Social Security COLA 2026
Published: 9/10/2026
Social Security benefits rose 2.8% in 2026. The increase, called a cost-of-living adjustment, was announced in October 2025 and first appeared in the payment for January 2026.
The 2026 adjustment
A gross benefit of $2,000 a month became $2,056, an increase of $56 a month. Your own increase is the same percentage applied to whatever you were receiving in December.
This guide covers how the figure is calculated, when it reaches your check, why you receive it even if you have not filed yet, and what else changes at the same time.
How the COLA Is Calculated
The adjustment is tied to the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, known as CPI-W. Social Security averages that index for July, August, and September, then compares it with the same three months of the last year in which a COLA took effect. The percentage change, rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent, becomes the COLA.
In most years the comparison is simply against the year before. After a year with no increase the comparison reaches further back, to the last year that produced one, so no inflation is skipped.
Because the third quarter ends in September, the figure is announced in October and takes effect a few months later. Nothing about your own earnings or filing age enters the calculation. Every beneficiary receives the same percentage.
A COLA can never be negative. If prices fall, the adjustment is zero and benefits stay flat rather than dropping. That has happened in 2010, 2011, and 2016.
When It Reaches Your Check
The adjustment officially applies to benefits for December, and Social Security pays December benefits in January. So the first larger payment arrived in January 2026. Supplemental Security Income works slightly differently. The increase applies to the January payment, and January SSI is always issued on the last business day of December because the first of the month is a holiday.
Social Security posts a personalized COLA notice in the message center of your my Social Security account in late November, along with your new Medicare premium. Paper notices are mailed starting in early December to people who have not opted out of them.
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A COLA raises every year of benefits ahead of you, so the bigger the benefit it lands on, the more it is worth. You can work through that with a Social Security specialist at Social Security Advisors before you settle on a filing date.
- They look at how your filing age sets the base that every future adjustment compounds on.
- Medicare premiums and the tax thresholds above decide how much of the increase you actually keep.
- The first call is free, and you pick the time.
You Get the COLA Before You File
This is the most common misunderstanding about cost-of-living adjustments. You do not have to be receiving benefits to get one. Adjustments are applied to your Primary Insurance Amount starting with the year you turn 62, whether or not you have claimed.
Delaying your filing date therefore costs you nothing in COLAs. Every adjustment announced between 62 and the month you file is already built into your first payment. This is separate from delayed retirement credits, which are an additional increase for waiting past your Normal Retirement Age.
Earlier in your career a different mechanism does the work. Your past earnings are restated relative to the average wage level of the year you turn 60, through wage indexing, which tracks wages rather than prices. Earnings from age 60 onward, including 61 and 62, count at face value. Our guide on inflation and Social Security covers the handoff between the two.
COLA History
Automatic annual adjustments began in 1975. The average since then is 3.7%, though the range is wide. The table below shows the last ten years by the year each increase was first paid.
| First paid | Increase |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.8% |
| 2025 | 2.5% |
| 2024 | 3.2% |
| 2023 | 8.7% |
| 2022 | 5.9% |
| 2021 | 1.3% |
| 2020 | 1.6% |
| 2019 | 2.8% |
| 2018 | 2.0% |
| 2017 | 0.3% |
The years with no increase at all were 2010, 2011, and 2016. In each case consumer prices had fallen or barely moved over the measuring period, usually following a drop in energy prices.
