Growing your money is only half the story — inflation quietly shrinks what those future dollars can buy. This calculator shows both the nominal future value and its real value in today's purchasing power.
The standard future value of money tells you how many dollars you will have later. But dollars in the future do not buy as much as dollars today, because inflation steadily raises prices. The inflation-adjusted future value — the real value — corrects for that, converting the future dollar amount back into today's purchasing power so you can see what it is truly worth.
This calculator shows both numbers side by side: the nominal future value your money grows to, and the real value once inflation is stripped out. For the raw, nominal figure on its own, the future value of money calculator covers that, and the homepage compound interest calculator also builds inflation into a fuller projection.
Every future value has two readings, and this calculator reports both:
The difference — roughly $18,026 here — is not money you lose from the account. It is the purchasing power that inflation quietly erodes. Watching both figures keeps a big nominal number from creating a false sense of how far it will really stretch.
Four inputs drive the result:
The result shows the nominal future value, the real value in today's money, and the purchasing power lost to inflation. Returns are compounded monthly. Open the breakdown to see the two values diverge year by year.
It is a two-step calculation. First grow the money to its nominal future value:
Then discount that back into today's purchasing power using the inflation rate:
Here PV is the amount today, r is the annual return, n is the number of compounding periods per year, i is the annual inflation rate, and t is the number of years. The second step is the same discounting used for present value — here it is applied to inflation rather than to a rate of return. The future value formula guide covers the growth step in detail.
Here is $10,000 growing at 7 percent, compounded monthly, alongside its real value after 3 percent annual inflation. The two figures drift further apart the longer the money is invested.
| Years | Nominal value | Real value (today's money) | Power lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 years | $14,176 | $12,229 | $1,948 |
| 10 years | $20,097 | $14,954 | $5,143 |
| 20 years | $40,387 | $22,362 | $18,026 |
| 30 years | $81,165 | $33,439 | $47,726 |
After 30 years the nominal balance looks like $81,165, but in today's money it is worth about $33,439. The money still grows in real terms — because 7 percent beats 3 percent — just far less dramatically than the headline number implies.
Real value is highly sensitive to the inflation rate you assume. Here is the same $10,000 at 7 percent over 20 years — nominal value about $40,387 in every row — shown in today's money at different inflation rates:
| Inflation rate | Real value after 20 years |
|---|---|
| 2% | $27,180 |
| 3% | $22,362 |
| 4% | $18,432 |
| 5% | $15,222 |
Moving from 2 percent to 5 percent inflation nearly halves the real value, even though the nominal figure never changes. That is why testing a higher inflation rate is worthwhile when the time horizon is long.
The concepts behind the numbers — read the full library in the Learn hub.
The growth engine behind the nominal figure, explained with worked examples.
Guide · InvestingThe single-sum growth formula this calculator applies before adjusting for inflation.
Guide · InvestingA step-by-step walkthrough of projecting money forward in time.
Guide · InvestingHow regular deposits grow over time when you add money on a schedule.
Keep exploring — every tool below is free and works the same way.
The nominal-only companion — project what a single sum grows to before inflation.
InvestingSee how money grows with compound interest, contributions, tax and inflation together.
InvestingConvert between present value and future value of money in either direction.
InvestingProject what a stream of regular payments grows to, ordinary or annuity due.
InvestingProject a portfolio's future value with regular contributions and compounding returns.
SavingsWatch a savings account grow over time with regular deposits and a chosen APY.