Social Security at 62, 67, or 70: What Each One Pays
See what claiming at 62, at your full retirement age, and at 70 would pay each month and each year, worked from the benefit figure on your own Social Security statement. Includes the break-even math between any two of them, and an honest account of what that break-even age leaves out. Estimate only.
Works offline — your inputs never leave this device. How that works
Your figures
The monthly figure at full retirement age, taken from your own Social Security statement at ssa.gov. We use the number the agency gave you rather than estimating our own, so this can never disagree with what SSA tells you.
Your full retirement age comes from this, and everything else is measured from there.
Saved figures stay in this browser and fill in the other calculators here. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no account to make.
What each age pays
At 62
$1,400
$16,800 a year · 70% of your full amount
At 67 — your full retirement age
$2,000
$24,000 a year · 100% of your full amount
At 70
$2,480
$29,760 a year · 124% of your full amount
Claiming at 70 pays $1,080 more a month than claiming at 62 — about 77% larger — and the difference is permanent. Claiming early is not a mistake, though; it buys years of income you would otherwise have to fund some other way.
Every claiming age from 62 to 70
Benefits do not step up once a year — they build every month you wait. Almost nobody claims exactly on a birthday, and this is where a spare quarter turns out to be worth something.
| Claiming age | Each month | Each year | Share of your full amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62 | $1,400 | $16,800 | 70% |
| 63 | $1,500 | $18,000 | 75% |
| 64 | $1,600 | $19,200 | 80% |
| 65 | $1,733 | $20,800 | 86.7% |
| 66 | $1,867 | $22,400 | 93.3% |
| 67full retirement age | $2,000 | $24,000 | 100% |
| 68 | $2,160 | $25,920 | 108% |
| 69 | $2,320 | $27,840 | 116% |
| 70 | $2,480 | $29,760 | 124% |
Where two of them cross
The totals cross at age 80 years 4 months
Before that age, claiming at 62 has paid more in total. After it, claiming at 70 is ahead and stays ahead.
On the average of both columns of the Social Security actuaries' life table, someone alive at 62 has roughly a 67% chance of reaching 80.
A crossover age is arithmetic, not an answer. The section below sets out the four things it leaves out, and the full break-even calculator adds the mortality-weighted view.
| By age | At 62 | At 70 | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | $303,800 | $300,080 | −$3,720 |
| 85 | $387,800 | $448,880 | +$61,080 |
| 90 | $471,800 | $597,680 | +$125,880 |
| 95 | $555,800 | $746,480 | +$190,680 |
What a break-even age does not tell you
Social Security used to publish a break-even calculator and withdrew it, reportedly because people were making poor decisions from it. That concern is fair, and it is the reason this section sits beside the answer rather than underneath it.
- It assumes you know how long you will live
- A break-even age only tells you which choice pays more IF you live past it. Nobody knows that. The Actuaries Longevity Illustrator, from the American Academy of Actuaries, will give you a probability range for your own health and family history — which is a more honest input than a single guess.
- It ignores the insurance value of waiting
- Claiming later is protection against living a long time and running short, which is the expensive risk. Break-even treats that protection as worth nothing, because it only counts dollars collected.
- It says nothing about your spouse
- When one of a married couple dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two benefits, not both. So the higher earner's claiming age sets the survivor's income for the rest of their life. For many couples that matters more than the break-even age does.
- It leaves out taxes and Medicare
- Up to 85% of your benefit can be taxable depending on your other income, and a larger benefit can push you over an IRMAA threshold and raise your Medicare premium two years later. Neither is in this arithmetic.
- It assumes you do not need the money now
- Waiting is only an option if you can cover the gap years some other way. If claiming early is what lets you stop working or avoid drawing down savings at a bad time, that is a real consideration this chart cannot see.
The consequence most comparisons leave out
If you are married, the higher earner's claiming age sets the income the survivor lives on after the first death, because a surviving spouse keeps the larger of the two benefits rather than both. For plenty of couples that outweighs the break-even age entirely, and the survivor benefits page works it through with your own figures.
