Full Retirement Age Calculator

How this calculator works

Your full retirement age (FRA) is the age at which Social Security pays 100% of your Primary Insurance Amount, the benefit calculated from your earnings record. Claim before it and your check is permanently reduced; claim after it and you earn delayed retirement credits. FRA depends only on the year you were born, and this calculator turns your birth date into the exact month you reach it.

The inputs. Enter your birth month and year, and tell the tool if you were born on the 1st of a month. That detail matters because Social Security follows the legal rule that you reach a new age on the day before your birthday.

• If you were born on the 1st of any month, you are treated as reaching each age in the previous month.
• If you were born on January 1, you are also treated as born in the prior year, so the FRA rules for that earlier year apply.

The rules the tool applies. FRA is 66 for people born 1943 to 1954. It rises by two months for each birth year from 1955 to 1959, and it is 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. The tool then works out the percentage of your PIA you would receive at three ages:

• At 62: reduced by 5/9 of 1% for each of the first 36 months before FRA and 5/12 of 1% for each additional month.
• At FRA: 100%.
• At 70: increased by 2/3 of 1% for each month after FRA (8% a year).

Worked example. James was born on April 1, 1960. His birth year gives him an FRA of 67. Because he was born on the 1st, Social Security treats him as reaching each age in March rather than April, so he reaches full retirement age in March 2027.

At 62 he would be 60 months early. The first 36 months cost 36 × 5/9% = 20%, and the remaining 24 months cost 24 × 5/12% = 10%, for a total reduction of 30%, leaving 70% of his PIA. If he waits until 70, he earns 36 months of credits at 2/3% each, or 24%, for 124% of his PIA. If his PIA is $2,200, that is $1,540 a month at 62, $2,200 at 67 and $2,728 at 70.

To see what those percentages mean in lifetime dollars, use our when to claim calculator. If you plan to keep working before FRA, the earnings limit calculator shows how much could be temporarily withheld.

Limits of this estimate. The percentages apply to your own retirement benefit. Spousal benefits use a different early reduction and earn no delayed credits, and survivor benefits follow their own schedule with a separate survivor FRA. Percentages are rounded to two decimals, and SSA's own rounding of dollar amounts can produce slightly different results. Medicare eligibility still begins at 65 regardless of your FRA.