Annuity Calculator

How this result is built

Find the future value of a series of equal contributions compounded over time.

An accumulating annuity is a string of equal payments that compound until a future date. The payment, the rate, and the number of periods do all the work. A starting balance is allowed if the account is not empty.

What the opening example is for

This is not the price an insurance company charges for a lifetime income annuity. That product includes longevity pooling. Use the payout calculator for a pot you draw down yourself over a fixed term.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Annuity Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Starting balance” line on Annuity Calculator starts at $0.00. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

Annuity Calculator treats “Payment each period” as its own entry, and the form opens with $300.00. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Before you replace it, “Payments per year” reads 12 on Annuity Calculator. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

The remaining fields

Look at “Annual return” first if you are checking Annuity Calculator: the filled value is 5%. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

The “Years” line on Annuity Calculator starts at 15. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Future value of the annuity is $80,186.68. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

Contributed is $54,000.00 when you run the opening figures on Annuity Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

On this opening pass, growth is $26,186.68. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

A second pass changes only “Starting balance”, from $0.00 to $1,000.00. Future value of the annuity moves from $80,186.68 to $82,300.39. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Annuity Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Annuity Calculator follows the contribution, the return, and the years you enter. It does not look up your income, a workplace-plan phase-out, or a custodian balance. The 2026 limits named on this desk are ceilings, not instructions to contribute the maximum.

Annuity Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open Annuity Payout Calculator (A pot that is scheduled to reach zero.); Compound Interest Calculator (Interest that starts earning interest of its own.); Retirement Calculator (Savings at retirement, next to the nest egg spending implies.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Annuity Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Starting balance ($0.00), Payment each period ($300.00), Payments per year (12), Annual return (5%), Years (15). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on $80,186.68. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Annuity Calculator is built for one job: Equal payments, compounded forward. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Find the future value of a series of equal contributions compounded over time.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Annuity Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read $80,186.68 as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

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