A raise that doesn’t beat inflation is a pay cut with better marketing. See exactly how much.
Free finance tool
Inflation Calculator
See what an amount is really worth after inflation, with current 2026 rates for seven countries and regions.
This projects forward using a single assumed rate, compounded, rather than a real historical price index. Good for planning, not a substitute for an official statistics office's historical calculator.
| Year | Equivalent value | Cumulative inflation |
|---|
How this is calculated
Future purchasing power = amount ÷ (1 + rate)years. Past-to-today works the same way in reverse: an amount from N years ago × (1 + rate)years gives its equivalent today. It is the same compounding math as compound interest, just working against you instead of for you.
Inflation calculator FAQ
How does this inflation calculator work?
It compounds a chosen annual inflation rate over a number of years, the same way compound interest grows a balance, except here it shrinks purchasing power instead of growing a balance. Pick a country for a current sourced default rate, or enter your own.
What inflation rate should I use?
For a near-term estimate, the current annual rate for your country is a reasonable starting point, and this tool has current 2026 figures built in. For long-run projections over decades, many analysts use a long-term average instead (historically close to 2-3% for most developed economies), since a single year's rate rarely holds for 20 or 30 years straight.
Does this use real historical price data?
No. This tool projects forward or backward using a single assumed annual rate, compounded, rather than a real historical price index series. It is a useful estimate for planning, not a substitute for an official statistics office's historical CPI calculator if you need an exact figure for a specific past year.
Why does inflation matter for savings and salary negotiations?
Money that just sits still loses purchasing power every year inflation runs above zero. A savings account paying 2% while inflation runs at 4% is losing real value even though the balance is growing. The same logic applies to a salary that stays flat: it is a real pay cut every year prices rise faster than your pay does.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser, nothing you enter is sent to a server, and there is no sign-up.
Free inflation calculator by ANUPRESS
Two directions, one piece of math
This calculator runs the same compounding formula both ways. “Today to future” tells you what today’s money will actually be able to buy after N years of inflation, shown as a shrinking number in today’s prices, the classic feeling of “everything got more expensive.” “Past to today” runs it in reverse: an amount from years ago, grown forward, to show what it is worth in today’s money. Both use the same rate, compounded, just applied in opposite directions.
Where the default rates come from
Each country preset uses the most recent annual inflation figure published by that country’s own statistics office as of mid-2026: Destatis for Germany, INSEE-aligned Eurostat data for France and the Eurozone average, the ONS for the UK, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the US, the ABS for Australia, and Stats NZ for New Zealand. These move every quarter, so the field is fully editable if you want to use your own assumption, a long-run historical average, or a specific forecast instead.
Why “just use 2%” isn’t always the right call
Central banks generally target around 2% inflation as a long-run goal, and it is a common default for multi-decade projections since single-year rates rarely hold steady for that long. But the current rates built into this calculator, several of them well above 2% in 2026, are more useful for near-term planning: working out next year’s rent increase, or whether a raise actually kept pace. Pick the timeframe that matches your question, not just the number that is easiest to remember.
What this doesn’t do
This is a compounding projection using one assumed rate, not a real historical price index. If you need the exact, official answer to “what was £500 worth in 1985,” a national statistics office’s own historical CPI calculator will give you a more precise figure, since real inflation was never a smooth, constant rate year to year. This tool is built for estimates and planning, not historical research.
A practical use: checking a raise or a savings account
Enter your current salary and a few years, then compare the result to what you actually expect to earn by then. If the projected number is higher than your real expected salary, your pay is losing ground even if the number on your payslip keeps growing. The same check works for a savings account: if your interest rate is lower than the inflation rate, your balance is shrinking in real terms even as the number in the account goes up.