Enter your Full Retirement Age benefit estimate and see how claiming earlier or later adjusts your monthly and annual Social Security income.
Claiming before your Full Retirement Age (FRA) permanently reduces your monthly benefit below 100%, while delaying past FRA (up to age 70, beyond which there's no further benefit to waiting) permanently increases it above 100%. The reduction for claiming early is 5/9 of 1% per month for the first 36 months early, then 5/12 of 1% per month for any additional months beyond that. The credit for delaying is 2/3 of 1% per month (8% per year) past FRA. These percentages are set by the Social Security Administration and apply on top of your FRA benefit amount.
Full Retirement Age is the age at which you receive exactly 100% of your calculated benefit — no reduction for claiming early, no bonus for delaying. FRA is currently 66-67 depending on your birth year (67 for anyone born in 1960 or later), and is set by law under the Social Security Act. You can still claim as early as 62 or as late as 70, but your monthly amount is adjusted accordingly in either direction.
There's no single right answer — it genuinely depends on your health, other sources of income, and how long you expect to live. Claiming early gives you more years of smaller monthly payments; waiting gives you fewer years of larger monthly payments. The two strategies are designed to roughly balance out in total lifetime benefit around average life expectancy, so the decision usually comes down to personal circumstances — such as needing income sooner, or wanting to maximize a longer expected lifespan or a survivor benefit — rather than one approach being objectively better for everyone.
Your real FRA benefit estimate, calculated from your actual lifetime earnings history, is available for free from your Social Security statement at ssa.gov. This calculator only applies the standard early/delayed claiming percentage adjustment to a benefit amount you supply — it does not calculate that base benefit from earnings history itself, so plug in the number from your actual statement for a meaningful result.
Worked example: with a $2,000 FRA benefit and an FRA of 67, claiming at 62 means 60 months early — the first 36 months at 5/9% each (20 percentage points) plus the remaining 24 months at 5/12% each (10 percentage points), a 30-point reduction, leaving a 70% multiplier: 2,000 × 0.70 = $1,400/month ($16,800/year). Waiting until 70 instead means 36 months late at 2/3% each, a 24-point increase to a 124% multiplier: 2,000 × 1.24 = $2,480/month ($29,760/year) — a $1,080/month difference between the earliest and latest claiming ages on the same base benefit. See the Retirement Calculator to see how this income fits into your broader retirement plan.