My Inflation Rate
The official rate prices an average basket. Put in roughly what you spend each month and see how fast your own prices rose, and which costs drove it.
Over the
Your home
Priced with shelter as a whole: renters and owners together.
What you spend each month, roughly. Rounded amounts are fine: only the shares matter. The figure by each line is its price change over the past 12 months.
Home
Rent, or what owning your home is worth in rent
Piped gas, heating oil, water, sewer, trash
Furniture, appliances, supplies, home services
Food
Restaurants, takeout, coffee
Getting around
Insurance, repairs, parts, registration
Buses, trains, airfares, taxis
Health
Insurance, doctors, hospitals, medicines
Everything else
Pets, TV and streaming, sports, hobbies
Tuition, school fees, day care
Phone, internet, computers
Haircuts, toiletries, alcohol, tobacco
Total a month$4,998
Your inflation, August 2025 to August 2026
3.4%
This is the official basket. Change the amounts to your own spending, and see how your rate differs from 3.4%.
What drives your rate (points)
- Rent or housing+3.0%1.1
- Gasoline+27.4%0.9
- Transit and flights+15.4%0.2
- Groceries+2.2%0.2
- Eating out+3.4%0.2
- Everything else0.8
- Official CPI-U
- 3.4%
- Your basket a year ago
- $4,835 → $4,998
- Biggest driver
- Rent or housing (+3.0%)
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice. Terms
How this works: Method, 5 sources, Checked against 3 worked examples,
How this works
Method
Your monthly spending is a basket of goods. The calculator prices that same basket a year (or three or five years) earlier, line by line, with the BLS consumer price index for each category, and compares: your rate is what the basket costs now ÷ what it cost then − 1. That is the fixed-basket idea behind the CPI itself. Full method
Sources
How it’s tested
3 worked examples for this page are checked by automated tests before every release: given the inputs, the tool must show the expected answer.
Limits
Official CPI-U data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, through August 2026. These are averages for urban consumers, not advice.
Changes
- First version: what a dollar is worth from 1913 to August 2026, your own inflation rate, whether a raise beat inflation, the current rate, the rate by year and 12 year pages.
A worked example: a renter who drives a lot
Take a household that spends $4,700 a month: $1,500 on rent, $650 on groceries, $250 eating out and $450 on gasoline for a long commute, with no transit or school costs. Priced with each category’s change from August 2025 to August 2026, the same things cost $4,511 a year earlier, so its inflation rate is 4.2%, against the official 3.4%. Gasoline alone adds 2.1 points, because it is 10% of this budget against 3% of the official basket, and it rose 27.4%.
How your rate is worked out
Your monthly spending is a basket of goods. The calculator prices that same basket a year (or three or five years) earlier, line by line, with the BLS consumer price index for each category, and compares: your rate is what the basket costs now ÷ what it cost then − 1. That is the fixed-basket idea behind the CPI itself.
Each line uses one BLS index, or a few combined by their official weights: rent of primary residence or owners’ equivalent rent if you choose “I rent” or “I own”, otherwise shelter as a whole. With the official December 2025 weights (BLS’s relative importance table) and no changes, the method gives 3.36% for the last 12 months, against BLS’s published 3.40%; the small gap comes from BLS updating its weights each January.
Only the shares matter: doubling every amount gives the same rate. A line’s contribution is its share of your basket a year ago × its own price change, and the contributions add up to your rate.
your rate = Σ spend now ÷ Σ (spend now ÷ price change) − 1
- Gasoline (all types) rose 27.4% in the 12 months to August 2026, while all items rose 3.4%. Source: BLS, Consumer Price Index data.
- Motor vehicle insurance changed −5.1% over the same 12 months, pulling the car insurance and repairs line to −1.6%. Source: BLS, Consumer Price Index data.
- In the official basket, shelter is 35.6% and motor fuel 3.0% of spending (relative importance, December 2025). Source: BLS, Relative importance of CPI components, December 2025.
What each category did in the 12 months to August 2026
Each spending line’s 12-month price change, its share of the official basket (relative importance, December 2025), and what it adds to the official rate. Sorted by price change.
| Category | 12-month change | Official share | Adds to official rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gasoline | +27.4% | 3.0% | +0.88 pts |
| Transit and flights | +15.4% | 1.5% | +0.23 pts |
| Gas, water and trash | +6.3% | 2.1% | +0.13 pts |
| Electricity | +3.8% | 2.5% | +0.10 pts |
| Personal care and other | +3.6% | 3.7% | +0.14 pts |
| Clothing | +3.6% | 2.4% | +0.09 pts |
| Eating out | +3.4% | 5.4% | +0.18 pts |
| Education and childcare | +3.3% | 2.6% | +0.09 pts |
| Rent or housing | +3.0% | 35.6% | +1.08 pts |
| Recreation | +2.7% | 5.1% | +0.14 pts |
Show all 16 rowsShow fewer
| Groceries | +2.2% | 8.3% | +0.18 pts |
| Furniture and household | +2.0% | 4.3% | +0.08 pts |
| Health care | +1.6% | 8.4% | +0.13 pts |
| Phone and internet | +1.1% | 3.2% | +0.04 pts |
| Buying or leasing a car | −0.4% | 7.2% | −0.03 pts |
| Car insurance and repairs | −1.6% | 4.6% | −0.07 pts |
Data: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0) · BLS, CPI-U all items, seasonally adjusted (CUSR0000SA0) · BLS, Consumer Price Index data · BLS, Relative importance of CPI components, December 2025 · BLS, Average hourly earnings, total private (CES0500000003). Inflation calculator
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is my inflation rate different from the official one?
The official CPI prices an average urban household’s basket. If you spend a bigger share than average on something whose price rose fast (gasoline, in the latest year) your rate is higher; if more of your money goes on things that rose slowly or fell, it is lower.
What should I put for housing if I own my home?
Choose “I own” and put what renting your home would cost, or your monthly mortgage, tax and insurance as a rough stand-in. The CPI prices owner-occupied housing by what it would rent for (owners’ equivalent rent), not by mortgage payments or house prices. If your mortgage is fixed, your actual housing cost may not have changed at all; a smaller housing amount shows that.
Does the official rate include gas prices?
Yes, with a weight of about 2.9% of the basket for gasoline. A household that spends more of its budget on fuel feels a gasoline spike more than the official rate shows.
Is my spending saved or sent anywhere?
No. The calculation runs in your browser and nothing is stored. Your amounts are in the page address so the page can reopen them; the link the Share button sends carries only your mix (each line as a share of $10,000 a month), which gives the same rate without your actual amounts.