Free calculator

Inflation Calculator

Enter an amount and two months to see what it’s worth in the other month’s dollars, how much prices rose in between, and how much buying power the money lost.

Amount

Worth in

Worth in August 2026

$164.29

The same buying power as $100.00 in August 2006

Prices rose: 64.3%; Aug 2006 to Aug 2026
Average inflation: 2.51%; a year, compounded
Buying power lost: 39.1%; $100.00 in cash later buys what $60.87 did

$100.00 in August 2006 had the same buying power as $164.29 in August 2026. Prices rose 64.3% over those 20 years, an average of 2.51% a year, so $100.00 kept as cash since August 2006 would only buy what $60.87 bought then.

Based on the Consumer Price Index. This uses the government’s measure of prices for urban US households (CPI-U, all items). Your own costs may have risen faster or slower. Our data runs from January 1913 to August 2026. October 2025 is an estimate. BLS didn’t publish that month, so we use its approximation from the months either side. The result above uses only the two months you picked, so the estimate doesn’t change it.

What it’s worth over time

The same buying power as $100.00 in August 2006, in the dollars of each year from August 2006 to August 2026.

What this calculator assumes

It uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), US city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted: the series the BLS CPI Inflation Calculator uses. Each month’s figure stands for prices across the whole month, not one day.
The result is your amount × the index in the second month ÷ the index in the first. Only those two months affect it.
The yearly rate is the steady yearly rate that compounds to the same total change, not a simple average of each year’s inflation.
It reflects an average urban household’s spending. Your own costs depend on what you buy and where you live, and can rise faster or slower.
BLS didn’t publish October 2025 (no prices were collected during the federal government shutdown). That month uses BLS’s suggested approximation, the geometric mean of September and November 2025, and the page says so when it’s in your range.
The data runs from January 1913 to August 2026 and was last updated on October 6, 2026. It shows what prices did, not what the money would have earned in a bank account or investments.

These are estimates to help you understand the numbers, not financial advice. Check the exact figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before making a decision.

What inflation is

Inflation is the general rise in prices over time. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the US agency that measures it, describes it as continuously rising prices or, put the other way round, a continuously falling value of money. When prices go up, each dollar buys a little less, so the same amount of money is worth less than it used to be.

So an amount from the past can’t be compared with today’s money directly. This calculator turns dollars from one month into dollars of another, and then the two can be compared.

How the Consumer Price Index is measured

The calculator uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure BLS publishes every month. It tracks the average change in prices paid by consumers for a basket of goods and services: more than 200 kinds of spending in eight groups, from food and housing to transportation, medical care and education.

People collect the prices. BLS data collectors visit or call stores, service businesses, rental units and doctors’ offices across the country, recording prices for about 80,000 items each month.
Each item counts by how much people spend on it. The weights come from surveys of what households actually buy, so a rise in rent moves the index more than a rise in phone bills.
It covers most Americans. The version used here, CPI-U, reflects all urban consumers, more than 90% of the US population. It leaves out investments such as stocks, bonds and real estate, because they’re saving rather than day-to-day spending.
It’s an index, not a price. The average for 1982 to 1984 is set to 100. A reading of 110 means prices are 10% higher than then. The calculator only uses the change from one month to another.

The calculator divides the index in one month by the index in the other and multiplies your amount by the result. The yearly figure is the steady rate that, compounded every year, gives the same total rise.

Worked example

What was $100.00 in August 2006 worth in August 2026? The Consumer Price Index was 203.9 in August 2006 and 334.98 in August 2026.

In August 2026 dollars: $100.00 × 334.98 ÷ 203.9 = $164.29. That’s what it took in August 2026 to buy what $100.00 bought in August 2006.
Prices rose 64.3% in total (334.98 ÷ 203.9 is 1.6429), which works out to an average of 2.51% a year when compounded over 20 years.
Buying power: $100.00 kept in a drawer since August 2006 would buy only what $60.87 bought then, a loss of 39.1%.
The other way round: $100.00 in August 2026 had the buying power of $60.87 in August 2006.

