2027 Social Security COLA: 3.6%
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The Social Security Administration has announced the 2027 cost-of-living increase: 3.6%. Put your current monthly benefit in below to see what your payment becomes from January 2027. The box is filled in with the official 3.6%, and you can type any other percentage to compare.
What the 3.6% increase does to your payment
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General information only, not financial or benefits advice. The figures above apply the percentage in the box to the benefit you typed. Your exact new amount is on your own benefit notice from Social Security.
The other 2027 Social Security numbers
The same announcement moved these limits for 2027. Every figure is from Social Security’s 2027 fact sheet.
| What | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Pay taxed for Social Security, yearly limit | $184,500 a year | $192,300 a year |
| The 6.2% Social Security tax stops once your pay at one job passes this limit. Find the 2026 paycheck it stops on. | ||
| Earnings limit while collecting, under full retirement age | $24,480 a year | $25,560 a year |
| Social Security holds back $1 of benefits for every $2 you earn above it. | ||
| Earnings limit in the year you reach full retirement age | $65,160 a year | $67,920 a year |
| Counts only the months before you reach full retirement age, and $1 is held back for every $3 above it. From that month on there is no limit. | ||
| Highest benefit, retiring at full retirement age | $4,152 a month | $4,188 a month |
| Average retired worker's benefit | $2,095 a month, without the increase | $2,170 a month, with it |
| Both figures are Social Security's estimate for January 2027 payments, without the increase and with it. Neither is the 2026 average. | ||
| SSI federal payment, one person | $994 a month | $1,029 a month |
| SSI federal payment, couple | $1,491 a month | $1,544 a month |
| Disability: earnings limit (not blind) | $1,690 a month | $1,770 a month |
| Social Security calls this substantial gainful activity: earning more than this generally counts as being able to work. | ||
The three months the figure is computed from
The increase is not a judgement call, it is a division. Take the average of the price index called CPI-W for July, August and September 2026, divide it by the average for the same three months of 2025, and that percentage is the COLA. Here are the three months:
| Month | Index value | Published or due | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | 327.104 | August 12, 2026 | BLS series |
| August 2026 | 328.481 | September 11, 2026 | BLS series |
| September 2026 | 330.654 | October 14, 2026 | BLS series |
With all three months in, the July–September 2026 average divided by the July–September 2025 average gives 3.6% after rounding to the nearest tenth, the same figure the Social Security Administration announced.
The half of the sum that is already settled
The bottom of the fraction is finished and cannot change: the July–September 2025 CPI-W average is 317.265.
| Month | Index value | Published | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 316.349 | August 12, 2025 | BLS series |
| August 2025 | 317.306 | September 11, 2025 | BLS series |
| September 2025 | 318.139 | October 24, 2025 | BLS series |
What forecasters estimated before the announcement
These were forecasts made before the official figure existed, and none of them is ours. They are kept here with their dates so you can see how each compared with the 3.6% that was announced.
| Who | Estimate | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) | 3.5% | September 11, 2026 | TSCL Predicts COLA at 3.5% With One Month to Announcement |
| TSCL's monthly model, revised after the August 2026 CPI release. TSCL calls this its final prediction for the 2027 COLA. Date is the article's publication date. | |||
| Mary Johnson (independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst) | 3.7% | July 14, 2026 | Social Security COLA in 2027: Cooling inflation lowers estimate |
| Revised down a full point from the 4.7% she published in June 2026 after the June CPI report. Anyone still quoting 4.7% is quoting the June figure. | |||
Each forecast above was made with fewer months of price data than the official figure used, which is why the date beside it matters as much as the number.
How the COLA is actually calculated
- The index is CPI-W, not the headline inflation number you hear on the news. CPI-W tracks prices for urban wage earners and clerical workers, a different basket from the CPI-U figure usually reported.
- The comparison is quarter to quarter: the July–September average of this year against the July–September average of the last year a COLA was set. Not December to December, not a twelve-month average.
- It is rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent. A raw 3.84% becomes 3.8%; 3.86% becomes 3.9%.
- It can never be negative. If prices fall, the COLA is 0.0% and benefits stay where they are. Benefits are not cut.
- Each person's new monthly amount is rounded down to the whole dollar, which is why the calculator above will not show you an exact percentage of your benefit.
- Announced mid-October, paid from January. The announcement normally comes the same morning the September price data is published.
The catch nobody puts in the headline: Medicare Part B
If your Medicare Part B premium comes out of your Social Security payment — for most people it does — then the amount that actually reaches your bank account goes up by less than the COLA suggests, because the Part B premium for 2027 rises too. That premium is set separately, by a different agency, and is normally announced in November, a month after the COLA. So in October you will know your increase and not yet know how much of it you keep. We are not going to compute that for you with a premium nobody has published; when the figure exists it is a straight subtraction from the monthly increase shown above.
Related
- 2027 federal tax brackets, the official IRS figures for the tax side of the same autumn.
- Official 2026 federal tax brackets — the figures that are settled.
- Social Security wage base max-out date — when you stop paying Social Security tax for the year.
- Inflation calculator — what a past amount is worth today.
General information only, not financial, benefits or tax advice. The 3.6% figure is the Social Security Administration’s; the dollar amounts are our arithmetic on it. Check ssa.gov or your own benefit letter for anything that matters.