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Inflation Calculator

See what inflation does to your money. Enter an amount, an annual inflation rate and a number of years to project future prices and shrinking buying power — free.

About this tool

Inflation is the slow leak in every wallet: prices rise a little each year, so the same money buys a little less. A 3% annual rate sounds harmless until you realize it halves your buying power in about 24 years. Savers, investors and retirement planners all need to see that erosion in hard numbers.

This free inflation calculator projects what any amount will cost in the future at a given inflation rate, shows the total price increase as a percentage, and flips it around to show what today’s money will actually be worth then.

How to use

Enter the amount in today’s money, the expected annual inflation rate as a percentage, and how many years ahead you want to look. Press Calculate Impact to see the projected future cost, the total percentage increase, and the future buying power of your current money.

Try two scenarios — a low rate and a high rate — to see the range of possible outcomes instead of betting on a single number.

The math behind it

The math is compound growth in reverse: Future Cost = Present Value × (1 + r)^n, where r is the annual inflation rate and n is the number of years. Buying power is the mirror image: divide instead of multiply.

Example: $100,000 at 3% inflation for 10 years becomes $134,391.64 — prices rise 34.39%, so today’s $100,000 will only buy what $74,409 buys now.

Frequently asked questions

How does inflation affect my savings?
Money sitting idle loses buying power every year prices rise. At 3% inflation, $10,000 in a drawer buys what roughly $9,709 buys after one year and only about $7,441 after ten. That is why savings need to grow at least as fast as inflation just to stand still.
What is a normal inflation rate?
Most central banks target around 2% a year. Pakistan and India have often run higher, in the single digits, and anything persistently above 6–8% starts squeezing household budgets hard. This calculator lets you test any rate you expect.
How is the future cost calculated?
With compound growth: multiply today’s price by (1 + inflation rate) raised to the number of years. A $50 grocery basket at 4% inflation costs $50 × 1.04^10 ≈ $74.01 after ten years. Small yearly rates snowball over time.
Is this accurate for 20 or 30 year projections?
It is a scenario, not a prediction — real inflation bounces around every year while the calculator assumes one steady rate. For long horizons, run a low-rate and a high-rate case and treat the truth as somewhere between them.
What is the difference between inflation and purchasing power?
They are two sides of the same coin. Inflation describes prices going up; purchasing power describes your money buying less. A 25% cumulative inflation rate means exactly the same thing as a 20% fall in purchasing power.

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