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Capital at risk

Get to know our new Pension Calculator

Oct 2026

Technology

All

Our new and improved Pension Calculator’s here, redesigned to give you a more accurate projection of what your retirement income could be. It offers different interest growth rates to select from, a downloadable PDF of your projection, and clearer results. Learn how it can help you plan for retirement.

What is the Pension Calculator?

Our Pension Calculator shows how much your pension savings could be worth at retirement, and how long they could last. It can help you:

see if you're on track for the income you want in retirement;
spot a shortfall early, while there's still time to close it;
see the potential impact of changes before you make them, like paying in more or retiring later; and
set a realistic goal, using Pension UK’s Retirement Living Standards as an independent benchmark for retirement costs.

What's new

Here are the new features you’ll find in our updated calculator.

Improved usability

We’ve made it easier to see how changing your information impacts your projection in real time. On our website, the fields and projection information sit side-by-side, and on your phone, it remains ‘sticky’, so it tracks as you scroll up and down the calculator.

Projection numbers are also clearer to view at a glance. This includes what your total projected pot size means for monthly retirement income and how far away you may be from your target.

Quick-add buttons for your pot

When adding your current pension savings, choose anything from £1,000 to £50,000 and your projection updates instantly.

Investment growth toggle

Switch between 3%, 5% and 8% pension investment growth scenarios. See instantly what difference these could have on your pot size.

Retirement Living Standards

Not sure how much you’ll need in later life? Compare your goal with the Retirement Living Standards from Pensions UK, which show what a Minimum, Moderate or Comfortable retirement could cost for single people and couples.

Save your results

Download a PDF of your projection and assumptions. Use it to track your progress.

How to use the Pension Calculator

Getting your forecast takes a few quick steps. Enter details about your savings and goals, and the calculator will project what your retirement pot could be. You can compare that with the amount you’d like to have in retirement.

Add your age today and the age you'd like to retire;
set the amount you'd like to retire with and how much of your pension you'd like to take as income each month;
enter your current pension pot value, adding together any old pensions; and
add your monthly contributions, and any employer contributions, if relevant.

Reading your projection

Your projection updates as you use the Calculator, so you can immediately see at a glance whether your savings are on track to last as long as you need them to.

The solid yellow line represents your current projection and shows how your pot could grow up to the retirement age you’ve specified. It’ll also visualise how long it could last once you start drawing your desired monthly retirement income.

The blue dotted line is your target retirement pot size. It shows an estimate of how much you’ll need in your pension to provide your desired annual retirement income until you reach age 100.

Testing different scenarios

Aside from the money going into your pension, other variables affect its value and how long it could last.

The Calculator options below enable you to visualise the potential impact of different choices and/or market conditions before you decide to make changes.

Investment growth - switch between low (3%), average (5%) and high (8%) growth scenarios.
Take 25% tax-free cash - see how much you’ll have left in your pot if you take your 25% tax-free allowance all at once from age 55 (rising to 57 from 2028).
State Pension - see the difference that receiving the full new State Pension could make to your pension projection.

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Retirement Living Standards: compare your goal with Pensions UK's Retirement Living Standards, which show what a Minimum, Moderate or Comfortable retirement could cost.

Assumptions

Knowing what’s behind your numbers helps you understand them and how they could change. The Pension Calculator assumes:

5% annual growth, unless you choose 3% or 8%;
2.5% annual inflation;
0.7% annual management fee;
a 25% tax top up on eligible personal contributions;
if included, we assume you’ll get the full new State Pension (which usually requires 35 qualifying years of National Insurance), rising with inflation, from age 67 (rising to 68 between 2044 and 2046);
a life expectancy of 100; and
that your monthly contributions rise in line with inflation, so that they keep the same value in today’s money.

Get your pension projection

You don’t need to have exact numbers; you can always look them up and adjust later. Start with even a rough idea of how much you have in your pension now and how much you’re currently paying in. It only takes a few minutes to see how much you might need for a happy retirement. Try the Pension Calculator today.

Risk warning

As always with investments, your capital is at risk. The value of your investment can go down as well as up, and you may get back less than you invest. This information should not be regarded as financial advice.

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Period	Market Event	FTSE World TR GBP (%)	4Plus Plan (%)
4Plus Plan’s inception – 6 Sept 2013	QE Tapering, China Interbank Crisis and its aftermath	-5.44	-2.41
3 Oct 2014 – 15 May 2015	Oil price drop, Eurozone deflation fears & Greek election outcome	-5.87	-1.77
7 Jan 2016 – 14 Mar 2016	China’s currency policy turmoil, collapse in oil prices and weak US activity	-7.26	-1.54
15 June 2016 – 30 June 2016	BREXIT referendum	-2.05	-1.07

Period	Market Event	FTSE World TR GBP (%)	4Plus Plan (%)
4Plus Plan’s inception – 6 Sept 2013	QE Tapering, China Interbank Crisis and its aftermath	-5.44	-2.41
3 Oct 2014 – 15 May 2015	Oil price drop, Eurozone deflation fears & Greek election outcome	-5.87	-1.77
7 Jan 2016 – 14 Mar 2016	China’s currency policy turmoil, collapse in oil prices and weak US activity	-7.26	-1.54
15 June 2016 – 30 June 2016	BREXIT referendum	-2.05	-1.07