W for its yearly cost-of-living change. Therefore, this CPI-U tool cannot replace the Social Security COLA math.
The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, or PCE, comes from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. It covers and weighs spending in other ways. The Federal Reserve states its long-run inflation goal with PCE, not CPI-U.
No one measure answers each question. CPI-U works well here because people often use it to compare past buying power and adjust dollar sums.
How and when the data update
The past-value tools use BLS CPI-U data. The U.S. inflation calculator checks the source every 12 hours. WordPress also plans two checks per day. Therefore, a new value should appear after the next good check.
However, the data are not real time. CPI comes out once per month. The BLS CPI release calendar lists the next dates. A site cache may also show an old label for a short time.
If the month does not update, open Tools → Inflation Calculator in WordPress and run the manual refresh. Then clear the site or host cache. If BLS is down, the plugin can use saved BLS data for a short time.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an official government U.S. inflation calculator?
No. Economics.MBA built the tool and its math. However, the past data come from the BLS CPI-U all-items series CUUR0000SA0. Links by the results let you check the source.
How accurate is the U.S. inflation calculator?
The math applies the BLS CPI ratio and then rounds the result. Its value depends on whether CPI-U fits your question. It gives a broad U.S. buying-power guide, not an exact price for one item or home.
Why does the calculator begin in 1913?
The BLS CPI series begins in 1913. Some sites build earlier values from old sources. However, this tool stays with the BLS series and does not blend in those estimates.
Why is “today” not the current date?
BLS posts CPI each month, not each day. In addition, one CPI value covers the whole month. Therefore, “today” means the latest month shown above the tool.
Does the calculator update automatically?
Yes. It checks the BLS source every 12 hours and plans two checks per day. Still, new data can appear only after BLS posts a monthly value. A cache or failed web request can delay the update.
Can I calculate backward from today to an older year?
Yes. Pick the new date first and the old date second, or use the swap button. The formula works both ways and gives the target sum.
Should I use a month or an annual average?
Use an annual average for a broad yearly match. Choose a month when you know the exact date or a contract asks for monthly CPI. For the current year, the annual choice is an average of the months released so far.
Why might another inflation calculator give a different answer?
The other tool may use an annual average while this one uses one month. It may also use adjusted CPI, CPI-W, PCE, a partial year, or another rounding rule. Therefore, match the series and dates before you check the results.
Can I use the salary tab for an hourly wage?
Yes. Enter the old hourly rate instead of yearly pay. Because the same CPI ratio works for any dollar sum, the result gives the adjusted hourly rate.
Does an inflation-adjusted salary equal a fair market salary?
Not always. It shows the pay needed to keep broad CPI-U buying power. Fair market pay also depends on the job, skills, years of work, local wages, results, and labor demand.
Is the future inflation calculation a forecast?
No. The result assumes that your rate will last and compound each year. Instead, test several rates and do not treat one result as a forecast.
Can this tool measure the inflation of rent, groceries, or tuition?
Not on their own. All-items CPI joins many types of goods based on how people spend. A BLS index for one type of cost may fit that question better.
Can I use this result in a contract or legal calculation?
First, read the deal with care. It may name CPI-U or CPI-W, a region, an annual average, a base month, a rounding rule, or a cap. If large sums or legal rights are at stake, ask a skilled expert to check the method.
Sources and methodology
Economics.MBA uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted. BLS posts it under code CUUR0000SA0.
For more detail, read the BLS CPI questions and answers, Consumer Price Index calculation method, and CPI release calendar.