Inflation Calculator
Calculate the future value of money adjusted for inflation. See how inflation erodes purchasing power over time and what today's dollars will be worth.
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%
yrs
Future Value (Same Buying Power)
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Purchasing Power Lost —
Purchasing Power Lost (%) —
Value of Today's Dollar in Future —
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter the Original Amount — the dollar amount you want to adjust.
- Enter the Annual Inflation Rate — use 3% as a historical US average, or a specific rate.
- Enter the Number of Years to project forward.
- See how much the same purchasing power costs in the future and how much value is lost to inflation.
Formula
Future Value = Amount × (1 + Inflation Rate)^Years
Purchasing Power Loss = Future Value − Original Amount
Today's Dollar Value in Future = 1 ÷ (1 + Rate)^Years
Example
Example: $10,000 today, 3% annual inflation, 10 years.
- Future cost of same goods: $13,439
- Purchasing Power Lost: $3,439 (25.6%)
- Today's $1.00 = only $0.7441 in 10 years
Frequently Asked Questions
- Inflation is the rate at which the general price level of goods and services rises over time. At 3% annual inflation, something that costs $100 today will cost $134 in 10 years. Your savings lose purchasing power if they don't keep up with inflation.
- The US long-term average inflation rate is about 3.1% per year since 1913. The Federal Reserve targets 2% inflation. Recent years have been volatile: 1.2% in 2020, 7.0% in 2021, 6.5% in 2022, then cooling to 3–4% in 2023–2025.
- Invest in assets that historically outpace inflation: stocks (historical ~10% return), real estate, I-bonds (inflation-indexed), TIPS (Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities), and commodities. Keeping too much in low-yield savings accounts leads to real purchasing power loss.
- Real return = Nominal return − Inflation rate (approximately). If your savings account earns 4.5% and inflation is 3%, your real return is about 1.5%. For the S&P 500 at 10% nominal with 3% inflation, the real return is about 7%.
- Divide 70 by the inflation rate to estimate how many years until prices double. At 3% inflation: 70 ÷ 3 = 23 years for prices to double. At 7% inflation: 70 ÷ 7 = 10 years.