COLA Ledger

An independent reference — not affiliated with the Social Security Administration. Every figure traced to the government publication that produced it.

Social Security COLA calculator, 2026

The gross figure is easy arithmetic. The one worth knowing is what lands after the Medicare Part B premium — because that went up too, in the same January.

General information, not financial, tax, legal or benefits advice. Figures show what published rates and formulas produce for the amounts you enter; your actual payment depends on your earnings record, claim age, withholding and Medicare status. COLA Ledger is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CMS or any U.S. government agency. Confirm your figures with SSA or your my Social Security account.

Gross after the COLA
$2,056+$56 a month
Part B premium
$202.90was $185.00
What actually lands
$1,853+$38 a month
Effective net raise
2.09%headline COLA 2.8%

The Part B increase consumed 31.96% of the raise. Over a year the gross rises by $672 and the net by $456.

See the full ledger page for a $2,000 monthly benefit — the nearest rung on the published benefit ladder.

The 2026 adjustment

2.8%

Applied to the gross benefit and floored to the whole dollar, then the $202.90 Part B premium is deducted — up from $185.00.

What it looks like across the range

The 2026 adjustment and premium at six benefit amounts
BeforeGross afterNet afterNet raiseEffective %
$1,000$1,028$825+$101.23%
$1,500$1,542$1,339+$241.83%
$2,000$2,056$1,853+$382.09%
$2,500$2,570$2,367+$522.25%
$3,000$3,084$2,881+$662.34%
$4,000$4,112$3,909+$942.46%

The effective percentage rises with the size of the benefit, because the premium increase is a flat dollar amount against a raise that scales. That relationship, computed across the whole ladder.

Every amount on the ladder

46 full ledger pages, from $500 to $5,000 in $100 steps. Each carries the annual figures, the percentile band, the hold-harmless state and the projection block.

The bottom of the ladder is mechanically different

2 rungs — $500 and $600 — sit below the 2026 hold-harmless break-even, so the Part B increase is capped at the beneficiary’s own dollar adjustment rather than charged in full. Those pages are computing something genuinely different, not just something smaller. How the cap works.

Calculator state never becomes a URL

Changing the amount updates the address bar so you can share or bookmark it, but it never creates a new page and no parameterised address appears in any sitemap. The 46 pages above are the published set.

Common questions

Is anything I type stored or sent anywhere?

No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. There is no network call, no logging and no storage — which matters here, because the thing you are typing is your income.

Why does the result not match the percentage exactly?

Monthly benefit amounts are floored to the whole dollar after the adjustment is applied. On a $1,900 benefit the 2.8% adjustment gives $1,953.20 before flooring and $1,953 after it. The floor is why your own effective percentage is always a little below the headline.

Does this use my actual Medicare premium?

It uses the 2026 standard premium of $202.90. If your income crossed an income-related threshold two tax years ago you pay more, on a ladder that runs to $689.90 a month — the Medicare offset calculator handles that case.

Why do the ladder pages step in hundreds?

Because SSA publishes the retired-worker benefit distribution in $100 bands and no finer table exists. The rungs follow the source data rather than being chosen to produce a page count.

The other calculators

Sources and freshness

Figures effective January 2026. Page figures last verified against the sources above on 10 August 2026. Corrections: the correction log · support@inventum.com.au