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US Inflation Calculator (1913–2026)
What a dollar from any year between 1913 and 2026 is worth today, using the official US Consumer Price Index.
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This US inflation calculator shows what an amount of money from any year since 1913 is worth in another year, using the official Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Find out what your grandparents' salary, an old house price or a 1990s movie ticket would cost today, how much buying power the dollar has lost and the average inflation rate between any two years.
How the Inflation Calculator Works
The Consumer Price Index measures the average price of a fixed basket of goods and services bought by urban households – food, housing, gasoline, medical care, clothing and more. Because the basket stays the same, the ratio of two years' index values shows how much prices changed:
Value in year B = amount in year A × (CPI in year B ÷ CPI in year A)
Example: the average CPI was 172.2 in 2000 and 321.9 in 2025. So $100 in 2000 has the same buying power as 100 × 321.9 ÷ 172.2 = $186.93 in 2025 – prices rose 86.9%, an average of about 2.5% a year.
The average yearly rate is a compound rate: (CPIend ÷ CPIstart)1/years − 1. The calculator uses annual averages, so results are for the year as a whole rather than a specific month.
What $100 From the Past Is Worth Today
Using the 2025 annual average CPI:
| Year | $100 then equals in 2025 |
|---|---|
| 1913 | $3,251.52 |
| 1930 | $1,927.54 |
| 1950 | $1,335.68 |
| 1960 | $1,087.50 |
| 1970 | $829.64 |
| 1980 | $390.66 |
| 1990 | $246.29 |
| 2000 | $186.93 |
| 2010 | $147.59 |
| 2020 | $124.38 |
Notice that $100 from 1940 is worth more today than $100 from 1930. Prices fell during the Great Depression, so a 1940 dollar bought more than a 1930 dollar. For those years the calculator shows deflation – the dollar gained buying power.
US Inflation in Recent Years
Annual average inflation was 1.2% in 2020, then jumped to 4.7% in 2021 and 8.0% in 2022 – the highest in four decades – before easing to 4.1% in 2023, 3.0% in 2024 and 2.6% in 2025. The record in modern times was 13.5% in 1980. The Federal Reserve aims for inflation of 2% a year over the long run.
Why Inflation Matters for Your Money
- Savings: money in an account paying less than inflation loses buying power every year. At 3% inflation, prices double in about 23 years.
- Salary: a raise smaller than inflation is a pay cut in real terms. Compare your raise with the yearly figure in the table below the calculator.
- Retirement: $50,000 a year of spending today will need roughly $90,000 in 20 years at 3% inflation.
- Comparisons: to compare prices, wages or home values across decades fairly, convert them to the same year's dollars first.
Limits of the CPI
CPI-U is an average for urban consumers. Your own inflation depends on what you buy and where you live – housing and health care costs have risen faster than the overall index, and electronics have become cheaper. The 2026 figure is based on the months published so far and is updated when the BLS releases the full-year average. For month-by-month comparisons, use the BLS CPI Inflation Calculator.
See how investing can outpace inflation with the compound interest calculator, or work out a price change with the percentage calculator.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Consumer Price Index
- BLS – CPI Inflation Calculator (monthly data)
- Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis – Consumer Price Index, 1913–
- Federal Reserve – Why does the Fed aim for 2% inflation?
Last reviewed: October 2026 by the ShrinkBee team. Results are estimates for planning and education, not financial, tax, legal or medical advice.
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