Inflation calculator
What an amount of money in one year is worth in another, from the CPI-U series that runs back to 1913. Both index values are printed, because an inflation figure is one divided by the other and a single number cannot be checked.
By Alex Seote, Built and maintains Rule Calculator
CPI-U data pulled from BLS, through July 2026 · How we check
$100.00 in 1980 buys, in 2026
$401.92
Prices rose 301.9% in total between those years — an average of 3.07% a year, compounded.
2026 has no annual average yet — BLS publishes it in January. The figure used is the average of the 7 months released so far, through July 2026.
The arithmetic, in full
| CPI-U in 1980 | 82.400 |
| CPI-U in 2026 | 331.180 |
| Ratio | 4.019180 |
| $100.00 × ratio | $401.92 |
That is the whole calculation. Both index values are published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics — series CUUR0000SA0, all urban consumers, US city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted — and this page holds data through July 2026.
What the number is, and what it is not
The Consumer Price Index measures what a fixed basket of goods and services costs from one period to the next. Dividing the index in one year by the index in another gives the ratio of price levels, and multiplying an amount by that ratio gives the sum with the same purchasing power. There is no model in it and nothing is estimated here — the two figures come from a published table.
What it cannot do is compare quality. A 1970 car and a 2026 car are both “a car” to the index after an adjustment BLS makes for changes in the goods themselves, and reasonable people argue about whether that adjustment is too large or too small. Long comparisons carry that argument with them, which is why a figure from 1913 is better read as an order of magnitude than as a price.
Questions people actually ask
- Which inflation measure is this?
- CPI-U: the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, US city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted — series CUUR0000SA0. It is the headline figure quoted in the news and the one used to index Social Security and tax brackets. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, and the PCE index the Federal Reserve targets, are different series and give different answers.
- Does it tell me what happened to my own costs?
- No, and no index can. CPI-U tracks a national basket weighted by average urban spending — housing about a third of it, food and energy a further fifth. If your rent doubled while your commute vanished, your personal inflation rate bears no particular relation to the national one. The further back the comparison runs, the less the basket resembles anything either end would recognise: nothing in the 1913 basket was electronic.
- Why do other calculators stop at last year?
- Because BLS publishes the annual average in January, so for most of the year the current year has no official figure. Stopping there means an answer that is up to eleven months stale. This page uses the average of the months already published, says how many months that is, and names the last one — currently through July 2026.
- Why is the yearly rate lower than the total divided by the years?
- Because prices compound. A 109% rise over twenty years is 3.75% a year, not 5.45%: each year’s increase applies to the already-higher level. Over long spans the difference is enormous — the total change from 1913 to today is over 3,000%, and the yearly rate behind it is under 3.2%.
- Can I use this for a salary or a contract?
- For a rough comparison, yes. For anything binding, read what the contract actually specifies: escalation clauses usually name a series and a month — "CPI-U, US city average, all items, December to December" — and using the annual average instead of the December figure gives a different number. The series name in the clause is not decoration.
Source
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics — CPI for All Urban Consumers (CUUR0000SA0)
- Series CUUR0000SA0, pulled 2026-08-26, covering 1913 through July 2026.