Inflation Calculator: Purchasing Power Over Time
This calculator translates a dollar amount from one year into what it is worth in another, so a past salary, grocery bill, or house price can be read in today's terms. Use it whenever an old number needs translating, or to see how much ground a fixed dollar amount has lost.
Historical Purchasing Power
What a dollar amount from one year is really worth in another, using actual historical U.S. inflation data.
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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), annual averages. Nothing is saved or sent.
Why "the same dollar amount" never really is
A dollar saved in 1995 and a dollar saved today are not the same dollar. This tool uses actual historical U.S. inflation data (not an assumed rate) to show exactly how much ground a fixed amount has gained or lost between any two years since 1950.
It's a useful gut check for old benchmarks: a "you need $1 million to retire" rule from a 1990s article, a childhood memory of what things cost, a salary target set years ago and never revisited. The number itself didn't move. What it buys did.
The same logic runs forward, not just backward: it's the reason a fixed savings goal set today quietly loses ground every year it isn't revisited, which is exactly what the inflation calculator above is built to show.
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