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UK Inflation Calculator

Compare the buying power of pounds between two months and check whether your income has kept up.

UK prices · through August 2026
ONS monthly indices, 2015=100. Published 16 September 2026; retrieved 4 October 2026.

Compare purchasing power
For example: 1,000.50
CPIH adds owner-occupiers’ housing services and Council Tax. Changing the measure keeps your amounts and months.
This month is the reference.
Published monthly values.

Example below: July → August 2026, CPI.

CPI · UK all items · 2015=100

To keep the same purchasing power, you need

£1,004.90

Price change over the selected period: 0.49%

July 2026 → August 2026 · 1 month. The starting month is the reference, not an extra month of inflation.

An unchanged amount of £1,000.00 retains 99.51% of its original purchasing power.

Calculated from published indices rounded to one decimal. This change may differ from ONS headline rates, which use unrounded indices.

The same buying power, month by month

Explore the amount needed to keep your starting purchasing power. Exact values are available with the slider and in the table.

Equivalent amount from July to August 2026, CPIJuly: £1,000; August: £1,004.90. Values are also in the table.2026-072026-08

Show monthly indices and amounts

£1,000.00 × (143.6 ÷ 142.9) = £1,004.90.

MonthCPIChange from startEquivalent amount
July 2026 (start)142.90.00%£1,000.00
August 2026143.60.49%£1,004.90

How the calculation works

Equivalent amount = starting amount × ending-month index ÷ starting-month index. Both indices come from the same selected ONS series. We do not compound rounded monthly inflation rates or mix annual averages with monthly figures. Money is rounded to pence only at the end.

January → August uses January as the reference. To compare prices since the beginning of a year, choose the previous December. The same month gives zero price change; comparing backwards expresses an amount in the earlier month’s prices.

Nominal income, real income and purchasing power

Nominal change = new amount ÷ starting amount − 1. Real change = new amount ÷ the unrounded inflation-equivalent amount − 1. For example, a 25% pay rise with a 30% price rise gives about −3.85% real change. The difference in pounds compares the displayed new and equivalent amounts.

A price rise and a purchasing-power loss have different percentages: when prices double, the same money buys half as much. The starting amount must be positive; a new income of zero means −100% real change. This measures your supplied income against a national price index, not the official aggregate average-earnings series.

Which measure should I choose?

CPI is the measure used for the UK inflation target. CPIH is ONS’s most comprehensive price measure: it adds owner-occupiers’ housing services and Council Tax. These are substantial costs excluded from CPI. CPIH does not track your individual mortgage payments, house price, rent or personal spending basket.

The selected measure applies to the entire period, chart and income comparison. The calculator does not use RPI or certify a rent, pension, maintenance payment or contract adjustment. Such arrangements can specify a particular series, reference month, lag and rounding rule.

Source and limits

Office for National Statistics: CPI all items (D7BT) and CPIH all items (L522), UK monthly indices, not seasonally adjusted, 2015=100. Each series has 464 published months, January 1988–August 2026. September is not yet available. The UK coverage includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, excluding the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

The August bulletin, published 16 September 2026, reports annual CPI inflation of 3.1% and CPIH inflation of 3.3%. These headline rates use unrounded indices. Our published-index ratios give about 3.09% and 3.24%; they are approximate comparisons, not replacements for those official headline figures.

Historical estimates and revisions

The early CPI indices for 1988–1995 and CPIH history for 1988–2005 include ONS modelled estimates. Comparisons using them need more caution than the later live series. We retain the published history and show a note for affected periods. Read the ONS historical-series explanation and current revisions policy. A published value is not a promise it can never change.

These are dated national averages; your personal costs can change differently. This is not interest, a future-inflation forecast or a legal indexation calculation. Your inputs stay in this page and are not put in the URL, browser storage or analytics.

For US annual-average CPI-U, use the US inflation calculator. For savings with deposits and interest, use the compound interest calculator.

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