US Social Security COLA 2027: What Your Check Becomes

The COLA isn't a flat amount. It's a percentage of what you already get, so bigger checks get bigger raises. Social Security also rounds in your disfavor twice: the raised amount is cut down to the next lower dime, and the payment itself is cut down to the whole dollar. That's why a raise can come out a dollar short of a simple 3.6%.

A few rows worth reading closely:

• A $1,000 check becomes $1,036, a raise of $36 a month.
• A $2,000 check becomes $2,072. That's $72 a month, or $864 over the whole of 2027.
• A $4,000 check, close to the most anyone gets at full retirement age, becomes $4,144. The raise is $144 a month and $1,728 over the year.

If your check isn't in the table, multiply it by 1 plus the COLA and drop the cents. You'll land within a dollar of what Social Security sends, because it applies the COLA to your unrounded benefit rather than to the rounded check you see.

Social Security publishes its own estimates of the average benefit before and after the COLA. These are its figures, shown as printed:

The average retired worker goes from $2,095 to $2,170. An aged couple who both collect benefits go from $3,238 to $3,355, a raise of $117 a month. A widow or widower living alone gets $2,005, and the average disabled worker gets $1,701, up $59.

The raises line up with the size of the check. A widowed mother with two children, whose household gets $4,074 after the COLA, sees one of the largest dollar raises at $142 a month. A disabled worker on an average check sees one of the smallest. The percentage is the same for everyone.

The raise applies to benefits for December 2026, which Social Security pays in January 2027. So your first bigger Social Security payment arrives in January, on your usual payment date.

SSI works differently. People on Supplemental Security Income get their higher payment starting with the one dated 31 December 2026. The federal SSI payment for one person rises from $994 to $1,029 a month, and for a couple from $1,491 to $1,544.

You can see your own new amount in your my Social Security account from late November. If you don't use the online account, Social Security mails the notice in December.

For most retirees on Medicare, yes, some of it. The Part B premium usually comes straight out of the Social Security check, so what lands in your bank account is the new check minus the new premium.

Medicare hasn't announced the 2027 Part B premium yet. It usually does in November. In 2026 the standard premium is $202.90 a month. If the 2027 premium goes up, your net raise will be smaller than the figures above, and if you pay a higher premium because of income-related surcharges, more of it could go. We'll update this page with net figures once the premium is out. Meanwhile, the Medicare Part B premium calculator shows what you pay on 2026 figures.

The COLA gets the headlines, but several other figures move on 1 January too. Most of them rise with average wages rather than prices, so they don't move by exactly 3.6%.

The ones most people notice:

• The taxable maximum. Social Security tax applies to earnings up to $192,300 in 2027, up $7,800 from $184,500. A worker earning that much or more pays $11,922.60 in Social Security tax for the year, against $11,439.00 in 2026.
• The earnings limit if you claim early and keep working. It rises from $24,480 to $25,560 if you're under full retirement age all year, and from $65,160 to $67,920 in the year you reach it.
• The maximum benefit at full retirement age. It goes from $4,152 to $4,188 a month.
• Work credits. You earn one credit for each $1,970 of earnings in 2027, up to four a year, so $7,880 earns the full four.
• Disability earnings limits. Substantial gainful activity rises to $1,770 a month, or $2,950 if you're blind.

If you've claimed early and you're still working, the higher earnings limit means a little less is held back. We ran our Social Security earnings test calculator for a worker born in 1964 with a $2,400 full benefit who claims at 62 and keeps earning $50,000 a year until full retirement age.

On 2026 limits the earnings test holds back $63,800 before full retirement age. On 2027 limits it holds back $61,100, which is $2,700 less. Either way the money isn't lost: once you reach full retirement age, your check is recalculated to make up for the months that were withheld. The calculator now has a Tax Year choice, so you can run your own numbers on either year's limits.

All figures come from Social Security's 2027 COLA fact sheet, which prints both the 2026 and 2027 values, held in our engine table for 2027.

• Check sizes apply the 3.6% COLA to the monthly check, round down to the dime and then to the dollar, as section 215 of the Social Security Act requires. Social Security applies the COLA to your unrounded benefit, so your real check can differ by a dollar.
• Averages are Social Security's own estimates for January 2027. We don't recompute them.
• No Medicare premium is taken off, because the 2027 Part B premium isn't announced yet.
• The earnings test comparison holds each year's limits for every year up to full retirement age and assumes steady earnings. Future limits haven't been set.
• Income tax on benefits isn't included. Part of your benefits can be taxable depending on your other income; the Social Security tax calculator works that out.

To see how the COLA changes the payoff from claiming at different ages, enter your benefit and a COLA in the Social Security breakeven calculator. To see how Social Security fits with your savings, use the retirement calculator.