Inflation Calculator

Calculate the effect of inflation on purchasing power free online. See what an amount today will be worth in the future, or what a past amount equals today, at any inflation rate.

Amount

Annual Inflation Rate (%)

Years

Browser only.

How to Use This Tool

Enter today's amountThe current value you want to project

Enter expected inflation rate and yearsUse a historical or projected rate for your planning

See future cost and lost purchasing powerBoth shown to make the erosion concrete

Inflation Calculator is a free online tool that works entirely in your browser — no signup, no data uploaded, no limits.

Inflation Compounds Like Interest, Just Working Against You

The same exponential math that makes compound interest powerful for growing wealth works in the opposite direction against purchasing power -- a fixed amount of money buys progressively less each year inflation persists, and that erosion compounds rather than simply accumulating linearly.

Why "Just 3%" Matters More Than It Sounds

A 3% annual inflation rate sounds modest year to year, but compounded over 20-30 years (a typical retirement planning horizon), it substantially erodes the real value of any fixed sum. This is exactly why retirement and long-term financial planning needs to use inflation-adjusted figures rather than today's prices held constant indefinitely.

Using Historical Rates for Realistic Planning

This calculator needs an inflation rate assumption to run the math, and historical average rates from your country's central bank or statistics agency typically provide a more grounded starting point than an arbitrary guess, even though future inflation can certainly differ from historical patterns.

Frequently Asked Questions

The future value an amount loses or needs to keep pace with a given annual inflation rate, compounding over a specified number of years -- the same compounding math as investment growth, just applied to the eroding effect of rising prices instead of growing returns.

Inflation compounds exactly like interest does. A seemingly modest 3% annual rate erodes purchasing power by roughly half over about 24 years, which is why long-term financial planning needs to account for inflation explicitly rather than assuming today's prices stay flat.

A retirement nest egg calculated today dollars needs to be adjusted upward to account for decades of inflation between now and retirement, otherwise the actual purchasing power available in retirement will be substantially lower than the nominal number suggests.

Historical average inflation rates vary by country and time period -- checking your country's official statistics agency or central bank data for historical and current rates gives the most relevant figure for your specific planning context.

Yes, running the calculation in reverse -- entering a past amount and the years since then -- shows the equivalent purchasing power today terms, useful for understanding historical prices or past salary figures in current context.