How much is OAS in Canada?
The maximum Old Age Security pension is $751.97 a month from 65 to 74 and $827.17 from 75, for July to September 2026. Almost everything written about OAS stops there, which is unhelpful, because what you receive is a fraction of that maximum and the fraction is easy to work out.
Your Old Age Security
- Full pension at your age
- $751.97
- Your share of it (40/40)
- 100%
- Before the recovery tax
- $751.97
- Recovery tax
- none
The recovery tax starts above $95,323 of net income and takes the last dollar of your pension at $155,481.
The whole calculation is one fraction
OAS never looks at your earnings. It counts the years you lived in Canada after your 18th birthday and pays you that many fortieths of the full pension. Thirty years in Canada is 30/40 — three quarters — and no salary, contribution record or employer has any bearing on it.
40 years earns the full pension. Below 10 years there is no pension at all if you are in Canada, and below 20 if you are living abroad — a distinction most calculators skip, and the one that matters to anyone retiring outside the country.
Three things move the number
- Turning 75. The pension rises by 10% permanently in the month after your 75th birthday — $751.97 becomes $827.17 at the maximum.
- Waiting. Each month you delay past 65 adds 0.6%, up to 36% at 70. Unlike CPP there is no option to start early: 65 is the floor.
- The recovery tax. Net income above $95,323 takes 15¢ back from every further dollar.
The recovery tax, precisely
Above $95,323 of net world income — the 2026 threshold — you repay 15 cents of each additional dollar until nothing is left. For the 2025 income year the CRA put that vanishing point at $152,062 for ages 65 to 74 and $157,923 from 75.
What that hides is the effective rate. Fifteen cents of recovery sits on top of the income tax on the same dollar, so a retiree inside the band can face a marginal rate near 60% while believing they are in a much lower bracket. The retirement planner shows the year-by-year version of that.
What this page does not cover
The Guaranteed Income Supplement, the Allowance and the Allowance for the Survivor are separate income-tested benefits paid alongside OAS. They are not modelled here, and a page that quietly folded them in would give a number no one could reconcile with their own deposit.
Amounts are the July to September 2026 figures. OAS is re-indexed to the Consumer Price Index every January, April, July and October, so the maximum moves four times a year — one reason a figure copied from a blog post is so often out of date.
Common questions
How much is OAS in Canada?
For July to September 2026 the maximum Old Age Security pension is $751.97 a month from age 65 to 74, and $827.17 from 75. Those are maximums: what you actually receive is that figure multiplied by your years of residence in Canada after 18, divided by 40. Someone who lived in Canada for 25 of those years receives 25/40ths of it.
Does OAS start at 65 or 67?
65. The confusion is real and has a cause: a rise to 67 was legislated in 2012 and then cancelled, with Budget 2016 restoring the age of eligibility from 67 back to 65. You can choose to start later — up to 70 — and the pension grows 0.6% for every month you wait, to 36% more at 70. There is no advantage to waiting past 70.
How many years do you have to live in Canada to get OAS?
10 years after age 18 if you are living in Canada when you apply, and 20 years if you are living outside it. 40 years gets the full pension; anything between the minimum and 40 gets that fraction of it.
Is OAS taxable?
Yes. Old Age Security is taxable income. It arrives on a T4A(OAS) slip and is reported in box 18, on line 11300 of the return. This catches people who arranged no tax withholding on it and then met an unexpected balance owing.
What income triggers the OAS clawback?
Net world income above $95,323 for the 2026 income year. Above that you repay 15 cents of every additional dollar through the recovery tax, until the pension is gone. For the 2025 income year the CRA put the point where it disappears entirely at $152,062 for ages 65 to 74 and $157,923 from 75.
Is OAS the same for everyone?
No, and this is the commonest misreading. CPP depends on what you earned and contributed; OAS depends only on how long you lived in Canada. Two people with identical careers get identical OAS if they lived here the same length of time, and quite different OAS if one of them spent fifteen years abroad.
How much is OAS compared with CPP?
The OAS maximum, $751.97 a month at 65, is roughly 50% of the maximum CPP retirement pension of $1,507.65. In practice the comparison usually runs the other way: almost nobody reaches the CPP maximum, while a full career in Canada does reach the OAS one.
Amounts, residence rules and the deferral increase are from the Old Age Security benefit amount pages; the recovery tax thresholds are the CRA's published figures. Checked 19 August 2026. This is an estimate, not a statement of entitlement from Service Canada, and not tax advice.