Value of a Dollar in 2020
2020 is the last year of low inflation before the post-pandemic surge, which peaked in June 2022 at the fastest rate in forty years.
More optionsYear average → today (August 2026)
A month compares month to month, as BLS’s own calculator does.
Worth in
$1 in 2020 is worth
$1.29in August 2026
Prices rose 29.4% in between, so $1 of 2020 goods costs $1.29 in August 2026.
The price of $1 of 2020 goods, year by year
- Total inflation
- +29.4%
- Average a year
- 4.30%
- $1 of cash now buys
- $0.77 of 2020 goods
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 1 worked example,
How this works
Method
A dollar from 2020 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 2020. For 2020 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works. Full method
Sources
How it’s tested
One worked example for this page is 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.
$1 from 2020, worked out
The CPI-U averaged 258.811 in 2020 and 334.980 in August 2026. Divide the two: 334.980 ÷ 258.811 = 1.294, so $1 of 2020 goods costs $1.29 now. The same factor scales any amount: $10,000 in 2020 is $12,943 today, a total rise of 29% or 4.30% a year over 6 years.
The pandemic surge
In 2020 the CPI averaged 258.811 and rose 1.2%, the slowest since 2015. Then the 12-month rate climbed through 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the highest since November 1981.
It eased after that: the annual average rose 4.1% in 2023, 2.9% in 2024 and 2.6% in 2025. The latest 12-month rate, for August 2026, is 3.4%. Some prices moved far faster: gasoline rose 27.4% in those 12 months.
BLS has no index for October 2025: its footnote says the data are unavailable because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations. Any calculation that needs October 2025 here uses the geometric mean of September and November and says so; nothing else on this page is estimated.
- The CPI’s 12-month rate peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. Source: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0).
- Gasoline (all types) rose 27.4% in the 12 months to August 2026. Source: BLS, Consumer Price Index data.
- BLS published no CPI for October 2025 because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations. Source: BLS, CPI-U all items (CUUR0000SA0).
How the value of a dollar is worked out
A dollar from 2020 is worth what its goods cost now: the amount × the CPI now ÷ the CPI in 2020. For 2020 the calculator uses BLS’s annual average, the mean of the twelve monthly indexes; pick a month above for a month-to-month figure, which is how BLS’s own CPI Inflation Calculator works.
The index is the CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted: the series BLS publishes back to 1913. It measures the prices urban consumers pay, so it says what a dollar buys, not what an investment earned.
value now = amount × CPI(August 2026) ÷ CPI(2020)
$1 from 2020 in later years
What $1 of 2020 goods cost in each later year (annual averages), with that year’s inflation; the last row is the latest month.
| Year | CPI-U | $1 from 2020 | Inflation that year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 258.811 | $1 | +1.2% |
| 2021 | 270.970 | $1.05 | +4.7% |
| 2022 | 292.655 | $1.13 | +8.0% |
| 2023 | 304.702 | $1.18 | +4.1% |
| 2024 | 313.689 | $1.21 | +2.9% |
| 2025 | 321.943 | $1.24 | +2.6% |
| August 2026 | 334.980 | $1.29 | +3.4% (12 months) |
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
How much have prices gone up since 2020?
29.4% from the 2020 average to August 2026: $100 of 2020 goods costs about $129.43 now.
When did inflation peak after the pandemic?
The 12-month rate peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, the fastest since November 1981.
Why is there no October 2025 inflation figure?
BLS’s series has no October 2025 value: its footnote says the data are unavailable because of the 2025 lapse in appropriations, the federal government shutdown. This site fills that month only where a calculation needs it, with the geometric mean of September and November, and says so.