In Today's Money converts a US dollar amount from any year between 1800 and today into what it would be worth now.
How the calculation works
The calculator multiplies your amount by the ratio between two CPI values: the index for the current year divided by the index for the year you entered. A dollar from 1975 comes out worth roughly six times as much today.
The index itself has no units. It is set so that the 1982–84 average equals 100, and only the ratio between two years carries meaning.
One important limit: this measures general consumer prices. Individual things have moved very differently from the overall index. Prices in some categories like university tuition and medical care have risen far faster; televisions, computers and long-distance calls have fallen. A CPI conversion tells you about the purchasing power of money in general, not the price of any particular thing.
Where the data comes from
1913 to the present uses official annual averages of the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
1800 to 1912 uses historical estimates compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. The CPI did not exist then; these are reconstructions from surviving price records, and they are approximate. Treat conversions from this period as indicative rather than exact.
The current year is a year-to-date average of the monthly figures released so far, so it moves as new months are published. The BLS only issues an official annual average once a year has finished.
Common questions
What is the Consumer Price Index?
The CPI tracks the average price of a fixed basket of goods and services bought by households — food, housing, transport, medical care and so on. Comparing the index across two years shows how much more, or less, a dollar buys.
Why does this give a different answer from another calculator?
Usually because of the end date or the series. This one converts to a year-to-date average of the current year. Some tools use different data sources or price indexes. Differences of a percent or two are normal.