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Inflation calculator: what money buys over time
See what inflation does to an amount over the years, forwards or backwards, at a rate you choose or with a country's actual history. Every answer comes with the same sum one point lower and higher, because it is a scenario, not a forecast. Everything runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.
The answer
about €7,440
If inflation averages 3% a year, €10,000 in 10 years buys what about €7,440 buys today.
One point either side: At 2%: about €8,200At 4%: about €6,760
Compounded once a year, at the same rate every year. A scenario, not a forecast.
The nidhi planner projects your whole picture forward with its assumptions on screen, inflation included, in one currency or several.
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Where the history comes from
Yearly consumer price inflation by country, from the World Bank (indicator FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG, "Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)"), licensed CC BY 4.0. The World Bank last updated these figures on October 8, 2026. nidhi keeps a copy and checks for new figures every month, so your browser loads the history from nidhi.today and never contacts the World Bank. The euro area figure is for the euro area as a whole. Figures can be revised, and a few countries have years with no figure or a record that starts late.
Frequently asked questions
What does the answer mean?
It works out one scenario: if prices rise at the rate you typed, every year, for the years you chose, what does an amount correspond to? "Buying power later" shows what an amount could buy in the future, in today's money. "Cost later" carries a price forward. "Past to today" brings an old amount up to date. "Keeping up" compares a raise or a savings return with inflation. Answers are rounded and say "about", because the rate is an assumption, not a measurement.
Why does every answer come with two more?
Nobody knows what inflation will average over the next ten years. The line under each answer repeats the sum one percentage point lower and one higher (never below 0%), so you can see how much the answer depends on the rate. Over long periods a single point makes a large difference, which is why one figure on its own can read as more certain than it is.
Is national inflation the same as my inflation?
Not necessarily. National inflation measures the price of a basket of goods and services chosen to represent a typical household. Your own spending differs: whether you rent or own, where you live, your age, whether you pay school fees or care costs. Many statistics offices publish inflation by category (food, housing, transport, health), which can show whether your largest costs have been rising faster or slower than the headline figure. Some people try a rate a point or two above or below the national one to see how much that matters.
Where does the history come from, and how recent is it?
From the World Bank's World Development Indicators: "Inflation, consumer prices (annual %)" (indicator FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG), licensed CC BY 4.0, which gathers the figures national statistics offices and the IMF publish. The World Bank last updated them on October 8, 2026; nidhi checks for new figures every month. For most countries the latest year is the last full calendar year, some lag behind, and a few have years with no figure. The tool shows each country's coverage and never fills a gap with a guess: "Past to today" starts only from years with an unbroken record up to the latest year.
Why can the rate go up to 10,000%?
Because it has happened. Hyperinflation, often defined as prices rising more than 50% a month, has struck several countries in living memory, and yearly rates in the thousands of percent appear in the World Bank's own data. A tool capped at 20% could not show what those years did to savings. At such rates the answers grow so large or so small that the tool says "more than" or "less than" rather than printing every digit.
Why is the real rate not just the raise minus inflation?
Because both compound. Buying power grows by (1 + raise) ÷ (1 + inflation), minus one. With a 5% raise and 3% inflation that is about 1.94% a year, not 2%. At low rates the shortcut of subtracting is close; at high inflation it is far off: a 110% raise with 100% inflation leaves 5% more buying power, not 10%.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. The calculations run in your browser, and the amounts, rates and years you type are not sent to us or anyone else. Picking a country loads its history from nidhi.today, this site, never from the World Bank. Nothing goes into the page address while you use the tool. When you press "Copy a link to this calculation", your values go into the link after the # sign, a part of the address browsers never send to a server, and the page removes them from the address bar before analytics start. Analytics records which question, currency and country you pick, never the numbers.
Is this financial advice?
No. It shows what a rate you choose does to an amount over time. It cannot tell you what inflation will be, or what to do with your money.