Inflation Calculator

About this calculator

Inflation quietly compounds, the same way interest does: this calculator applies the formula FV = PV × (1 + r)^t, where PV is today's amount, r is the annual inflation rate and t is the number of years, to show what a given sum of today's money will effectively cost in the future — or, viewed the other way, how much purchasing power today's money loses by then.

Because the formula compounds year over year rather than adding a flat percentage each year, even a modest inflation rate erodes value faster than people intuitively expect over long stretches: at 3% annual inflation, prices roughly double in about 24 years, and the same $100 today buys noticeably less than $100 worth of goods a decade from now.

People use inflation projections like this for retirement planning (figuring out how big a nest egg needs to be in future, inflated dollars), salary negotiations (checking whether a raise actually kept pace with rising prices), and general financial literacy — understanding why “the same amount of money” does not mean “the same amount of stuff” over time.