AGI Calculator – Your Adjusted Gross Income, Worked Out Like the IRS Does
One number quietly decides whether you qualify for tax credits, how much student loan interest you can deduct, and what you pay for Medicare. That number is your adjusted gross income: everything you earned, minus a specific list of above-the-line adjustments. Enter your income and your adjustments below — with the official 2025 caps applied for you — and see your AGI the same way it is built on Form 1040.
Your income and adjustments (tax year 2025)
Income — Form 1040 and Schedule 1, Part I
Enter only the taxable part. Not sure how much of your benefit is taxable? Work it out first with the taxable Social Security calculator.
A loss goes in as a negative number.
Advanced options — Schedule 1 adjustments (educator, HSA, self-employment, IRA, student loan interest and other adjustments)
Adjustments — Schedule 1, Part II (above the line)
Adjustments are already included in the result with their default values — open Advanced options to change them.
🔒 Everything is calculated in your browser — your numbers never leave your device.
Your adjusted gross income
Where the number comes from
What this means
Your adjustments trimmed 9.6 percent off your total income. This $76,800 is the figure the rest of your tax return is built on: it is compared against the standard or itemized deduction next, and it is the starting point for almost every credit and phase-out — which is why lowering it with the adjustments above is worth real money.
Built on tax year 2025 rules: Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Part II. The calculator applies the 2025 dollar caps (student loan interest $2,500, educator expenses $300 per educator, IRA $7,000 or $8,000 at 50+, HSA $4,300 or $8,550). Two things it does not model: the student loan interest deduction phases out between $85,000 and $100,000 of modified AGI ($170,000 to $200,000 if filing jointly) and cannot be claimed at all when filing separately, and the IRA deduction can shrink if you or your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan at higher incomes. Check the IRS rules for your situation before filing.
Watch your income shrink to your AGI
The top bar is everything you earned. The amber bar is what the above-the-line adjustments take off. What is left — the bottom bar — is the number the rest of your return is built on. Change any figure above and the picture redraws itself.
| Schedule 1 line | Adjustment | 2025 limit or note |
|---|---|---|
| Line 11 | Educator expenses | $300 per eligible educator; $600 if both spouses are educators filing jointly |
| Line 13 | Health savings account (HSA) deduction | Contributions up to $4,300 self-only or $8,550 family coverage for 2025, plus $1,000 if 55 or older |
| Line 15 | Deductible part of self-employment tax | 50 percent of the self-employment tax from Schedule SE |
| Line 16 | Self-employed SEP, SIMPLE and qualified plans | Your deductible contributions to your own retirement plan |
| Line 17 | Self-employed health insurance | Premiums paid, no more than your net self-employment income |
| Line 18 | Penalty on early withdrawal of savings | The amount shown on Form 1099-INT |
| Line 19 | Alimony paid | Only for divorce or separation agreements from before 2019 |
| Line 20 | IRA deduction | Traditional IRA contributions up to $7,000 for 2025 ($8,000 if 50 or older) |
| Line 21 | Student loan interest deduction | Up to $2,500; phases out at higher modified AGI and is never available filing separately |
| Line 23 | Archer MSA deduction | Contributions to an Archer medical savings account |
| Line 24 | Other adjustments | Jury duty pay given to an employer, reforestation costs, and other listed items |
| Line 26 | Total adjustments | Flows to Form 1040, line 10 — and Form 1040, line 11 is your AGI |
Lines 12, 14 and 22 cover narrower cases — certain business expenses of reservists, performing artists and fee-basis government officials (line 12), moving expenses for members of the Armed Forces (line 14) and a reserved line (line 22). If any of them apply to you, add the amount under Other adjustments in the calculator above.
Keep going
The tools that pick up exactly where AGI leaves off.
MAGI Calculator
AGI is only the start: modified AGI adds specific items back, and the recipe changes with the rule you are testing.
🧾Income Tax Calculator
Carry your AGI forward into taxable income and an actual federal tax estimate.
🏖️Taxable Social Security Calculator
Find the taxable slice of your benefits that belongs on line 6b of the income list above.
