Current inflation rate: the latest 12 months
The rate below is the 12-month change of the CPI-U to the latest month published. Choose an area or a spending group.
All items, U.S. average
+3.7 %
12 months to September 2026, not seasonally adjusted.
| 12 months to August 2026 | +3.4 % |
| Index level | 336.94 |
| Published | every month |
| Next national release | October 2026, on November 10 |
The October 2026 index will have no 12-month change: October 2025 was never published.
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · BLS indexes through September 2026
The current U.S. inflation rate is 3.7 %: the CPI-U for all urban consumers rose that much over the 12 months to September 2026, before seasonal adjustment, according to the BLS release of October 14, 2026. A year earlier the rate was 3.0 %. On a seasonally adjusted basis, prices rose 0.6 % in September alone, after 0.4 % in August, and gasoline, up 9.1 % in the month, accounted for more than half of the September increase. Energy is up 20.4 % over 12 months; without food and energy, core inflation is 2.6 %, and food at home only 1.8 %. Among the regions, the Midwest leads at +4.2 % and the South is lowest at +3.4 %. The October 2026 figures come out on November 10, 2026, without a 12-month change, because October 2025 was never published.
What "the inflation rate" means
When a news report gives the inflation rate, it almost always means the 12-month percent change of the CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted: the index of the latest month divided by the index of the same month a year earlier. For September 2026 that is 336.94 against 324.8, or 3.7 %. The monthly change is reported seasonally adjusted; before adjustment, the index rose 0.6 % from August to September.
The 12-month rate looks back a full year, so it reacts slowly. A sharp rise in one month stays in it for twelve months, and a fall takes as long to show. That is why it helps to look at the recent path as well:
| 12 months to | CPI-U change |
|---|---|
| September 2025 | +3.0 % |
| March 2026 | +3.3 % |
| June 2026 | +3.5 % |
| August 2026 | +3.4 % |
What is driving it in 2026
The jump of 2026 is an energy story. Gasoline rose 34.2 % over 12 months, and the energy index 20.4 %. Energy weighs only about 6 % of the CPI-U basket, so a rise of 20 % in energy prices adds roughly 1.3 percentage point to the headline rate on its own (weight times change, a first approximation). Shelter, the heaviest item at about 36 %, rose 3.2 %; food at home rose less than the overall index.
Current rate for one spending group
Energy, U.S. average
+20.4 %
| 12 months to August 2026 | +16.3 % |
| Index level | 341.573 |
| Published | every month |
| Next national release | October 2026, on November 10 |
Core inflation, which leaves out food and energy, is the measure economists use to see the trend under the swings: 2.6 % over the same 12 months. The core inflation page explains how it is built and why it matters for interest rates.
The current rate where you live
The national rate is an average of very different places. The regions, published every month, range from +3.4 % to +4.2 %. The 23 metros spread wider, and 20 of them are published every other month, so their current rate can date from August rather than September. Choose your area in the calculator above, or see all of them on the CPI by city page.
The next releases
| Data for | Release date |
|---|---|
| October 2026 | November 10, 2026 |
| November 2026 | December 10, 2026 |
| December 2026 | January 13, 2027 |
| January 2027 | February 11, 2027 |
The release of November 10, 2026 will be unusual. October 2026 indexes will be published, but the BLS has said it will not publish 12-month changes where October 2025 is missing, which is the case for the all items CPI-U. So for one month there will be no current inflation rate in the usual sense. The 12-month rate comes back with the November figures on December 10, 2026. In the meantime, the change from September 2026 to October 2026 and the change over 13 months from September 2025 are the figures to watch; the October 2025 page explains why.
Monthly or yearly: which to quote
A single month says little on its own. Seasonally adjusted, September 2026 rose 0.6 %, which would compound to well over 5 % if it lasted a year, but one hot month driven by gasoline rarely lasts. The 12-month rate smooths those swings and is the one used in contracts, pay talks and benefit rules. For a salary review or a lease renewal, quote the 12-month rate of the month your agreement names, not seasonally adjusted, and say which index and which area you used. For a question about the trend, look at several months together, or at the core index.
The annualized three-month or six-month rates that some analysts quote are built from the seasonally adjusted series and are not published as such by the BLS. This site does not compute them, because the local indexes it covers are not seasonally adjusted.
Reading the rate correctly
A rate of 3.7 % does not mean that your prices rose 3.7 %. It means that the cost of the average urban basket did. A household that drives a lot felt this year's gasoline rise more than one that does not; a renter whose lease did not come up felt none of the shelter increase yet. The figure also says nothing about the level of prices: it is a speed, not a distance. To measure the distance over several years, use the inflation calculator.