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Social Security Claiming Calculator

Rules from 20 CFR 404 · reviewed September 6, 2026

Shows your Social Security benefit at every claiming age from 62 to 70 and what each adds up to over a lifetime. About

In plain words. You can start Social Security any time from 62 to 70. Start early and each check is smaller for life; wait and each check is larger, but there are fewer of them. This tool takes the benefit on your Social Security statement and shows the monthly amount at each age, the total you would collect by the age you choose, and the ages at which waiting starts to pay off.

Why it matters. It is one of the few retirement decisions that cannot be undone, and the difference between the earliest and the latest start is about 77 percent per check. The picture makes the trade concrete.

An example. Someone whose statement shows $2,500 a month at full retirement age would get about $1,750 a month by starting at 62, or about $3,100 by waiting until 70.

Where it stops. It leaves out cost-of-living increases, the earnings test if you keep working, benefits for a spouse or survivor, and tax. Each can move the answer, and a couple's decision is a different calculation. Everything it leaves out.

$

The figure on your Social Security statement for full retirement age, in today's dollars.

Your full retirement age is 67.

Benefits are added up through this age.

Claiming age that pays the most in total by 88
70
That age gives you $3,100 a month and $669,600 in total by 88. Claiming at 62 would give $1,750 a month and $546,000 in total. Claiming at your full retirement age of 67 would give $2,500 a month and $630,000 in total.
Total benefits received by age 88, by claiming ageNine bars, one for each claiming age from 62 to 70. Each shows the total benefits received by age 88, for a $2,500 monthly benefit at full retirement age and a 1962 birth year, not adjusted for inflation. The tallest is claiming at 70.$0$200k$400k$600k$800k$546k62$1,750 a month$563k63$1,875 a month$576k64$2,000 a month$598k65$2,167 a month$616k66$2,333 a month$630k67$2,500 a month$648k68$2,700 a month$661k69$2,900 a month$670k70$3,100 a month

Waiting from 62 to 67 pays off if you live past 78 and 9 months. Waiting from 67 to 70 pays off if you live past 82 and 7 months. Waiting from 62 all the way to 70 pays off if you live past 80 and 5 months. Each month you wait past full retirement age adds two-thirds of a percent to the check. Each month you claim before it takes away five-ninths of a percent for the first 36 months and five-twelfths of a percent beyond that.

This uses the Social Security rules for early-claiming reductions and delayed-retirement credits, in today's dollars. It leaves out cost-of-living increases, the earnings test, spousal and survivor benefits, and taxes on benefits, and those change the picture for many people. Educational, not advice.

This is a simplified model, not your actual tax return or plan. It only knows what you type in, leaves out rules that may apply to you, and cannot weigh the other facts and trade-offs a real decision depends on. Before you act, talk with a professional who knows your whole situation.

Educational only, not investment, tax, or legal advice. Results are hypothetical estimates that vary with each use and over time and are not guaranteed accurate or complete. Using this tool creates no client relationship with Considerate Capital, and the site that linked here is not affiliated with it. By using it you agree to the tool terms.