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CalPERS retirement calculator

Work out your CalPERS pension from your formula, the age you retire and your years of service, and how much it lowers the savings you need to stop work for good.

Retiring at 60 on Local Miscellaneous — 2% at 55 with 25 years of service credit, your CalPERS pension before tax:

$4,713 a month

That is 2.262% a year of service x 25 years = 56.55% of a final compensation of $100,000, or $56,550 a year, shown in today's money.

It takes $1,413,750 off the pot you need: $336,250 instead of $1,750,000 to stop work for good at 60 on $70,000 a year.

The pot covers the $13,450 a year the pension leaves, at a 4% withdrawal rate.

CalPERS pays a yearly cost-of-living raise, but no more than the rate your employer contracted for, compounded, and no more than inflation since you retired. This page counts no raise: it shows the pension flat in today's money, which assumes it keeps its full buying power. That is the generous assumption, not a cautious one.

Not modeled: the CalPERS options (an unmodified allowance or a choice that provides for a survivor), cost-of-living raises (the pension is shown flat, in today's money), Social Security, the reduction CalPERS makes to final compensation on some formulas for members who also pay into Social Security, buying service credit, how CalPERS works out final compensation, any limit on the pay that counts (CalPERS says the final compensation amount it can use “may be limited by Retirement Law, Internal Revenue Code (IRC) section 401(a)(17), or both”, with lower limits for members under PEPRA, so a high salary can give a smaller pension than shown; this page uses the pay you type), and income tax.

Also not modeled: retiring from CalPERS and another system on the same day (CalPERS says the benefit could then be based on your highest compensation under all of them), and your service changing between the day you stop work and the day the benefit starts (the page adds none: it uses the service you type), and prices rising faster or slower than the inflation you set for that wait. Retiree health coverage and unused sick leave credit have their own timing rule that a long wait can break: see the question on stopping work years before the pension starts.

Your own estimate in myCalPERS is the figure to trust over this one. CalPERS says it may include projected pay and service, so check which it uses.

The link carries your figures after the #, so you can save or share it. Your figures are not sent to us.

A pension in your fifties changes the number

A pension that starts when you stop work is income your savings never have to provide, at the amount it starts at. At the 4% rule each dollar of it is 25 dollars less in the pot; when the pot that has to last to 100 is larger, that pot is used instead.

On most formulas the benefit factor rises with the age you retire, up to the top age CalPERS prints, so a later start pays more for every year of service. The two 3% at 50 formulas pay the same 3% at every age. Try a few ages, and the age you stop paid work: the pot you need is worked out for that age.

Questions people ask

How is a CalPERS pension worked out?
Your years of service credit times your benefit factor times your final compensation. The benefit factor, also called the age factor, is the percentage of pay you earn for each year of service. It depends on the retirement formula that applies to you and your age when you retire, in quarter-years of age.
Which CalPERS formula am I in?
It depends on your classification and on your membership date with each employer. Your CalPERS Annual Member Statement shows it, or your personnel office can. This page lists the 32 formulas CalPERS publishes a benefit-factor chart for.
Is this my CalPERS estimate?
No. It is a planning figure from the formula and the numbers you type in. For an estimate that uses the data your employer already reported to CalPERS, log in to your myCalPERS account. That is the figure to trust. CalPERS says its estimate may include projected pay and service. If you stop work before the pension starts, it is the amount paid at the start, not today's money, so it reads higher than this page's figure, by the inflation you set compounded over the wait.
What if I stop work years before my pension starts?
CalPERS works the pension on your highest average annual compensation during any consecutive 12 or 36 months of your CalPERS career, from the compensation posted to its system: the pension itself does not include projected pay or service. Its cost-of-living raise begins in the second calendar year after you retire. So pay you do not earn after you leave, and a raise you do not yet get, add nothing while you wait. This page holds your final compensation at the day you leave and shows the pension in today's money after the inflation you set for the wait: an assumption of yours, not a figure from CalPERS. If prices rise faster than that, the pension is worth less than shown. One thing a long wait can cost that this page does not model: CalPERS says retiree health coverage needs a retirement date within 120 days of your last day of employment, and unused sick leave counts toward the pension only inside the same window. Check both with CalPERS before you plan to stop work years ahead.
What does the pension do to the savings I need?
A pension that is running by the time you stop work is a yearly income your savings never have to provide. At the 4% rule each dollar of it is 25 dollars less in the pot; when the pot that has to last to 100 is larger, that pot is used instead.

Sources, from CalPERS: benefit factor charts (one PDF for each formula), read on October 27, 2026, and the cost-of-living page on the raise, and the planning guide and the service retirement FAQ on how the benefit is worked out.