Social Security Bend Points Calculator (2026 PIA)
↻ Updated 2026Work out your Primary Insurance Amount from the 2026 bend points — 90% of the first $1,286 of average indexed monthly earnings, 32% to $7,749, 15% above — and see how claiming age moves it.
Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.
The formula is progressive in exactly the way income tax is, but in reverse: the first dollars of earnings are replaced most generously. At your AIME the next dollar of average monthly earnings adds 32% to your benefit — down from 90% below the first bend point.
Bend points are fixed to the year you first become eligible — the year you turn 62 — and stay with you for life. A worker turning 62 in 2026 uses these figures whether they claim at 62 or wait until 70. Later cost-of-living adjustments are applied on top of the PIA they produce.
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How to read your PIA result
The Primary Insurance Amount is your benefit at Full Retirement Age, and it is built from three slices rather than one rate. On the defaults, an $85,000 salary gives an AIME of $7,083 and a PIA of $3,013 — a 42.5% replacement rate. The stacked bar is the point of the page: 90% of your first $1,286 of average monthly earnings comes back to you, and only 15% of anything above $7,749.
How the Social Security PIA formula works
Your benefit starts from Average Indexed Monthly Earnings: your highest 35 years of earnings, each indexed to national wage growth, summed and divided by 420 months. That figure then runs through a three-band formula whose boundaries are called bend points.
The bands are progressive in the opposite direction from income tax. The first slice of earnings is replaced at 90%, the middle at 32%, and everything above the second bend point at just 15% — a deliberate design that returns proportionally far more to low earners than to high ones.
AIME = (highest 35 years of indexed earnings) ÷ 420 months 2026 bend points (workers first eligible in 2026): PIA = 90% × the first $1,286 of AIME + 32% × the amount between $1,286 and $7,749 + 15% × the amount above $7,749 Derivation (Federal Register 2025-19763): the 1979 amounts $180 and $1,085, times the ratio of the national average wage index for 2024 ($69,846.57) to 1977 ($9,779.44), gives $1,285.59 and $7,749.27 → rounded to $1,286 and $7,749 benefit = PIA × claiming factor before FRA: −5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36, then −5/12 of 1% after FRA: +8% per year to age 70
- AIME
- Average Indexed Monthly Earnings — on your SSA statement; indexing revalues old earnings into current wage terms, so a 1995 salary is not compared against 2026 dollars
- bend points
- The two boundaries between the 90%, 32% and 15% bands — fixed to the year you turn 62 and yours for life — they do not update as you age
- PIA
- Your benefit at Full Retirement Age — the anchor every other claiming age is computed from
- claiming factor
- The adjustment for claiming before or after FRA — roughly −30% at 62 and +24% at 70 for anyone with an FRA of 67
- wage base
- $184,500 for 2026 — earnings above it pay no Social Security tax and earn no benefit
The single most misunderstood thing about bend points is that they belong to your year of first eligibility — the year you turn 62 — not the year you claim. Someone who turns 62 in 2026 and waits until 70 still uses the 2026 bend points; later cost-of-living adjustments are applied to the resulting PIA rather than re-running the formula.
The 35-year rule also does more work than people expect. Fewer than 35 years of earnings means actual zeros in the average, and each one drags the AIME down. Someone retiring early with 28 years of covered work has seven zeros in their calculation, which is a substantial reason Barista FIRE plans often keep some earned income going.
Worked examples
Example: a steady $85,000 salary
The calculator's defaults — a level career at $85,000 in today's dollars, claiming at Full Retirement Age of 67.
| AIME$85,000 ÷ 12 | $7,083 |
| 90% of the first $1,286 | $1,157.40 |
| 32% of the next $5,797from $1,286 up to the AIME | $1,855.15 |
| 15% above $7,749AIME is below the second bend point | $0 |
| PIA at 67 | $3,013 |
| Replacement rateof average indexed monthly earnings | 42.5% |
| Claiming at 62 instead−30% | $2,109 |
| Claiming at 70 instead+24% | $3,736 |
A $3,013 monthly benefit, replacing 42.5% of average indexed earnings. Note where it comes from: $1,157 of it is the 90% band on the first $1,286 of AIME — 38% of the benefit from 18% of the earnings. That progressivity is the formula's whole design.
