Cost-of-living adjustment: apply a COLA to your pay or benefit
Enter an amount and choose the adjustment: the 2027 Social Security COLA, or the latest 12 months of the CPI-U in an area.
With the 3.6 % Social Security COLA
$2,072.00
SSA announced 3.6 % on October 14, 2026, paid from January 2027.
| Increase | $72.00 |
| Rate applied | 3.6 % |
| Social Security, paid in 2026 | 2.8 % |
| U.S. average, 12 months to September 2026 | +3.7 % |
Your COLA notice from the SSA gives the exact new amount and any deduction, such as the Medicare premium.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · BLS indexes through September 2026
A cost-of-living adjustment raises an amount by the rise in prices over a period, usually 12 months. The best-known one in 2026 is the Social Security COLA: 3.6 % for 2027, announced on October 14, 2026 from the CPI-W. A contract, a lease or a pay policy can use another index, and the choice matters: over the 12 months to September 2026 the CPI-U for the U.S. rose 3.7 % and the CPI-W 3.9 %, while the regional CPI-U ranged from +3.4 % to +4.2 % and the metro indexes from +1.3 % in Houston to +5.2 % in Urban Hawaii. On a $4,000 monthly pay, the difference between the lowest and highest metro is $158 a month. The calculator applies either rate. The BLS recommends indexes that are not seasonally adjusted for escalation, and national or regional indexes rather than local ones, which are more volatile.
What a COLA clause has to say
A cost-of-living clause is only as clear as the index it names. Four choices decide the result, and each should be written down. Which index: CPI-U or CPI-W, all items or a narrower one. Which area: the U.S. city average, a region, a size class or one of the 23 metros. Which months: a 12-month change ending in a named month, or the change between two annual averages. Which version: not seasonally adjusted, because seasonally adjusted data are revised for up to five years and the BLS strongly recommends unadjusted data for escalation. A clause that says only "the CPI" is usually read as the CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted.
A clause can add a floor or a cap: no decrease if prices fall, or no more than a set percentage in a year. Those are terms of the contract, not of the index, and the calculator does not apply them.
National, regional or local
A metro index is tempting when the people concerned live in one city. The BLS is cautious about it. Each local index has a much smaller sample than the national or regional ones and is subject to substantially more sampling error, so the BLS urges users to consider the national or regional CPI for escalator clauses. Over the latest 12 months, the regions were at Northeast +4.2 %, Midwest +4.2 %, South +3.4 %, West +3.4 %; the national rate was +3.7 %.
Your pay with 12 months of regional inflation
With 12 months of South inflation
$4,136.00
| Increase | $136.00 |
| Rate applied | 3.4 % |
| Social Security, paid in 2026 | 2.8 % |
| South, 12 months to September 2026 | +3.4 % |
Bimonthly metros add a practical problem. Twenty of the 23 metros are priced every other month, so a clause that reads "the September index" cannot work for an area priced in even months. If you do use a metro index, name a month the area publishes, or name the annual average.
Twelve months or annual average
A 12-month change ending in one month reacts faster but can be pushed by a single swing, like the gasoline jump of 2026. A change between two annual averages is smoother and lags more. For 2025, the national annual average rose 2.6 % and December to December 2.7 %. The BLS notes that December to December changes are more volatile than annual averages, because the average smooths the highs and lows of twelve months. The 2025 average itself rests on 11 months, since October 2025 was never published.
The Social Security COLA as a benchmark
A plan or an employer that does not want to compute an index can follow the Social Security COLA. It is public, announced each October, and simple: 3.6 % for 2027 after 2.8 % for 2026. It measures the CPI-W from third quarter to third quarter, so it lags the latest months and gives more weight to transportation and energy than the CPI-U. In 2026, a year of rising gasoline prices, the CPI-W rose 3.9 % over the 12 months to September 2026, above the CPI-U. The Social Security COLA page shows the formula and every adjustment since 1975.
How the calculator rounds
With the CPI option, the calculator takes the 12-month change of the area at its latest published month and rounds it to a tenth of a percent, the precision most clauses use: 3.74 % becomes 3.7 %. A contract can round differently, or not at all, and some apply the change to a base other than the current amount. Read the clause, and use the CPI calculator if you need the exact change between two named months.
The 2025 year in metro terms
Annual averages make a fair comparison of metros over a full year because every area has one, whatever its rhythm. For 2025, the national average rose 2.6 %; among the metros the range ran from 1.2 % to 3.8 %. For a raise that takes effect in January, the change between the 2024 and 2025 averages is a defensible base; for one that takes effect in the autumn, the latest 12 months are closer to what people paid.
Not advice on your own case
This page explains how indexes work and computes what a clause would give. It does not interpret a lease, a collective agreement or a court order, and it does not tell you what raise to ask for. For a benefit, the agency that pays it sets the figure; for a contract, the text of the contract does.