Show every adjustment since 1975
| First paid | Increase |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2.8% |
| 2025 | 2.5% |
| 2024 | 3.2% |
| 2023 | 8.7% |
| 2022 | 5.9% |
| 2021 | 1.3% |
| 2020 | 1.6% |
| 2019 | 2.8% |
| 2018 | 2.0% |
| 2017 | 0.3% |
| 2016 | 0.0% |
| 2015 | 1.7% |
| 2014 | 1.5% |
| 2013 | 1.7% |
| 2012 | 3.6% |
| 2011 | 0.0% |
| 2010 | 0.0% |
| 2009 | 5.8% |
| 2008 | 2.3% |
| 2007 | 3.3% |
| 2006 | 4.1% |
| 2005 | 2.7% |
| 2004 | 2.1% |
| 2003 | 1.4% |
| 2002 | 2.6% |
| 2001 | 3.5% |
| 2000 | 2.5% |
| 1999 | 1.3% |
| 1998 | 2.1% |
| 1997 | 2.9% |
| 1996 | 2.6% |
| 1995 | 2.8% |
| 1994 | 2.6% |
| 1993 | 3.0% |
| 1992 | 3.7% |
| 1991 | 5.4% |
| 1990 | 4.7% |
| 1989 | 4.0% |
| 1988 | 4.2% |
| 1987 | 1.3% |
| 1986 | 3.1% |
| 1985 | 3.5% |
| 1984 | 3.5% |
| 1982 | 7.4% |
| 1981 | 11.2% |
| 1980 | 14.3% |
| 1979 | 9.9% |
| 1978 | 6.5% |
| 1977 | 5.9% |
| 1976 | 6.4% |
| 1975 | 8.0% |
Adjustments announced for 1975 through 1982 took effect in June of the same year. Since 1983 an adjustment applies to December benefits, which arrive the following January, so those rows are listed under the later year. Source: SSA cost-of-living adjustment series.
What Else Changes in January
Medicare Part B
Most people have the Part B premium deducted from their Social Security payment, and it is set separately from the COLA. The standard premium is $202.90 a month in 2026, up $17.90 from the year before. That deduction comes out of the same check, so the amount deposited rises by less than the headline percentage. Higher earners pay an income-related surcharge on top of the standard premium.
A rule known as hold harmless protects most beneficiaries from going backwards. If your dollar COLA is smaller than the increase in your Part B premium, the premium increase is limited so your net payment does not fall below the previous year. It does not cover everyone. People paying income-related surcharges, those new to Medicare that year, those not yet collecting Social Security, and those whose premiums Medicaid pays are all outside it.
Limits That Move With Wages, Not Prices
Two figures change most Januarys but are driven by average wage growth rather than the COLA, so they rise by a different percentage. The first is the taxable maximum, the ceiling on earnings that count toward Social Security. The second is the earnings test limit, which affects people who work while collecting before Normal Retirement Age. Neither one rises in a year when no COLA is payable.
Tax Thresholds That Never Change
The income thresholds that determine how much of your benefit is subject to federal income tax are not indexed at all. They have been fixed since the 1984 and 1994 tax years. Each COLA therefore pushes a few more people over them, which is why the share of beneficiaries owing tax on benefits keeps growing. See our guide on federal taxation of benefits.
Why the Increase Can Feel Too Small
CPI-W measures spending by working-age wage earners. Retirees spend a larger share of their budget on health care and housing and a smaller share on gasoline and clothing, so their personal inflation rate can differ.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes a research index for people 62 and older, CPI-E. It rose faster than CPI-W through the 1980s and 1990s, but the gap has narrowed since, and in some years it would have produced a smaller increase rather than a larger one. Proposals to switch the COLA to CPI-E come up regularly in Congress, as do proposals for a slower-growing measure. No change has been enacted, and CPI-W remains the basis today.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the 2027 COLA announced?
Social Security announces the 2027 cost-of-living adjustment in October 2026, once the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes September inflation data. The date moves with that release, so it can fall late in the month.
Do I get the COLA if I have not started benefits yet?
Yes. Cost-of-living adjustments are applied to your benefit formula starting with the year you turn 62, whether or not you have filed. Waiting to claim does not cost you any COLA.
Can a COLA ever reduce my benefit?
No. If consumer prices fall, the adjustment is zero rather than negative, and your benefit stays where it is. That has happened in 2010, 2011, and 2016.
Does the COLA apply to spousal and survivor benefits?
Yes. The same percentage applies to every kind of Social Security payment, including spousal, survivor, disability, and Supplemental Security Income.
Why is my raise smaller than the announced percentage?
For most people the Medicare Part B premium is deducted from the same check, and it usually rises in January too. The announced percentage applies to your gross benefit, so the amount deposited grows by less.
See Your Own Numbers
The SSA.tools calculator applies every cost-of-living adjustment on record to your earnings history, so the benefit it shows already reflects them. Paste your earnings record from ssa.gov and it will show your benefit at every possible filing date, in today's dollars.