Example: why a high earner gets proportionally less
An AIME of $10,000 a month — a career at or above the wage base — against the $7,083 above.
| AIME41% higher than the first example | $10,000 |
| 90% bandidentical — everyone gets the same first slice | $1,157.40 |
| 32% bandon the full $6,463 between bend points | $2,068.16 |
| 15% bandon $2,251 above the second bend point | $337.65 |
| PIA at 67 | $3,563 |
| Replacement ratewas 42.5% | 35.6% |
41% more average earnings buys 18% more benefit, and the replacement rate falls from 42.5% to 35.6%. Above the second bend point each extra dollar of AIME returns 15 cents — which is why Social Security replaces a much smaller share of a high earner's income and why high earners have to do more of their own saving.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 2026 Social Security bend points?
$1,286 and $7,749, for workers who first become eligible in 2026. The formula pays 90% of the first $1,286 of Average Indexed Monthly Earnings, 32% of the amount between the two, and 15% of anything above $7,749.
SSA derives them each year by scaling the original 1979 amounts of $180 and $1,085 by national wage growth. For 2026 the ratio is the 2024 national average wage index ($69,846.57) over the 1977 index ($9,779.44), which gives $1,285.59 and $7,749.27 before rounding.
Do bend points change after I turn 62?
No — and this is the detail most often got wrong. Bend points are fixed to your year of first eligibility, which is the year you turn 62, and they stay with you for life. Waiting until 70 to claim does not move you onto later bend points.
What does apply afterwards is the annual cost-of-living adjustment, which is applied to the PIA the formula produced. So your benefit still keeps pace with inflation; the formula that generated it does not get re-run.
What is AIME and where do I find it?
Average Indexed Monthly Earnings: your highest 35 years of earnings, each indexed to national wage growth so old salaries are comparable to recent ones, added up and divided by 420 months. Your Social Security statement at ssa.gov shows it.
The salary mode on this page approximates it as your annual salary ÷ 12, which assumes a flat 35-year career in today's dollars. That is a reasonable estimate for someone with a stable career and a poor one for anyone with career breaks, big raises, or fewer than 35 years of covered earnings — every missing year enters the average as a zero.
Why does my benefit stop growing above $184,500?
Because $184,500 is the 2026 Social Security wage base. Earnings above it pay no Social Security tax, and correspondingly they earn no additional benefit — the record simply stops at the cap.
Medicare tax has no such ceiling and continues on every dollar. So a high earner past the wage base keeps paying 1.45% (plus the additional 0.9% above the relevant threshold) while accruing nothing further toward their retirement benefit.
How much does claiming early or late change my benefit?
For anyone with a Full Retirement Age of 67, claiming at 62 cuts the benefit by 30% and waiting to 70 raises it by 24%. The reduction is 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond; the delayed credit is 8% a year and stops at 70.
On this page's defaults that is the difference between $2,109 and $3,736 a month — for life, and indexed for inflation thereafter. It is the largest single financial decision most retirees make.
What this bend points calculator doesn't handle
The PIA formula itself is exact and verified. Everything around it — how your AIME is built, and what happens to the benefit afterwards — is simplified.
- Salary mode is an approximation — It assumes a level career at one salary in today's dollars across all 35 years. Real AIME indexes each year's actual earnings by national wage growth. Use the AIME from your SSA statement for a figure you can rely on.
- Fewer than 35 years of earnings — Not modelled. Every year short of 35 enters the average as a zero, which can reduce a benefit substantially — a serious consideration for anyone retiring early.
- WEP and GPO — The Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset can reduce benefits for people with pensions from work not covered by Social Security. Neither is applied here.
- Spousal and survivor benefits — Only the worker's own retirement benefit is computed. Spousal benefits (up to 50% of the higher earner's PIA) and survivor benefits follow different rules.
- Taxation of benefits — Up to 85% of Social Security can be taxable depending on combined income. This page shows the gross benefit; note that the new OBBBA senior deduction does not change how much of it is taxable.
- Not financial advice — An educational estimate. SSA's own statement and calculators are authoritative for your record — confirm with them or a licensed professional before making a claiming decision.
- ·Federal Register — Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2026 — SSA notice of 3 November 2025 — bend points, COLA, wage base and earnings test
- ·SSA — Benefit formula bend points — SSA's own table of bend points by year of first eligibility
Rates, brackets and limits here are checked against primary sources. If a number still looks off, email support@realmoneyiq.com and we'll review and fix it.
RealMoneyIQ provides free educational calculators, not financial, tax, investment or legal advice. Results are estimates based on the assumptions you enter and publicly published rates; your actual outcome will differ. Always confirm decisions with a licensed professional who knows your full situation.