How Social Security calculates retirement benefits How to get a benefit estimate Benefits are adjusted annually What if I think my benefit is incorrect?

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How Much Will I Get From Social Security?

Your age and earnings history are the key factors that determine your retirement benefit amount — here’s how to get an estimate of future payments

5-minute read

Part of Series: Retirement Benefits

Andy Markowitz,

AARP

Expert reviewed by

Stephen Richardson

Published October 12, 2026

Andy Markowitz is a writer and editor for AARP, covering Social Security and fraud. He is a former editor of The Prague Post and Baltimore City Paper.

Stephen Richardson is a retired New England regional communications director for the Social Security Administration and AARP consultant on Social Security benefit issues. He began his career with the agency in 1982 as a claims representative.

Key takeaways

Social Security calculates retirement benefits using your 35 highest-earning years, adjusted for historical wage growth, along with the age when you claim benefits.
Benefits can increase over time through annual cost-of-living adjustments and new earnings that replace lower-income years in your record.
AARP’s Social Security Calculator can provide estimates of your future benefits depending on when you claim them.

Your Social Security retirement benefit is principally based on two factors: your lifetime earnings history from work in which you paid Social Security taxes and your age when you filed your claim. Other factors can affect your payment once you’ve started Social Security, including annual cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) and your pay if you continue working.

How Social Security calculates retirement benefits
How to get a benefit estimate
Benefits are adjusted annually
What if I think my benefit is incorrect?

Here’s what you need to know about the Social Security benefit calculation and how you can get estimates of your future payments.

How Social Security calculates retirement benefits

Throughout your working life, you accumulate an earnings record (sometimes called a work record). That’s the foundation the Social Security Administration (SSA) uses to set your benefit, using a three-step process.

Step one: The SSA adjusts your yearly earnings for historical changes in U.S. wages and uses the 35 best-paid years to produce what it calls your average indexed monthly earnings (AIME). Only income up to the maximum taxable earnings — the annually adjusted cap on how much of your earnings are subject to Social Security taxes — is counted. In 2026, that’s work income up to $184,500.

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If you claim benefits with fewer than 35 years of earnings, Social Security credits you with no income for each year up to 35. For example, if you worked for 30 years, there will be five zeroes in your benefit calculation.

You can mitigate this by continuing to work — each year you have work income displaces a zero from the equation.

Step two: The SSA applies a formula to that monthly average to determine your primary insurance amount (PIA) — the monthly benefit you’re entitled to receive if you claim it at your full retirement age (FRA), which is 67 as of 2027. The formula breaks down your average monthly wage into three parts. In 2026, the elements are:

90 percent of the first $1,286 of your AIME
32 percent of any amount over $1,286 up to $7,749
15 percent of any amount over $7,749

The sum of those three figures is your PIA, also known as your “full benefit” or “basic benefit.” The sliding scale is designed to weight the benefit to help low-wage earners, who need retirement money the most.

Step three: Social Security plugs in the age at which you claim benefits. You can receive as little as 70 percent of your full benefit if you start at 62, the earliest possible age to claim, and as much as 124 percent if you hold off until 70, when you are eligible for your maximum benefit. For each month you wait between ages 62 and 70, your payment goes up.

How to get a benefit estimate

You’ll know your benefit amount for sure only when you claim it, but there are ways to get a sense of it in advance. The quickest and easiest are to use AARP’s Social Security Calculator or check your online My Social Security account. The latter draws on your earnings record on file with the SSA; for the AARP calculator, you’ll need to enter your current income.

Both tools project what you could collect each month if you start Social Security at age 62 (the earliest you can file for retirement benefits), at full retirement age and at 70.

For example, the AARP calculator estimates that a person born on July 1, 1965, who earns $75,000 a year will get a monthly benefit of $1,922 if they file for benefits to begin when they turn 62, $2,746 at 67, or $3,405 at 70. The AARP tool can also give you figures for every age in between.

You can also get basic benefit estimates by calling the SSA at 800-772-1213. But remember, no matter where you get the numbers, they are estimates, not guarantees. Your actual benefit will vary, perhaps significantly, based n factors such as inflation, your work status and earnings (before and after you claim benefits), and possible changes in Social Security law.

Benefits are adjusted annually

Social Security makes an annual cost-of-living adjustment to your benefit based on year-to-year changes in consumer prices. The COLA for 2026 is 2.8 percent, which boosted the average retirement benefit by $56 a month starting in January.

If you are still working, the SSA incorporates your earnings into your benefit calculation based on income information from tax documents. (If you have a job, employers submit your W-2s to Social Security; if you are self-employed, the earnings data comes from your federal tax return.) They take any work income from that tax year and figure it into your calculation.

What if I think my benefit is incorrect?

If you believe the SSA miscalculated your benefit, you have the right to appeal. You must submit the appeal request within 60 days of receiving the initial letter from Social Security stating your benefit amount.

You can file an appeal online through the SSA’s “Request reconsideration” page (click on the "Start non-medical request” button) or through your My Social Security account (search for the SSA-561 "Request for Reconsideration" form, which you can fill out, save and upload). You can also request a reconsideration by calling the SSA’s toll-free helpline, 800-772-1213. After filing, you can check the status of your request online or by phone.

A benefit that seems low could be the result of mistakes in your earnings history on file with Social Security. You can check your earnings record at any time with a My Social Security account. If you believe there is incorrect or missing information, call 800-772-1213 to request a correction.

The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.

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