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Inflation gradually erodes the purchasing power of money, which makes comparing prices or salaries from different years misleading without adjusting for it.
This calculator uses the official US Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) to convert an amount of money from any year between 1913 and 2024 into its equivalent in another year.
How it works
Enter an amount, the year it's from, and the year you want to convert it to. The calculator looks up the published annual average CPI for both years and scales the amount by the ratio between them.
- Enter amount ($).
- Enter start year.
- Enter end year.
- Click Calculate to see your results.
Examples
Comparing purchasing power across decades
$100 in the year 2000 is equivalent to roughly $182 in 2024 — prices roughly followed the change in the CPI over that period.
Who should use it
- Comparing a historical salary or price to its modern equivalent.
- Adjusting historical financial data for a report or research project.
Industry applications
- Economics and financial research
- Personal finance and historical analysis
Advantages
- Based on official, publicly published US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data.
- Shows both the total change and the average annualized inflation rate over the period.
Limitations
- Uses the national US CPI-U average, which may not reflect inflation experienced in a specific city, region, or personal spending pattern.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Assuming inflation was the same every year — the annualized rate shown is an average, and actual year-to-year inflation varied significantly (for example, during the late 1970s and early 1980s).
- Confusing the CPI (a measure of overall consumer prices) with wage growth or investment returns, which can differ substantially from inflation.
Best practices
- Use inflation-adjusted ("real") figures whenever comparing prices, salaries, or economic data across more than a few years, since nominal comparisons can be very misleading.
Tips
- The CPI measures overall consumer prices — the actual price change for a specific item (like housing or education) can differ substantially from the overall average.