Inflation Calculator
Compare purchasing power across Australian CPI periods, or model future costs and income under your own inflation assumption.
Amount to compare
Comparison period
Your assumption, held constant each year.
Results
Equivalent amount
$134,320
2015-16 to 2025-26Cumulative inflation
34.32%
Signed change from your start periodCPI index ratio
1.3432
End index divided by start index$100,000 in 2015-16 has the same CPI purchasing power as $134,320 in 2025-26.
Correct the marked input to calculate purchasing power.
Purchasing power over time
The equivalent cost of the original amount across the selected periods.
The equivalent amount changes from $100,000 in 2015-16 to $134,320 in 2025-26.
Period comparison
Table amounts show cents. CSV exports every row.
| Period | CPI index | Equivalent amount |
|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | 75.205 | $100,000.00 |
| 2016-17 | 76.4925 | $101,711.99 |
| 2017-18 | 77.98 | $103,689.91 |
| 2018-19 | 79.25 | $105,378.63 |
| 2019-20 | 80.3225 | $106,804.73 |
| 2020-21 | 81.6025 | $108,506.75 |
| 2021-22 | 85.26 | $113,370.12 |
| 2022-23 | 91.25 | $121,335.02 |
| 2023-24 | 95.0725 | $126,417.79 |
| 2024-25 | 97.39 | $129,499.37 |
| 2025-26 | 101.015 | $134,319.53 |
Historical results use Australia's all-groups quarterly CPI, with complete years averaged from four quarters. Future mode uses your entered constant rate.
Amounts round to cents internally and to whole dollars in the headline. Your entries stay in this browser. PDF prints the visible table page.
Historical CPI Conversion
The inflation calculator converts an amount between two periods using the Consumer Price Index (CPI). It multiplies your amount by the end-period index divided by the start-period index.
The data is the ABS all-groups CPI for Australia, a weighted average for the eight capital cities. The quarterly series runs from Mar 1966 to Jun 2026. It uses the reference base Sep 2025 = 100.
Calendar-year results use the average of all four quarters. Financial-year results average the preceding Sep and Dec quarters with the ending year's Mar and Jun quarters. These are the RBA inflation calculator's averaging methods. The rebased ABS index values can produce small differences from the RBA's older worked examples.
Choose the same period twice to keep the amount unchanged. Reverse the periods to express a later amount in earlier prices. The cumulative percentage follows your conversion direction, so a reverse conversion can show a negative change.
CPI measures consumer prices. House-price appreciation needs a property-price series, so this calculator cannot measure a home's market value. A household's own spending mix can also change at a different rate.
Future Inflation Assumptions
Future mode compounds the annual rate you enter. Future replacement cost equals the starting amount multiplied by (1 + annual rate / 100) raised to the number of years.
A fixed future income's buying power today uses the inverse calculation. Divide the amount by that same growth factor. At an assumed 3% for five years, today's $1,000 costs about $1,159 to replace. A fixed $1,000 received then buys about $863 in today's terms.
Future mode uses your assumption and makes no RBA or ABS forecast. A negative rate models falling consumer prices, while a zero rate leaves buying power unchanged. The model excludes tax and investment returns.
Income, Wages and Brokerage Costs
Convert salary or trail income to compare its purchasing power across periods. Keep the income period consistent, such as annual income against annual income. A CPI comparison shows the buying power of the amount entered, without modelling tax or changes in hours worked.
For a hypothetical annual salary of $80,000 in 2015-16, the CPI-equivalent amount in 2025-26 is $107,456. An unchanged $80,000 salary would buy less over that period.
A hypothetical brokerage expense of $12,000 in 2015-16 becomes $16,118 in 2025-26 using the same index ratio. This is a consumer-price benchmark. Business rent, software and wages each have their own prices, which can move differently from CPI.
Compare the CPI-equivalent figure with the actual later salary, income or expense. A higher nominal trail total can still lose purchasing power if it grows more slowly than consumer prices.