Should you claim Social Security at 62, wait until full retirement age, or delay until 70? This free calculator compares estimated monthly payments, lifetime totals, and the age when waiting may pull ahead.
Social Security Break-Even Calculator
Compare claiming at 62, full retirement age, and 70.
Cumulative benefits by age
Your comparison
How to use this calculator
- Enter your current age.
- Copy the estimated monthly benefit at full retirement age from your Social Security statement.
- Select your full retirement age based on your birth year.
- Choose how long you want the comparison to run and set a COLA assumption.
- Review the monthly estimates, cumulative totals, graph, and break-even ages.
What the results mean
Claiming earlier usually creates a head start because checks arrive for more months. Waiting produces a larger monthly check, so its cumulative line may eventually cross the earlier-claiming line. That crossing is the break-even age. Living beyond it may favor the delayed option in this simplified comparison; dying before it may favor the earlier option.
How the estimate works
The Social Security Administration says retirement benefits may begin at 62, but filing before full retirement age reduces the monthly amount. Delaying after full retirement age earns delayed retirement credits through age 70; there is no added increase for waiting past 70. For people born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67 and an age-70 benefit is generally 124% of the full-retirement-age amount. The calculator applies SSA's monthly early-retirement reduction and delayed-credit formulas, then compounds the COLA assumption annually.
Read the SSA claiming-age explanation and compare this educational result with the official SSA benefit calculators.
Important limitations
This tool does not calculate your official benefit and does not include income taxes, Medicare premiums, the retirement earnings test, future earnings, spouse or survivor strategies, disability rules, or changes in law. COLAs are unknown in advance. Your health, cash needs, employment, family longevity, and the value of survivor protection may matter more than a single break-even age.
Frequently asked questions
Is the highest lifetime total always the best choice?
No. A lifetime total ignores when money arrives, how it might be invested, taxes, household needs, and survivor benefits. Use it as one planning lens rather than a decision rule.
Where do I find my full-retirement-age benefit?
Sign in to your my Social Security account and review your retirement estimate. Enter the full-retirement-age monthly amount, not your age-62 or age-70 amount.
Does waiting after 70 increase the benefit?
No. SSA delayed retirement credits stop at age 70, so this calculator does not model a later claiming age.