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Social Security recipients are getting a raise. Specifically, benefits will increase by 2.8% in 2026, due to a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), according to the Social Security Administration (SSA).
This marks a slight increase from the 2.5% COLA adjustment in 2025. Of course, this will mean a different amount for everyone, but a larger check nonetheless.
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GOBankingRates calculates how much your Social Security check will get a bump for every major age.
About Annual COLA Increases
Designed to ensure inflation doesn’t outpace the purchasing power of Social Security benefits, automatic COLA increases have been happening since 1975, according to the SSA. Annual raises are correlated with increases in the Consumer Price Index.
To date, the largest was a 14.3% COLA increase in July 1980. The smallest raise was 0.3% in January 2017. Additionally, there was no increase in 2010, 2011 and 2016.
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COLA Adjustment Breakdown
Since the COLA increase isn’t a flat rate, the financial boost will be different for every recipient.
For example, as of January 2026, the estimated average monthly Social Security retirement benefit was $2,071, the SSA reported. Hypothetically speaking, if this benefit hadn’t yet received the 2.8% increase, it would rise by $57.99 to $2,128.99 per month.
Personally, the age you start receiving your Social Security benefit is what matters most — besides of course your career earnings. For example, if your full retirement age is 66 and your monthly benefit is $1,000, the age at which initially you receive it can cause your starting benefit to vary from $750 to $1,320 per month, per the SSA.
For example, if you turned 62 years old in 2025 and decided to start receiving benefits, your starting benefit would be $750 per month. This would mean your monthly benefit would increase to $1,028 in 2026, when you’re 63 years old.
On the other hand, if you delayed benefits until turning 70 years old in 2025, your starting benefit would be $1,320 per month. In this case, your monthly benefit would increase $36.96 to $1,356.96 in 2026, when you’re 71 years old.
Looking at it from another angle, as of December 2025, the average monthly benefit for retired males was $2,283.98, according to the SSA. This means the average retired male’s monthly benefits will increase $63.95, for a total of $2,347.93 per month.
For retired women, as of December 2025, the average monthly benefit was $1,875.32, according to the SSA. Given this, the average 2026 COLA increase would be $52.51, totaling $1,927.83 per month.
Ultimately, you’ll have to do the math to determine your specific COLA increase. If you’d rather be surprised, you can also just wait patiently until your benefit arrives.
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This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: What Social Security Payments Could Look Like in 2026
