US inflation calculator
What an amount from the past is worth today, or what today's money was worth then, using the official US consumer price index (CPI-U).
Value in the end month
$1,000.00 in September 2021 has the same buying power as $1,228.32 in September 2026. Prices rose 22.83% over that period.
How this is calculated →- Total inflation22.83%
- Average inflation per year4.2%
- CPI-U, September 2021274.310
- CPI-U, September 2026336.940
- SourceUS Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U all items, not seasonally adjusted (via FRED, series CPIAUCNS)
Estimate for information only, not financial advice. The CPI measures an average basket of urban consumer prices; your own cost of living may have changed by more or less.
How the inflation calculation works
The calculator multiplies your amount by the ratio of two index values: value now = amount × CPI(end month) ÷ CPI(start month). The ratio minus one is the total inflation between the two months.
The index is the CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, all items, US city average, not seasonally adjusted), published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Its base is the 1982-84 average, set to 100. The same index and the same formula are behind the BLS inflation calculator.
Example: the CPI-U was 168.8 in January 2000 and 257.971 in January 2020. The ratio is 1.5283, so $1,000 in January 2000 had the same buying power as $1,528.26 in January 2020: total inflation of 52.83%, or about 2.14% a year.
The average yearly rate is the constant rate that gives the same total over the period: (CPI end ÷ CPI start)^(12 ÷ months) − 1. Year-to-year inflation moves up and down, so the average hides the real path.
The BLS publishes each month around the middle of the following month, so the latest month is always about a month behind. Months the BLS did not publish, such as October 2025, are not available.
Frequently asked questions
What is the CPI-U?
It is the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, the most widely used measure of US inflation. It tracks the average change in prices paid for a fixed basket of goods and services such as food, housing, transportation and medical care.
Why use the not seasonally adjusted index?
Inflation calculators, including the one from the BLS, use the not seasonally adjusted series because it is the actual index level for each month, with no statistical smoothing.
Is this the same as the inflation rate in the news?
The news usually quotes the change from the same month a year ago. Here you can pick any two months, so the result covers whatever period you choose.
Why is October 2025 missing?
The BLS did not publish a CPI-U value for October 2025, so there is no official index for that month. Use September or November instead.
Does it include rent, gas and groceries?
Yes. The CPI-U all-items index covers housing, food, energy, transportation, medical care and more. Your personal inflation depends on what you actually buy.
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