Methodology
Every number this site produces comes from the formulas below and the statutory parameters listed at the end. Nothing is hidden, because the most common complaint about CPP calculators is that you cannot tell whether to trust them.
1. The contributory period
Your contributory period runs from the later of the month you turn 18 and January 1966, to the month your pension begins. Taking the pension at 60 shortens it; deferring to 70 lengthens it, subject to the over-65 rule below.
2. Indexing earnings to today
Earnings in each year are first capped at that year's ceiling, then multiplied by the ratio of the five-year average ceiling to that year's ceiling. This converts a 1987 salary into what it represents in current wage terms. The five-year average used is the ceiling for the year the pension starts and the four years before it.
3. Drop-outs, and the order they run in
This is where calculators most often go wrong, so it is worth being explicit. The steps run in this order:
- Disability months are removed outright.
- Child-rearing months — months while a child under seven was in your care — are removed, but only where the month's earnings are below the average of what would otherwise remain. Removing a high-earning month would lower your pension, so the provision never does that.
- Months after 65 are removed where they fall below that same average. This is what makes working past 65 a one-way bet, and why not working between 65 and 70 never reduces your pension.
- The general drop-out then removes the lowest-earning 17% of the months that survived steps 1 to 3.
The failure this ordering guards against is subtle: computing the child-rearing months correctly, then dropping that many of the worst months overall while never applying the general drop-out. That produces a materially lower estimate for exactly the people — usually mothers — for whom the provision was written. There is a test in this codebase that asserts the general drop-out is applied on top of the child-rearing exclusion, not instead of it.
4. From average earnings to a pension
The surviving months are averaged to give average monthly pensionable earnings. The base plan pays 25% of that. Two enhancement components sit on top:
First additional. Contributions from 2019 accrue an extra 8.33 percentage points of replacement over forty years. The enhancement phased in as the contribution rate rose from 4.95% to 5.95% between 2019 and 2023, so each of those years accrues in proportion — 15% of a full year in 2019, 30% in 2020, 50% in 2021, 75% in 2022, and fully from 2023.
Second additional. From 2024 a second ceiling applies. Earnings between the two ceilings replace at 33.33%, again accrued over forty years. Someone who has never earned above the first ceiling gets nothing from this component, correctly.
5. Starting early or late
The total is reduced by 0.6% for each month before 65 and increased by 0.7% for each month after, giving −36% at 60 and +42% at 70. The adjustment applies to all three components.
6. Comparing start ages honestly
A pension starting in 2035 is indexed to 2035 wage levels, so quoting it beside a pension starting in 2025 makes deferral look better than it is — by roughly a decade of wage growth. Every comparison and breakeven on this site pins both figures to a single indexing year so the numbers are like for like. Breakevens are cumulative dollars received, with an optional real return, and assume the money is not spent.
7. What this deliberately does not model
Post-retirement benefits from working while collecting; the international agreements that credit foreign residence; survivor and combined-benefit maximums; splitting on separation; and provincial equivalents such as QPP, which has its own rules. If your situation involves any of these, the estimate here is a starting point rather than an answer.
8. Verification
The calculator is checked automatically against two published anchors: a career at the ceiling from 18 to 65 must land within 1% of the maximum pension published for the year it starts, and a career at about 58% of the ceiling must land near the average pension actually paid. The current figures are a maximum of $1,507.65 a month at 65 and an average of $877.01.
9. Statutory parameters
Earnings ceilings
| Year | Ceiling (YMPE) | Second ceiling (YAMPE) |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $74,600 | $85,000 |
| 2025 | $71,300 | $81,200 |
| 2024 | $68,500 | $73,200 |
| 2023 | $66,600 | — |
| 2022 | $64,900 | — |
| 2021 | $61,600 | — |
| 2020 | $58,700 | — |
| 2019 | $57,400 | — |
| 2018 | $55,900 | — |
| 2017 | $55,300 | — |
| 2016 | $54,900 | — |
| 2015 | $53,600 | — |
| 2014 | $52,500 | — |
| 2013 | $51,100 | — |
| 2012 | $50,100 | — |
| 2011 | $48,300 | — |
| 2010 | $47,200 | — |
| 2009 | $46,300 | — |
| 2008 | $44,900 | — |
| 2007 | $43,700 | — |
| 2006 | $42,100 | — |
| 2005 | $41,100 | — |
| 2004 | $40,500 | — |
| 2003 | $39,900 | — |
| 2002 | $39,100 | — |
| 2001 | $38,300 | — |
| 2000 | $37,600 | — |
| 1999 | $37,400 | — |
| 1998 | $36,900 | — |
| 1997 | $35,800 | — |
| 1996 | $35,400 | — |
| 1995 | $34,900 | — |
| 1994 | $34,400 | — |
| 1993 | $33,400 | — |
| 1992 | $32,200 | — |
| 1991 | $30,500 | — |
| 1990 | $28,900 | — |
| 1989 | $27,700 | — |
| 1988 | $26,500 | — |
| 1987 | $25,900 | — |
| 1986 | $25,800 | — |
| 1985 | $23,400 | — |
| 1984 | $20,800 | — |
| 1983 | $18,500 | — |
| 1982 | $16,500 | — |
| 1981 | $14,700 | — |
| 1980 | $13,100 | — |
| 1979 | $11,700 | — |
| 1978 | $10,400 | — |
| 1977 | $9,300 | — |
| 1976 | $8,300 | — |
| 1975 | $7,400 | — |
| 1974 | $6,600 | — |
| 1973 | $5,900 | — |
| 1972 | $5,500 | — |
| 1971 | $5,400 | — |
| 1970 | $5,300 | — |
| 1969 | $5,200 | — |
| 1968 | $5,100 | — |
| 1967 | $5,000 | — |
| 1966 | $5,000 | — |
10. When this was last checked
Statutory parameters were verified against Canada Revenue Agency publications for the 2026 tax year. Ceilings change every January; Old Age Security amounts are re-indexed quarterly. If you are reading this well after 2026, check the figures in section 9 against the current published tables before relying on the output.