Future cost of today’s prices, old money today, real return, and US dollars by year (CPI)
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 7 Oct 2026.Inflation is why a salary that felt generous 10 years ago does not any more. At 6 per cent a year prices roughly double in 12 years, so a return below that is a loss in real terms. Shows future cost, past value and real return.
Rates and rules read from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, annual averages (series CUUR0000SA0) on 7 Oct 2026; they may have changed since.
Under "What do you want to know?", choose Future cost, Past money today, Real return or US dollar (CPI).
Set the amount, or pick an amount chip.
Set the Inflation rate and the number of Years, or for US dollars the two years to compare.
Read the result, the price rise and the buying power lost, then press Share result.
The inflation calculator shows what rising prices do to money. It has four views. Future cost: what something that costs a given amount today will cost after a number of years. Past money: what an amount from some years ago is worth in today's rupees. Real return: how much of an investment's return is left once inflation is taken out. US dollar (CPI): what dollars from one year are worth in another, from official figures.
At 6% a year, something that costs ₹1,00,000 today will cost about ₹1,79,085 in 10 years, and ₹1,00,000 kept as cash will buy only what ₹55,839 buys now. ₹10,000 from 20 years ago is like ₹32,071 today. An investment earning 12% while prices rise 6% has a real return of 5.66%, a little less than the 6% that simple subtraction suggests.
The formulas, in plain text, with i = inflation ÷ 100 and r = return ÷ 100: future cost = amount × (1 + i)^years. Past amount in today's money = amount × (1 + i)^years ago. What today's amount buys later, in today's money = amount ÷ (1 + i)^years. Real return = (1 + r) ÷ (1 + i) − 1.
The page starts at 6% a year. That is a round planning assumption, not an official figure or the latest reading, and you can change it. Official consumer price inflation is published every month; the prices you pay, such as school fees or medical costs, often rise faster than the average. Everything runs in your browser. Estimates only, not financial advice.
US dollars, from the official index. The US dollar view uses no assumed rate. It takes the Bureau of Labor Statistics' CPI-U annual averages from 1913 to 2025: value = amount × CPI of the later year ÷ CPI of the earlier year, so $100 from 2000 is $186.96 in 2025. The BLS calculator compares single months, so its answer differs slightly ($188.19 January to January).
Sources: the Consumer Price Index published monthly by the National Statistics Office, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI); the Reserve Bank of India's publications on inflation; the standard compound growth formula; for US dollars, the BLS CPI-U annual averages (series CUUR0000SA0), downloaded 7 October 2026.
At 6% inflation, ₹1,00,000 kept as cash will buy in 10 years only what about ₹55,839 buys today. Put the other way, something that costs ₹1,00,000 today will cost about ₹1,79,085 then. At a different rate the figures change, so enter the rate you expect.
Multiply today's cost by (1 + inflation rate) raised to the number of years. For ₹1,00,000 at 6% for 10 years: 1.06 to the power 10 is 1.7908, so the future cost is about ₹1,79,085.
Choose Past money, enter the amount and how many years ago it was, and an average inflation rate for that period. ₹10,000 from 20 years ago at 6% a year is about ₹32,071 in today's money. For an exact answer use the official CPI series for those years.
Real return is what is left after inflation: (1 + return) divided by (1 + inflation), minus 1. A deposit paying 7% while prices rise 6% has a real return of about 0.94%, so the money barely gains buying power; at 5% the real return is negative. Tax, not included here, lowers it further.
The page starts at 6% a year, a round planning assumption, not an official figure. Official CPI inflation is published monthly by the Ministry of Statistics. For goals like education or healthcare, costs often rise faster than average, so a higher rate is safer.
The BLS calculator compares one month with another, while this page uses each year's average CPI-U. For $100 from 2000 in 2025 dollars, BLS gives $188.19 from January to January and $186.95 from July to July; the annual averages give $186.96. Both use the same official index, so neither is wrong.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
Still stuck? Ask about Inflation Calculator and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
Same job, other tools: Child Education Planning Calculator – Plan a college fund: the fee today, the fee then, and the SIP in between.
On the related tools: Step-up SIP Calculator – See how raising your SIP every year changes the final corpus.
Also works as: Future Cost Calculator.
In the collection Investment Calculators.