What $100 from past decades is worth in August 2026

Worked out from the same CPI data, using August of each year so every row covers whole years.

$100 in	Worth in Aug 2026	Prices rose	Per year
Aug 1970	$858.92	758.9%	3.91%
Aug 1980	$402.14	302.1%	3.07%
Aug 1990	$254.54	154.5%	2.63%
Aug 2000	$193.85	93.9%	2.58%
Aug 2010	$153.44	53.4%	2.71%
Aug 2020	$128.88	28.9%	4.32%

Over the latest 12 months of data, prices rose 3.4%: $100 in August 2025 had the buying power of $103.40 in August 2026.

Why your own inflation can be different

The CPI is an average across millions of households, and BLS points out that it may not match any one person’s experience. The main reason is how you spend your money. In a BLS example, food prices rise 5% and medical costs 10%, with everything else flat. The average basket goes up 1.4%, but for a person who spends a quarter of their budget on medical care, costs go up 3.5%.

Where you live matters too: prices can jump in one city while falling in another. And people notice the things they buy often, such as food, clothing and gas, which swing more than things they buy rarely, like appliances. If rent is most of your budget and rents near you are climbing fast, your personal inflation can run well above the national figure.

Inflation vs the price of one thing

A price going up isn’t the same as inflation. Inflation is the average across the whole basket, so in any year some prices rise faster than the CPI, some slower and some fall. A jump in the price of eggs or gas is a change in one item; inflation is when prices in general drift up and the dollar buys less across the board.

BLS also adjusts for changes in what you get for the money. If a 64-ounce carton of orange juice is replaced by a 59-ounce one at the same price, it records the smaller size, so a shrinking package counts as a price rise.

What inflation means for your savings

Money kept as cash loses buying power whenever prices rise; the worked example above shows how much over 20 years. Savings only keep up if they earn at least the rate of inflation after any tax. The compound interest calculator shows what a savings rate adds over time, and the index investing calculator can show past stock market returns after inflation. For ways people try to stay ahead of rising prices, see investment strategies to beat inflation.

Guides on this topic

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate inflation between two dates?

Take the Consumer Price Index for the later month and divide it by the index for the earlier month. Subtract 1 and you have the total inflation; multiply an amount from the earlier month by the ratio and you have its value in later-month dollars. For example, if the index went from 200 to 300, prices rose 50% and $100 then is worth $150 later.

What is $100 from 2000 worth today?

About $193.85. Prices rose 93.9% between August 2000 and August 2026, the latest month in our data, so it took that much to buy what $100 bought in 2000. Pick any other month in the calculator; it goes back to January 1913.

Why is my own inflation different from the CPI?

The CPI is an average for urban households, weighted by what they spend on. If more of your budget goes on something whose price is climbing fast, such as rent or medical care, your costs rise faster than the CPI; if you spend more on things whose prices are flat, they rise slower. Where you live and how often you buy things that swing in price, like gas and food, also play a part.

Is a rising price the same as inflation?

Not quite. Inflation is a rise in prices in general, measured across a whole basket of goods and services. In any year some prices climb faster than inflation, some slower and some fall. A higher price for one product tells you about that product; inflation tells you how much less a dollar buys overall.

Why does it say October 2025 is an estimate?

BLS couldn’t collect prices for October 2025 because of the federal government shutdown, so it never published a CPI for that month, and its own inflation calculator won’t use it. BLS suggests approximating a missing month with the geometric mean of the months either side, and that’s what this calculator does. A range that only passes through October 2025 isn’t affected, because the result uses just the two months you pick.

Why do inflation calculators give slightly different answers?

They may use a different index (such as CPI-W, which covers wage earners, or a seasonally adjusted series), yearly averages instead of months, or different rounding. This one uses monthly CPI-U figures, not seasonally adjusted, like the BLS calculator, and matches its results to the cent for months BLS has published.

Does inflation mean my savings lose money?

The number in your account doesn’t fall, but what it can buy does. If your savings earn less interest than the rate of inflation, their buying power shrinks over time. The worked example on this page shows how much $100 kept as cash lost over 20 years.