US Inflation Calculator

A dollar is a moving target

People search “inflation calculator” when a salary, a house price, or a grandparent story needs a translation. $100 in 2000 and $100 in 2025 are not the same ticket. This page multiplies your amount by the ratio of U.S. CPI-U annual averages so you can say what that money is worth in another year’s dollars.

It is a purchasing-power translator, not a forecast. It will not tell you next year’s CPI. It will tell you how the official urban basket moved between two calendar years already in the table.

The formula and the source

Year-B dollars = year-A dollars × (CPI-B / CPI-A). Percent change is (CPI-B / CPI-A − 1) × 100. Annualized change is that ratio raised to 1 over the number of years, minus one. Indexes here are annual-average CPI-U (1982–84 = 100) as compiled by the BLS and published in the Minneapolis Fed CPI table through 2025, with 2026 marked as their estimate.

CPI-U covers about 93% of the U.S. population. It is not CPI-W (urban wage earners) and not the chained C-CPI-U used in some tax indexing. Different indexes will give slightly different dollar translations.

How to use it

Enter the amount in the year’s dollars you have—a 2015 salary, a 1990 house, a 1913 newspaper price. Pick the from-year and the to-year. Read the restated amount, the total percent change, and the annualized rate. If you are comparing a raise, also run the percentage calculator on the nominal numbers; this page is the inflation half of that story.

For retirement, a 7% compound-interest illustration looks smaller after you deflate it. Pair the two tools: grow the balance on one page, then ask what that ending pile buys in today’s dollars on this page.

Worked examples

$100 in 2000 is about $187 in 2025 on this table (CPI 172.2 → 321.9). A $50,000 salary in 2015 is about $67,900 in 2025 dollars. $1 in 1913 is about $32.50 in 2025.

Going backward works too: $100 in 2025 is about $53.50 in 2000 dollars. That is the same ratio inverted.

What this will not do

It will not forecast 2027, adjust for a specific city, or strip out food and energy. Core CPI, shelter CPI, and PCE inflation are different series. Medical costs and college tuition often outrun headline CPI; housing in one zip code can too.

KindCalc does not scrape BLS live. When a year closes, the annual average on this page should be updated. Until then, treat 2026 as an estimate and prior years as annual averages.

Typical examples

Frequently asked questions

How does an inflation calculator work?

It scales money by the ratio of consumer price indexes: value in year B = amount × (CPI-B ÷ CPI-A). This page uses annual-average CPI-U for the U.S. city average, the same family of index the BLS publishes as CUUR0000SA0.

What is $100 in 2000 worth today?

Using 2025 annual-average CPI-U on this page, about $187. That is a rise of roughly 87% in the urban basket, not a promise that every item you buy went up the same amount.

Is CPI the same as my cost of living?

No. CPI-U blends housing, food, energy, medical, and more for urban consumers. If your spending is mostly rent in one metro, your inflation can run hotter or cooler than this national average.

Why is 2026 marked as an estimate?

BLS publishes monthly CPI. A full annual average exists only after December. 2026 on this table follows the Minneapolis Fed’s Q2-to-Q2 estimate so the year is usable before the annual figure closes.

Does this include investment returns?

No. It only restates dollars. To see whether savings outran prices, compare this result with the compound interest calculator at a rate you actually earned.