High Yield Savings Calculator

About this calculator

A high-yield savings account (HYSA) pays an annual percentage yield (APY) substantially above the U.S. national average savings rate — often several times higher, since online banks with lower overhead can pass the savings on as interest, while brick-and-mortar banks frequently leave standard savings accounts at a small fraction of a percent. Growth compounds over time, and with monthly deposits added on top, the difference between a high-yield and a regular account widens every month rather than staying fixed.

Personal finance advisors routinely point to this comparison as one of the easiest, lowest-risk ways to improve returns on cash, since a HYSA carries the same FDIC insurance as a standard account but can pay meaningfully more — moving an emergency fund or short-term savings goal from a near-zero-interest account to a high-yield one costs nothing and requires no change in risk tolerance, only where the money sits. Seeing the compounding gap in dollar terms, rather than just as a percentage-point difference in APY, is usually what convinces someone to actually make the switch.

Enter your starting balance, monthly deposit, high-yield APY and your current account’s rate, and this calculator projects both balances forward and shows you exactly how much more the high-yield account earns.