See how inflation changes the value of money — what an amount will be worth in the future and how much purchasing power it loses.
Compare interest rates on savings accounts.
Estimates only. Assumes constant annual inflation. Not advice or an offer.
Enter an amount (e.g. your savings or a purchase price), the expected annual inflation rate and the number of years. The calculator shows the real purchasing power of that amount in the future, how much something costing that amount today will cost then, and how much value is lost.
At 3% inflation over 10 years, £10,000 today has the purchasing power of only £7,441 in the future — a loss of £2,559. This is why savings earning less than the inflation rate lose real value even as the nominal balance grows.
Real value = amount ÷ (1 + inflation)^years. It shows what today's amount will really be worth at the given inflation rate.
UK CPI fell from 11.1% (Oct 2022) to around 2–3% in 2024/25. The Bank of England's target is 2%. Use the current ONS CPI figure for the most accurate result.
The future cost of buying something that costs the entered amount today. At 3% over 10 years, £10,000 today costs £13,439 in 10 years.
No — the calculation runs locally in your browser.
Inflation is the rate at which prices rise — and therefore the rate at which each pound quietly buys less. The calculator above answers the question savers most need answered: what will today’s money be worth in future purchasing power? The formula is the mirror image of compound interest: real value = amount ÷ (1 + i)t, where i is annual inflation and t the number of years. Inflation compounds, so small rates do large damage over long horizons.
Keep £10,000 in cash for 10 years at 3% inflation and its purchasing power falls to about £7,441 — a quarter of its real value gone without a single pound leaving the account. At the 5% rates seen in recent inflationary episodes the same £10,000 shrinks to about £6,139 of today’s buying power. This is the invisible tax on idle cash.
The UK headline figure is CPI (Consumer Prices Index), a weighted basket of what an average household buys; CPIH adds owner-occupier housing costs, and the older RPI still governs some contracts (rail fares, some index-linked payments) despite known flaws that make it run higher. Your personal inflation depends on your own basket: renters, drivers and families with childcare routinely experience rates well above or below the headline. When using the calculator for planning, the long-run Bank of England target of 2% is a reasonable baseline, with 3–4% a prudent stress test.
Falling prices sound pleasant but broad deflation is associated with recessions, wage cuts and postponed spending, and it makes debts heavier in real terms. Central banks target low positive inflation (2%) partly as a safety margin against it.
CPI is an average across all households and thousands of items. If your spending is concentrated in fast-rising categories — rent, energy, food — your personal rate exceeds the headline. Tracking your own recurring bills year-on-year gives a truer picture.
Real (inflation-adjusted) returns, always, for goals more than a few years away. A pension pot number 30 years out is meaningless until you deflate it; this calculator does exactly that conversion.