What AIME is, and what this calculator can and can't tell you
Average indexed monthly earnings (AIME) is the single number the Social Security Administration's whole retirement benefit formula runs on. It isn't your current salary. The SSA takes your entire covered-earnings history, picks your highest-earning 35 years (adding zeros for any short of that), indexes each year's earnings for wage growth since it was earned, adds the 35 indexed years together and divides by 420 (35 years times 12 months) to reach one monthly figure. Two people on identical pay today can have very different AIMEs if one has worked 40 years and the other 20, or if one had a long low-earning stretch early on that the other didn't.
Because building a genuine 35-year indexed average isn't something a page like this can do honestly without your full earnings record, it asks for AIME directly if you already have it, most reliably from the "Your Estimated Benefits" section of your Social Security Statement at ssa.gov, which shows your real AIME and PIA already worked out from your actual record. If that figure isn't to hand, the second entry mode divides your current annual earnings by 12 as a rough stand-in. Treat that as a placeholder, not a real AIME: it reflects a single year's pay, not a 35-year career average, so it will be off for anyone whose earnings have changed meaningfully over time, or who hasn't yet worked 35 years.
How the benefit formula works: the bend points
Once an AIME is set, the Primary Insurance Amount (PIA), the monthly benefit paid at full retirement age before any early or delayed adjustment, comes from a formula with three tiers, split at two dollar thresholds called bend points that the SSA updates every year in line with average wages. For 2026, the bend points sit at $1,286 and $7,749, and the formula pays 90% of AIME up to $1,286, 32% of AIME between $1,286 and $7,749, and 15% of AIME above $7,749.
Take an AIME of $6,000, this calculator's own default. The first $1,286 is worth 90%, or $1,157.40. The next $4,714, up to $6,000, sits in the 32% tier, worth $1,508.48. None of it reaches the 15% tier, since $6,000 sits under the second bend point. The raw total is $2,665.88, and the PIA itself is rounded down to the nearest ten cents by law, so this AIME produces a Primary Insurance Amount of $2,665.80 a month.
The tiers step down on purpose. A dollar of AIME above the second bend point buys 15 cents of monthly benefit; a dollar in the first tier buys 90 cents. This is why the formula is described as progressive: a lower AIME gets replaced by a bigger share of itself in the benefit than a higher one does, even though a higher earner still ends up with a bigger benefit in dollar terms overall.
Full retirement age depends on your birth year
Full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which the PIA is paid in full: no early reduction, and past that point, no delayed credit either. It isn't one number for everyone. Congress phased it upward from 65 to 67 for people born from 1938 onward, in two-month steps by birth year. Anyone born in 1960 or later has an FRA of 67; anyone born 1943 to 1954 has an FRA of 66; birth years in between sit across the two-month steps in the table above, and anyone born 1937 or earlier kept the original FRA of 65. Your FRA drives every other figure on this page, since the early-reduction and delayed-credit rules both measure the gap, in months, between your claiming age and this one number.
Claiming before FRA: the early reduction
Claim before FRA and the benefit is permanently reduced, for as long as it's paid, not just until FRA arrives. The reduction is 5/9 of one percent for each of the first 36 months claimed early, then 5/12 of one percent for every additional month beyond that. For an FRA of 67, claiming at exactly 62, 60 months early, works out to 36 months at 5/9% (20%) plus 24 months at 5/12% (10%), a 30% cut, so the benefit is 70% of the PIA. On the calculator's defaults, a $2,665.80 PIA becomes $1,866 a month at 62 (the paid benefit itself also rounds down, to the nearest whole dollar). For an FRA of 66, the same maths at 62, 48 months early, works out to a 25% cut instead: 36 months at 5/9% (20%) plus 12 months at 5/12% (5%), the "25% off at 62" figure often quoted for people born before 1955.
Delaying past FRA: the credit
Wait past FRA and the opposite applies: a delayed retirement credit of 2/3 of one percent a month, 8% a year, for anyone born 1943 or later, right up to age 70, where the credit stops accruing entirely; there's no advantage to waiting any longer than that. On the defaults above, an FRA of 67 waiting to 70 is 36 months of credit, 24%, turning the same $2,665.80 PIA into $3,305 a month, 124% of the unreduced figure. The full table above runs the same maths for every whole age from 62 to 70.
Claiming at 62 vs 67 vs 70: the crossover
A bigger monthly cheque later doesn't automatically mean more money overall; it depends how long it's collected. Claim early and a smaller cheque starts sooner; claim later and a bigger cheque starts later, so for a stretch the early claim is ahead in total dollars received, until the bigger monthly amount catches up and overtakes it. This calculator works out exactly when that happens from your own numbers, by adding up what each claiming age actually pays month by month rather than leaning on a single rule of thumb for everyone.
