Pick an amount and two years, and see exactly how the buying power of the dollar changed between them — powered by the official Consumer Price Index going back to 1913.
$100 in 1970 equals
$851
in 2026 dollars
Total price change
+751.0%
1970 → 2026
Avg. inflation / year
3.90%
over 56 years
Something that cost $100 in 1970 would cost about $851 in 2026. Put differently: a 1970 dollar bought what $8.51 buys today. (Figures for the most recent years use estimated CPI averages.)
This tool converts a dollar amount between any two years using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), the standard measure of inflation. Enter $100 in 1970 and it tells you what that same buying power costs today; swap the years and it works in reverse — what today's money would have been worth back then. It also shows the total price change and the average annual inflation rate over the period.
The formula is simple: value in year B = amount × (CPI in year B ÷ CPI in year A). The CPI tracks the average price of a fixed basket of goods and services — food, housing, transportation, medical care — so the ratio between two years tells you how much prices rose overall. The average annual rate is the compound growth rate of that ratio.
Inflation is the silent tax on cash. Money sitting in a 0.01% checking account loses buying power every year — which is why parking cash in a high-yield account matters. Try our savings interest calculator to see whether your APY is actually beating inflation.
It uses annual average CPI-U (Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers) figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, from 1913 through the present. The most recent year or two use estimated annual averages until the BLS finalizes them.
Roughly $830 in today's dollars — prices are about 8.3 times higher than in 1970. Use the calculator above for any amount and any pair of years.
Yes. Set the later year as the starting year (or hit the swap button) and the calculator deflates the amount, showing what today's dollars would have bought back then.
1913 is the first year of the official CPI series. Earlier estimates exist from academic reconstructions, but they aren't official government data, so we stick to the CPI.
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