Inflation Calculator
See what your money was really worth — using official CPI data going back to 1913.
CPI 1990
130.7
CPI 2024
313.689
$100.00 in 1990 =
in 2024
Purchasing Power
What cost $1.00 in 1990 costs $2.40 in 2024.
Based on official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (1913–2024).
Inflation is the quietest force acting on your money. Nothing is withdrawn, no statement shows a loss, and yet the purchasing power of every currency unit you hold declines a little each year. This calculator makes that visible: enter an amount, a time period, and an inflation rate, and see what the money is actually worth in real terms. The results tend to be uncomfortable. At 3% annual inflation — roughly the long-run average in developed economies — money loses about half its purchasing power over 24 years. A salary that has not risen in five years is not flat; it is a pay cut that nobody had to announce.
How the calculator works
Enter the starting amount, the number of years, and the annual inflation rate. The calculator compounds the rate across the period and returns both the future nominal cost of the same basket of goods and the equivalent purchasing power of your original sum. It works in both directions: you can ask what $1,000 today will buy in twenty years, or what a 1990 salary is worth in today's money. Inflation compounds exactly like interest — just working against you rather than for you.
The formula
Future cost = Present amount × (1 + Inflation rate)^Years
Purchasing power = Present amount ÷ (1 + Inflation rate)^Years
Example: $1,000 at 3% for 20 years
Future cost = 1000 × 1.03^20 = $1,806
Real value = 1000 ÷ 1.03^20 = $554These are the same equation viewed from opposite ends. The first says a basket costing $1,000 today will cost $1,806 in twenty years. The second says $1,000 sitting in a drawer for twenty years will buy what $554 buys today. Both are true simultaneously, and the second is the one people underestimate — cash held "safely" lost 45% of its power without a single bad decision being made.
What to know about inflation
- 1The rule of 70 gives you a fast estimate: divide 70 by the inflation rate to get the years until money halves in value. At 3%, that is about 23 years. At 7%, it collapses to 10. Small differences in the rate produce very large differences in outcome.
- 2Your personal inflation rate is not the headline number. Official indices average a national basket, but if your spending skews toward rent, healthcare, and education — categories that have consistently outpaced the average — you are experiencing more inflation than the news reports.
- 3Cash is not a neutral position. Money in a low-interest account earning 0.5% while inflation runs at 3% is losing 2.5% per year in real terms. It feels safe because the nominal number never falls, which is precisely what makes the loss easy to ignore.
- 4Judge investments by real return, not nominal. An 8% return during 3% inflation is roughly a 5% real gain. A 12% return during 10% inflation is barely 2%. The headline figure tells you almost nothing without the inflation rate beside it.
- 5Salaries need to rise with inflation just to stand still. A raise below the inflation rate is a real-terms cut, and framing your negotiation around the real number rather than the nominal one is a considerably stronger position.
Frequently asked questions
What inflation rate should I use for planning?
For long-term projections in developed economies, 2–3% is a reasonable default — it reflects both the historical long-run average and the explicit target of most central banks. If you are modeling a specific category like housing or medical costs, use a higher figure, since both have outpaced general inflation for decades. Running your plan at two rates, optimistic and pessimistic, is more informative than trusting one.
Is deflation better than inflation?
It sounds appealing — your money buys more each year — but in practice it is worse. When prices are falling, people delay purchases, which reduces demand, which cuts production and jobs, which reduces demand further. Debt also becomes heavier in real terms, since you repay fixed amounts with money that is now more valuable. Japan spent decades trying to escape this loop. Mild positive inflation is the deliberate policy choice for exactly this reason.
Why do official inflation figures feel too low?
Partly composition and partly attention. The index averages hundreds of categories, including ones that get cheaper — electronics, for instance — which offsets categories that rise sharply. You also notice rent and groceries every week and barely register that a television costs less than it did. If your budget is concentrated in the fast-rising categories, the average genuinely does not describe you.
What actually protects money from inflation?
Historically, assets whose value or income rises with prices: equities, real estate, and inflation-linked government bonds, which adjust their principal to the index directly. Cash and fixed-rate long bonds are the most exposed, since their payouts are fixed in nominal terms while the currency erodes underneath them. There is no risk-free hedge — inflation protection generally means accepting some other form of volatility.
How does inflation affect my mortgage?
A fixed-rate mortgage is one of the few places inflation works in your favor. You owe a fixed nominal amount, and inflation erodes the real weight of that debt every year while your income and the property's nominal value tend to rise with prices. A payment that consumed 30% of your income at signing may consume 18% after fifteen years of inflation, without the payment itself ever changing.