On the defaults, claiming at 67 overtakes the running total from claiming at 62 at age 78 years and 9 months; claiming at 70 overtakes claiming at 67 at 82 years and 6 months; and claiming at 70 overtakes claiming at 62 at 80 years and 5 months. None of this is projected forward with an assumed cost-of-living adjustment, since a COLA applies to whichever benefit is already in payment either way, and would move all three crossover ages by a broadly similar amount rather than favour one claiming age over the others. Whether living past a crossover age matters more than the numbers on the page depends on health, family longevity, other retirement income and plans still being worked out, all reasons this stays one input into a bigger decision rather than the whole of it.
Four things this page names but doesn't model
A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is added most years to benefits already in payment, tied to inflation (2.8% for 2026), but it isn't projected into any figure above, since none of the three claiming ages benefits more from a future COLA than the others do.
Spousal benefits let a current or former spouse claim up to 50% of a worker's PIA, based on the worker's own FRA benefit regardless of when the worker actually claims, reduced if the spouse claims their own share before their own FRA. This calculator only works out one worker's own benefit and doesn't model a spousal claim.
An earnings test can withhold part of the benefit if you claim before FRA and keep working above an annual limit ($24,480 for most of 2026, $65,160 in the year FRA is reached), though withheld amounts are added back later as a higher benefit once FRA is reached, rather than lost outright.
Benefits themselves can be taxable income: up to 85% of a benefit becomes taxable once combined income passes federal thresholds that haven't been adjusted for inflation since 1993, so a growing share of recipients fall into taxable territory each year.
What this calculator actually is
This page reproduces the Social Security Administration's own published formula exactly: the same bend points, the same 90/32/15 split, the same rounding rules, the same early-reduction and delayed-credit percentages. What it can't do is see your actual earnings record. SSA's own online calculators and the Social Security Statement use your real, complete history of covered earnings; this page only ever knows the AIME you typed in. Treat the numbers above as an honest working of the published formula on the AIME you supplied, not a replacement for the statement the SSA already holds on file for you.
Questions people ask
What is AIME and where do I find mine?
AIME is your average indexed monthly earnings: your highest 35 years of covered earnings, each adjusted for wage growth since it was earned, added together and divided by 420 months. Your actual figure is on your Social Security Statement at ssa.gov, in the section showing how your estimated benefits were worked out.
Why does the "estimate from earnings" mode look different from my real AIME?
Because it's a placeholder, not the real formula. It divides one year of current pay by 12, while your true AIME averages your highest 35 years of indexed earnings. A career with rising pay, gaps, part-time stretches or fewer than 35 years worked will always produce a different, usually lower, AIME than a single year's pay divided by 12.
What is a bend point?
A bend point is a dollar threshold in the PIA formula where the replacement rate steps down: 90% of AIME below the first bend point, 32% between the two bend points, and 15% above the second. The SSA sets new bend points every year based on average wage growth; the 2026 figures are $1,286 and $7,749.
Why is claiming at 62 reduced by a different percentage for different people?
Because the reduction is based on how many months early 62 falls relative to your own full retirement age, and FRA itself ranges from 65 to 67 depending on birth year. Someone with an FRA of 66 is only 48 months early at 62, a 25% cut, while someone with an FRA of 67 is 60 months early, a 30% cut, even though both are claiming at the same age.
Does delaying past 70 keep increasing my benefit?
No. Delayed retirement credits stop building at age 70. Claiming any later than 70 pays no extra credit for the further wait, so there's no benefit-formula reason to delay past that age.
What is the crossover age, and does it decide the right claiming age?
It's the age at which a later claiming age's running total of benefits received catches up to and overtakes an earlier one's, because the later claim's bigger monthly cheque eventually makes up for its later start. It's one useful, calculable fact, not the whole decision: health, family longevity, other income and whether you're still working all matter too, and none of them are things a calculator can know for you.
Does this include spousal benefits, the earnings test or taxes on my benefit?
No, all three are named in the copy above but not modelled in the figures. Spousal benefits need a second person's record, the earnings test only matters if you claim early and keep working above the annual limit, and whether your benefit is taxed depends on your other income at tax time, none of which this single-worker benefit calculator has enough information to work out.
This calculator reproduces the Social Security Administration's published Primary Insurance Amount formula and claiming-age adjustment rules from an AIME you provide. It is not a benefit estimate from the SSA, does not use your actual earnings record, and does not model spousal benefits, the earnings test, benefit taxation or future cost-of-living adjustments. It is not financial or retirement advice; check your Social Security Statement at ssa.gov, or speak to the SSA directly, before making a claiming decision.