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Final Stretch · Tools
Social Security Claiming Age Calculator
Compare what claiming at 62, 67, and 70 actually means in dollars, see the age at which delaying pays off, and get a rough sense of how cost-of-living increases and taxes affect the benefit over time.
Your info
Used to determine your full retirement age. It's not a fixed age like 65; it varies depending on when you were born.
Pre-filled with a placeholder estimate. Replace it with the number from your own Social Security statement any time.
The age you're planning around. It drives the break-even chart below.
Used only to estimate how much of your benefit is taxable (see Benefit taxation below).
Compare claiming ages
Claim at 62
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Reduced for early claiming
Claim at 67
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Claim at 70
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Maximum delayed credit
Break-even visualization
Cost-of-living adjustment
COLA (cost-of-living adjustment): an annual adjustment that raises your benefit to keep pace with inflation, so your purchasing power doesn't shrink over time. Applied every year in the break-even chart above.
Benefit taxation
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Benefit taxation: part of your Social Security benefit itself may count as taxable income, depending on your other earnings. This estimate factors in the "other annual income" you entered above, and is also reflected in the break-even chart's totals.
Spousal claiming strategy
Spousal claiming strategy: coordinates both spouses' claiming ages to maximize what the household receives overall, rather than optimizing each person's benefit on its own. Each spouse can claim either their own benefit, or up to 50% of their partner's full-retirement-age benefit, whichever is higher.
At your selected ages
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Household lifetime total, by claiming-age combination
Each cell is the combined household lifetime benefit through your assumed lifespan (with COLA, before tax) for that pair of claiming ages. The highlighted cell maximizes the household total.
Earnings limit for early claimers
Earnings limit: if you claim before full retirement age and keep working above the annual limit, part of your benefit is temporarily withheld ($1 for every $2 you earn over the limit). It isn't lost: you get it back gradually as a higher benefit once you reach full retirement age.
While you're working, before full retirement age
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From full retirement age onward
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Household income while the limit applies
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Uses your working-years benefit above, plus your spouse's benefit at their selected claiming age from the Spousal claiming strategy section.
How to use the Social Security Calculator
Enter your birth year and your estimated monthly benefit at full retirement age from your Social Security statement.
Compare the monthly benefit at 62, 67 and 70, and find the break-even age on the chart.
Open the COLA, taxation, spousal and earnings-limit sections to refine the estimate.
Common questions
What is full retirement age?
It's the age at which you can claim your full, unreduced benefit. It depends on your birth year and is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later.
How much does claiming early or late change my benefit?
Claiming at 62 permanently reduces your benefit, by 30% if your full retirement age is 67. Waiting past full retirement age adds 8% a year until 70, so claiming at 70 pays 124% of the full amount.
What is the Social Security break-even age?
It's the age at which the total benefits from waiting catch up with the total from claiming earlier. If you expect to live past it, delaying usually pays more over your lifetime. Comparing 62 with 70, it typically lands around age 80.