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Inflation Calculator

See what an amount of money in one year is worth in another using historical US CPI data.

Result

Value in 2024
$182.17
Cumulative inflation
82.17%
Annualized rate
2.53%

Based on annual-average US CPI-U; a fixed historical snapshot, not live data.

Export:
Original amount vs. inflation increase
  • Original amount$100.0054.9%
  • Added by inflation$82.1745.1%

How inflation adjustment works

Money does not hold a fixed amount of buying power — a dollar buys less over time as prices rise. To compare amounts across years fairly, you have to translate them into the same purchasing power. This calculator does that using the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), a measure of the average price of a basket of goods and services.

The math is a ratio of index values: multiply the original amount by the destination year's CPI divided by the starting year's CPI. If prices have, say, risen 50 percent between the two years, the index ratio is 1.5 and the adjusted amount is half as much again. The same ratio also yields the cumulative inflation over the span and the equivalent annualized rate.

Reading the three results

The headline value is your amount expressed in the destination year's money — what it would take then to buy what the original sum bought at the start. Cumulative inflation is the total percentage prices climbed across the whole period, while the annualized rate compresses that into an average yearly pace, which is easier to compare across spans of different lengths.

The chart splits the adjusted value into the original amount and the slice added purely by inflation, making the erosion of buying power visible rather than abstract.

Practical uses and caveats

Inflation adjustment is the right tool whenever you compare money across time:

  • Check whether a past salary, price, or budget was really higher or lower in real terms than today's.
  • Put historical costs into present-day money to judge whether something has truly gotten more expensive.
  • Remember CPI is a broad national average; your personal inflation depends on what you actually buy.
  • These figures are annual-average CPI-U values — a fixed historical snapshot, not live or forecast data.

Formula

adjusted = amount × (cpiEnd / cpiStart); cumulative = (cpiEnd/cpiStart − 1) × 100

Frequently asked questions

Where does the CPI data come from?
The figures are annual-average CPI-U values published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (1982-1984 = 100). They are a fixed historical snapshot, not live data.