Social Security break-even calculator

The Social Security break-even age is the age at which the total benefits from a later claim catch up with the total from an earlier one — 78 years and 7 months for a claim at 67 against 62 with a full retirement age of 67 and no growth on the money. Claim at 62 and the checks start five years sooner but each one is smaller for life; wait until 70 and each check is larger, but the early ones are gone. This calculator applies the SSA's month-by-month reduction and credit rules to your birth date and PIA, compares any two claiming ages month by month with the COLA and, if you like, a return on the money, and reports the break-even age.

Social Security rules checked against the official publications, last on 2026-09-10 Runs in your browser — nothing you type is sent to this site's servers or to its analytics No sign-up Methodology and data status

The rules the calculator applies

1. Full retirement age depends on the year of birth: 66 for 1943–1954, rising two months a year to 67 for 1960 and later. A person born on January 1 is treated as born in the previous year, and one born on the first of any month as born in the previous month.
2. Claiming early reduces the benefit by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% for each further month. Sixty months early is 30%; forty-eight months is 25%.
3. Claiming late earns delayed retirement credits of 8% a year (2/3 of 1% a month) for anyone born in 1943 or later, from full retirement age until 70. Nothing accrues after 70.
4. The earliest month. You must be 62 throughout the first month of entitlement, so only someone born on the 2nd can start in the month of the 62nd birthday; everyone else starts the following month, at 62 and 1 month, with one fewer reduction month than the SSA's tables show (59 rather than 60 for a full retirement age of 67). Someone born on the 1st is counted as born in the previous month, so their first month is still their calendar birthday month.
5. Spousal benefit. Up to half of the worker's PIA at the spouse's own full retirement age, reduced 25/36 of 1% a month for the first 36 months early and 5/12 of 1% beyond, never increased by delay, and payable only once the worker has filed.
6. Rounding and timing. The reduction is rounded up to the dime, the benefit is rounded down to the dollar (42 U.S.C. §402(q)(8), §415(g)), and each year's COLA-raised PIA is truncated to the dime. Credits earned in the calendar year of a claim are paid from the following January, or from the month you reach 70 if that comes first (§402(w)(3)); the calculator applies that timing and shows the first checks separately when it matters.

Benefit by claiming age, full retirement age 67, PIA $2,000

Computed by the engine from the rules above; the SSA's own tables print the same percentages on a $1,000 example.

Reading the break-even

With no growth on the money and no COLA, a claim at 67 catches up with a claim at 62 at 78 years and 7 months (at 78 years and 8 months against the 62-and-1-month start most people actually get), and a claim at 70 catches up with 67 at 82 years and 5 months. A return earned on the early benefits moves the break-even later, since the early claimant's head start compounds; a COLA moves it slightly earlier, since the larger benefit gets the larger raise. The break-even is not a recommendation: it says only how long you must live for the later claim to pay more in total. Longevity in your family, a spouse who would inherit the larger survivor benefit, other income in the early years, and whether you would actually invest the early checks all belong in the decision, and none of them is in a single number.

Not modeled

• The retirement earnings test for people who work before full retirement age, which withholds benefits above an annual limit and later recomputes the reduction.
• Survivor benefits, which follow the larger benefit and are the main reason a higher earner in a couple delays.
• Federal income tax on benefits — the withdrawal calculator applies it — and Medicare premiums deducted from the check.
• Dual entitlement: a spouse who also has a retirement benefit of their own receives their own benefit plus any excess of the spousal amount, each reduced by its own rule (§402(k)(3), (q)(3)); the spousal figures here assume no benefit of the spouse's own.

Questions this page answers

What is the Social Security break-even age?

The age at which the total benefits received from a later claim catch up with the total received from an earlier one. For someone entitled from the month they turn 62, a claim at 62 against 67 with a full retirement age of 67 and no growth on the money catches up at 78 years and 7 months; with a return earned on the earlier benefits it moves later, and with a cost-of-living adjustment a little earlier.

How much is a benefit reduced for claiming at 62?

By 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before full retirement age and 5/12 of 1% for each month beyond that. With a full retirement age of 67, claiming at exactly 62 is 60 months early and the reduction is 30.00%; claiming at 62 and 1 month, the earliest month most people can start, is 29.58%.

How much does delaying past full retirement age add?

Two-thirds of 1% for each month of delay, 8% a year, for anyone born in 1943 or later, up to age 70. Delaying from 67 to 70 adds 24%; from 66 to 70, 32%. No credit is earned after 70.

Related

• Retirement withdrawal calculator

  Put the claiming age into a full plan: how long savings last with the benefit, a pension and federal tax on withdrawals, including the taxable share of the benefit.

• Pension vs lump sum calculator

  The other lifetime-income decision: what a pension is worth today against the lump sum offered for it.

• How the break-even is computed

  The month-by-month reduction and credit rules, the timing of credits, the tie and horizon conventions, and the SSA documents behind them.

Sources

Data status: verified · last verified 2026-09-10. See the methodology page.