Couples
A surviving spouse keeps the LARGER of the two benefits, so the higher earner's claiming age sets the floor the survivor lives on for life.
Where to go for more than this page does
This calculator is deliberately simple: one number in, a clear comparison out. These do things it does not, and all of them are free.
- Your Social Security statement (ssa.gov) ↗
The benefit figure every calculator here starts from. Sign in and read it off your own statement.
- SSA's own benefit estimators ↗
The agency's calculators, including the quick estimate and the detailed one that works from your earnings record.
- ssa.tools ↗
A free, independent tool that reads your earnings record in your browser and shows exactly how the benefit formula produced your number. Better than ours at that particular job.
- Open Social Security ↗
A free, open-source calculator that finds the claiming strategy with the highest expected present value, including spousal and survivor benefits. Where to go when you want the fuller treatment.
- Actuaries Longevity Illustrator ↗
From the American Academy of Actuaries: a probability range for your own longevity based on your health and habits, which is a more honest input than a single guessed age.
Verified 2026-08-02 against SSA — Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2026 (effective 2026-01-01)
Estimate only — not financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice. Only SSA can determine your actual amounts.
Official source: SSA — Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2026 ↗
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
Puts the three claiming ages people actually compare side by side — 62, your full retirement age, and 70 — showing the monthly and annual amount each would pay, and what the gap between them adds up to over a retirement.
How it works
Claiming before full retirement age reduces the benefit by five-ninths of one percent for each of the first thirty-six months early, then five-twelfths of one percent for each month beyond that. Waiting past full retirement age adds eight percent a year until seventy, when the credits stop. Those fractions are set in law and are stored as fractions rather than rounded decimals, because rounding drifts by a few dollars a month over a retirement.
Getting the most from it
- Enter the benefit figure from your Social Security statement.
- Enter your birth year, which determines your full retirement age.
- Compare the three amounts, then look at the month-by-month table if your plan does not fall on a birthday.
- Follow the link to the break-even view to see how the running totals cross over.
Reading your result
The percentages are permanent. Claiming at sixty-two does not mean a lower benefit until sixty-seven; it means a lower benefit for the rest of your life, and a lower survivor benefit after that. The month-by-month table matters because almost nobody claims exactly on a birthday, and a single extra quarter is often worth more than people expect.
What it can't tell you
These are the three headline ages, not a recommendation. Health, whether you are still working, whether you have a spouse, and whether you can bridge the gap years from savings all bear on the decision and none of them appear here. The figures also assume your benefit estimate is accurate, which depends on the earnings record Social Security holds for you.
Frequently asked questions
For someone whose full retirement age is 67, claiming at 62 pays 70% of the full amount and claiming at 70 pays 124%. The later check is therefore about 77% larger than the earlier one, before any cost-of-living increases are applied to either.
Related calculators
Break-even
Enter the benefit printed on your own Social Security statement and see the age at which claiming later overtakes claiming earlier, in plain cumulative dollars and again weighted by the chance of living to collect. This is an estimate, and the panel beside it names the four things a break-even age cannot tell you.
Full retirement age
Your full retirement age is set by the year you were born, from 65 for people born before 1938 to 67 for anyone born in 1960 or later. Enter your birth year to see yours, the whole statutory table it comes from, and what claiming at 62 or at 70 would do to your benefit.
Survivor benefits
When one spouse dies, the survivor keeps the larger of the two Social Security benefits, not both. Enter what each of you receives to see the household income that would remain, the monthly drop in each case, and how the higher earner's claiming age sets the survivor's floor for life. Estimate only.
Earnings test
If you claim Social Security before full retirement age and keep working, some of your benefit is withheld once your earnings pass the annual limit. Enter your expected earnings to see how much. The part people are rarely told: what is withheld is added back to your monthly benefit at full retirement age. Estimate only.
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