Inflation Calculator: what is your money worth?

The index values are approximate annual averages published by the national statistical agencies: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (CPI-U), the UK Office for National Statistics (CPIH), India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (CPI Combined) and the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (CPI). The values are bundled into the page and rounded to one decimal place.

For ordinary questions like "what is a 1990 salary worth today", it is accurate to within about one percent because the annual averages are close to the true year-end and mid-year values. For any legal, tax, contract or investment decision, use the current official data for the specific index and period you care about.

Forward takes an amount in the from year and gives you the equivalent amount in the to year. Backward takes an amount in the to year and tells you what the same purchasing power would have bought in the from year. Both use the same two index values, so one is the inverse of the other.

Small differences come from the choice of index. CPI-U, CPIH, CPI Combined, CPI Pakistan and the RPI (UK) each weight a different basket of goods. If you need a specific official index, use the calculator that ships that index. This tool uses four common ones and clearly labels the source.

Take the ratio of the two index values, raise it to the power of one divided by the number of years, and subtract one. It gives you the single interest rate that, if applied every year, would produce the same total change. It is usually a little lower than the arithmetic average of annual inflation rates.

The year-on-year table multiplies annual changes, which produces exactly the same compound result as the two-point calculation. If they look different it is because of rounding: the table shows each change rounded to two decimals, and small rounding errors accumulate over many years.

Not in the current version. Four countries are bundled. If you need a custom series, the underlying math is simple: divide the later index by the earlier index and multiply by the amount.

Yes. If the to-year index is lower than the from-year index, the result is lower than the amount, the percentage change is negative, and the buying power lost readout becomes a gain. The math is the same either way.

USD uses $, GBP uses £, INR uses ₹, and PKR uses Rs. The symbol is only a display convenience. The math is identical for all four, since CPI is a unitless index.

No. Each country has its own CPI series and its own base year, and comparing them directly would be misleading. Convert the amount to the other currency first with a currency converter, then run that number through the other country’s index.

The bundled tables start where the agencies have clean annual averages at the index base the tool uses. Adding earlier years is possible but they often come from different base periods, which would require a rebasing calculation that would confuse the output.

No. This is an educational calculator. Inflation affects different households differently depending on what they buy. Use the number as a reference, not as a personal budget projection.

Yes, once the page has loaded. All the CPI values are baked into the JavaScript bundle. There is no network call when you press buttons or change years.

Yes. The results are yours. If you publish them, cite the underlying statistical agency for the CPI series, since the tool is only doing arithmetic on their data.

No. There is no server and no local storage for this tool. Refresh the page and everything resets to the defaults.

Yes. There are no restrictions on the numbers, and the tool does not add a watermark or attribution requirement to the result. For regulated contexts (loans, pensions, contracts), get the numbers from the official agency’s published series.