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Real Return Calculator

What an investment gain is worth once rising prices are taken out, measured with the Consumer Price Index from 1913 to September 2026.

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What you know
$
Examples from the data
Gold and silver: annual average prices, World Bank. Cash: no interest.
Real gain, in September 2026 dollars
$0
Share of the gain on paper taken by inflation
0%Nominal return a year
0%Real return a year
0 ptsInflation drag a year

Nominal and real value

On paperRealLost to inflationStarting amount
Real value is what the balance buys at start-year prices. The path assumes a steady return each year between the start and end values. CPI-U, BLS

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How it works

The calculator sets what an investment is worth on paper against what that money buys. It deflates the ending value by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), the Bureau of Labor Statistics index behind the headline inflation rate.

  • Nominal gain is the ending value minus the starting amount.
  • Real gain is the ending value minus the starting amount scaled up by the rise in the CPI, the sum needed just to keep pace with prices. It is shown in September 2026 dollars, whatever the end year.
  • Real return a year is the compound yearly rate at which the ending value outgrew prices: the ending value divided by that keep-pace sum, raised to the power of one over the number of years, minus one.
  • Inflation drag is the nominal return a year minus the real return a year, in percentage points.

Past years use the annual average index, which centres on the middle of the year, so 2000 to 2010 counts as ten years. September 2026 uses the latest monthly index (336.94, not seasonally adjusted), and the period runs to the middle of that month. The series starts in 1913.

Taxes, fees and dividends are left out. The CPI measures consumer prices, not the prices of homes bought as investments, stocks or gold. The gold and silver examples use the World Bank's annual average prices, without dealer or storage costs.

Sources

  1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics: CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), series CUUR0000SA0
  2. World Bank: Commodity Price Data (The Pink Sheet), gold and silver prices

Questions readers ask

What is a real rate of return?

The return after inflation: how much more an investment buys at the end than it did at the start. If $10,000 from 2000 had grown to $20,000 by 2025, the gain on paper would be 100%. Consumer prices rose 87.0% over those years, so the real gain would be 7.0%, about 0.27% a year.

How do you calculate an inflation-adjusted return?

Divide one plus the nominal return by one plus the inflation rate, then subtract one. A 7% return in 2025, when prices rose 2.6% on annual averages, works out to a real return of 4.3%. Subtracting inflation from the return gives nearly the same answer while both rates are small.

What return keeps up with inflation?

One that matches the rise in consumer prices over the same years. On annual averages, prices rose 3.1% a year from 2015 to 2025, 2.5% a year from 2000 to 2025 and 3.2% a year from 1913 to 2025. A return below the rate for its period lost purchasing power.

Did gold beat inflation since 2000?

Yes, on annual average prices. Gold averaged $279.03 an ounce in 2000 and $3,441.51 in 2025, a gain of 1,133% on paper. Consumer prices rose 87% over those years, so the real gain was 560%, or 7.8% a year.

Did silver keep up with inflation since 1980?

No, on annual average prices. Silver averaged $20.80 an ounce in 1980 and $39.80 in 2025, up 91% on paper. Consumer prices rose 291% over those years, so an ounce of silver bought 51% less in 2025 than in 1980.

Keep reading

Guide · 28 Oct 2026CPI Explained: What the Consumer Price Index Measures and How It Is CalculatedThe index behind Social Security raises, I bond rates and most inflation headlines: how it is put together, whose spending it reflects, and where its critics have a point.Guide · 28 Oct 2026Inflation Rate 2026: Month by Month, and What Drove ItEach monthly CPI reading for 2026 with its release date, the energy shock behind the rise, how the Federal Reserve responded, and when the next figures land.Guide · 28 Oct 2026What Causes Inflation: Demand, Costs, Money and ExpectationsThe five forces that push prices up, how each showed in the 2021 to 2023 surge, and which of them sit behind the 3.7 percent inflation rate of September 2026.CalculatorInflation CalculatorWhat money from any year is worth today.Self-checkDollar Exposure ScorecardEight questions on how much rides on the dollar.ChartInflation Rate by YearAnnual CPI inflation from 1914 to the latest release.

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