Inflation & Salary Calculator
See what a dollar from one year is worth in another with a purchasing-power chart, check whether a salary raise actually beat inflation, and project a future value at an assumed rate — using a bundled offline US CPI table (1913–present).
Interactive Client Prototype Sandbox
Disclaimer: This free tool is provided “as is,” without warranties of any kind, and is for general informational purposes only — not professional, legal, financial, medical, tax, or engineering advice. Results may contain errors; verify anything important independently and use at your own risk. We accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from its use. See our Terms of Use for details.
Step-by-Step Guide
Choose one of three modes.
Adjust mode (historical CPI)
Enter an amount and two years (from 1913 to the most recent complete year available). The tool looks up the CPI-U index values for both years from its bundled offline table, computes the ratio, and multiplies your amount. It also shows total cumulative inflation for the period and the annualized rate. The result answers: 'what would $X in year A buy if priced in year B dollars?'
Salary mode
Enter your salary in a starting year and the same salary (or your new salary) in a later year. The tool computes what salary in the later year would preserve the same purchasing power as your original salary, then compares it to your actual new salary to produce a real-terms verdict — 'your raise beat inflation by X%' or 'you lost Y% of purchasing power.'
Project mode
Enter an amount, a future year, and an annual inflation rate you choose. The tool compounds the amount forward at that rate to estimate what a future dollar amount would need to be to match today's purchasing power. This mode uses your assumed rate, not real CPI data — it is labeled clearly as an estimate.
Adjust: $100 in 1990 to 2025 — the CPI-U rose from about 130.7 to roughly 314, a ratio of 2.40, so $100 in 1990 ≈ $240 in 2025 (about 3.1% per year annualized). Salary: a $50,000 salary in 2010 needed about $73,500 in 2025 to keep pace with inflation; if you now earn $68,000, you lost about 7.5% of your real purchasing power. Project: $1,000 today at 3%/yr for 10 years would need to be $1,344 in 2035 to have the same buying power.
Who it's for
Workers checking if a raise kept up, retirement planners, researchers, and anyone comparing prices or pay across the years.
Core Features
- Adjust mode: convert an amount between any two years (1913–present) with total and annualized inflation, plus a purchasing-power chart.
- Salary mode: enter an old and new salary to see the income needed to keep pace and whether your raise beat inflation in real terms.
- Project mode: estimate a future value at an inflation rate you choose — clearly labeled as an estimate, not measured CPI data.
- Plain-English results, a shareable link, and a bundled offline US CPI-U table (no network) for the historical modes.
🛡️ No tracking — your inputs, keys, and details never leave this client sandbox.
Did my raise beat inflation?
Use Salary mode: enter your old salary, your new salary, and the two years. The tool shows the income you'd need to keep the same buying power, then tells you whether your raise beat inflation or lost ground in real terms — and by how much.
Where does the inflation data come from?
From a bundled, offline snapshot of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. city average, 1982–84 = 100). It ships with the tool so the historical calculations are instant and private — no network request — and the source is linked on the page (bls.gov/cpi).
Why does the data stop at the latest year?
CPI is published as a finalised annual average, so the table ends at the most recent complete year rather than guessing the current one. For anything beyond that, use Project mode, which is clearly labeled as an estimate rather than measured CPI data.
How does Project mode work?
Enter an amount, a future year, and an annual inflation rate you choose, and it compounds the amount forward at that rate. It's a what-if estimate based on your assumption — not real CPI data — so it's styled distinctly and labeled as a projection.
What's the difference between total and annualized inflation?
Total inflation is the cumulative price change across the whole span (e.g. prices rose 146% from 1990 to 2025). Annualized inflation is the average yearly rate that compounds to that same total — a smaller number that makes different time spans comparable.
Can I use this to check if my raise kept up with inflation?
Yes — use Salary mode. Enter your original salary and year, then your current salary and the current year. The tool tells you what your salary would need to be today to have the same purchasing power as your starting salary, and whether your actual raise cleared that bar or fell short, expressed as a real percentage gain or loss.
A real scenario: did your 2021–2024 raise actually help you?
Between 2021 and 2024, US inflation ran at the highest sustained rate since the early 1980s — cumulative CPI-U growth of roughly 20% over those four years. A worker who received a 12% raise over that period may have felt they were doing reasonably well. In real purchasing-power terms, they took a pay cut of around 7%. That is the kind of calculation the inflation salary mode exists to surface — not to deliver bad news, but because planning a budget or negotiating compensation without it is working with the wrong number.
How CPI-based adjustments are calculated
The CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) is an index, not a direct price. It measures the price of a fixed basket of goods relative to its price in a reference period (1982–84 = 100). To adjust an amount from year A to year B, the formula is: adjusted = original × (CPI_B ÷ CPI_A). If the CPI-U was 130.7 in 1990 and approximately 314 in 2025, then $100 in 1990 is equivalent to 100 × (314 ÷ 130.7) ≈ $240 in 2025 dollars. This is the calculation the tool runs from its bundled offline CPI-U table — no network request required.
Total vs. annualized inflation
Total inflation for a period is (CPI_end − CPI_start) ÷ CPI_start — the cumulative percentage price rise. For 1990–2025 that is roughly 140%. Annualized inflation is the geometric average rate that compounds to that total: (CPI_end ÷ CPI_start)^(1/n) − 1, where n is the number of years. The annualized figure (about 3.1% for 1990–2025) is more useful for comparing different periods because it normalizes for time span.
What this tool cannot do
The CPI-U is a national average. It does not reflect what happened to housing costs specifically in San Francisco, or healthcare costs for a particular insurance plan, or food costs for a specific dietary pattern. If your actual spending basket diverges sharply from the average — as it does for many retirees (more healthcare), young renters in expensive cities (more housing), or high-income earners (less food as a share of spending) — the CPI-U-based adjustment will be an imperfect proxy for your personal inflation rate. It is the best available official measure, but it is an average, not a personalized calculation.