- Adjusted gross income is everything you earned minus a specific list of above-the-line adjustments: total income from Form 1040 lines 1 to 8 plus Schedule 1, Part I, minus Schedule 1, Part II, subtracted on Form 1040, line 10.
- The adjustments are a fixed IRS list — IRA and HSA contributions, half of self-employment tax, student loan interest, educator expenses and a handful more — with the official 2025 caps applied for you.
- One number quietly decides whether you qualify for tax credits, how much student loan interest you can deduct, and what you pay for Medicare.
How it works
Add up every source of income
Wages, interest, dividends, retirement payouts, business and rental results, capital gains and the rest — Form 1040 lines 1 to 8, with Schedule 1, Part I catching the sources the main form has no room for.
Subtract the above-the-line adjustments
A fixed IRS list — IRA and HSA contributions, half of self-employment tax, student loan interest, educator expenses and a handful more — collected on Schedule 1, Part II and subtracted on Form 1040, line 10. You get them whether or not you itemize.
What is left is your AGI
The result lands on Form 1040, line 11. Only after this point does the standard or itemized deduction come off to reach taxable income — AGI itself is already final, and dozens of other rules key off it.
The formula, and one worked example
AGI = Total income − Above-the-line adjustments
Worked example. Wages of $85,000 are the only income. During the year you put $7,000 into a traditional IRA and paid $1,200 of student loan interest — both inside their 2025 caps. Total income is $85,000; total adjustments are $7,000 + $1,200 = $8,200; so AGI = $85,000 − $8,200 = $76,800. That is the number that would sit on line 11 of this return, $8,200 lower than the headline salary — and every limit or credit tested against AGI is tested against $76,800, not $85,000.
Going deeper
Legislators needed a single, hard-to-game measure of income, and AGI became it. Education credits phase out against it. The student loan interest deduction shrinks and vanishes against a version of it. Premium tax credits for health insurance, eligibility for deductible IRA and Roth IRA contributions, the net investment income tax threshold, and even the income-related surcharges on Medicare premiums two years later are all keyed to AGI or to MAGI built on top of it. That is why a dollar of above-the-line adjustment can be worth more than a dollar of most other deductions: it lowers the measuring stick itself, not just the final tax bill, and it does so before the standard deduction — which most filers take — has even entered the picture.
Three different figures get confused constantly. Gross pay is what your employer pays before anything comes out. Taxable wages — box 1 of your W-2 — are already lower, because pre-tax 401(k) contributions and pre-tax health premiums never reach that box; that is the wage figure this calculator starts from. AGI is then built from every income source you have, minus the Schedule 1 adjustments. And taxable income is a fourth, smaller number: AGI minus the standard or itemized deduction. The mistakes that follow are predictable — people test themselves against a credit limit using gross pay and wrongly give up, or they assume an itemized deduction lowered their AGI when it could not possibly have, because itemized deductions only ever come off after AGI is fixed.
How AGI is built, line by line, for tax year 2025
Adjusted gross income is Form 1040, line 11, and its construction is deliberately mechanical: total income, from every source the form counts, minus a specific list of adjustments, the “above-the-line” deductions on Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Part II. Nothing else comes off before AGI, and that boundary is the point of the whole concept: the standard deduction and itemized deductions come off after AGI, tax credits come off after taxable income, and no deduction that belongs below the line can lower AGI, however large it is. This calculator applies the tax year 2025 rules and caps, it covers federal tax only, and the figures below were all produced by this page’s own calculator, so you can reproduce them by typing the same numbers in. This is general information about how the form works, not tax advice for any individual return.
The default shows the construction at its simplest. Wages of $85,000 are the only income, so total income is $85,000. Two adjustments are entered: a traditional IRA deduction of $7,000, which is the 2025 cap for a filer under 50, and a student loan interest deduction of $1,200. Total adjustments are $8,200, and AGI is $85,000 minus $8,200, which is $76,800. The result display also expresses that as a percentage, 9.6 percent of total income removed before the standard deduction is even reached, which is a useful way to feel the size of the adjustments: nearly a tenth of the income never reaches the taxable-income calculation at all, because above-the-line adjustments are subtracted before the standard or itemized deduction is considered. Change only the wages, from $85,000 to $100,000, leaving both adjustments untouched, and AGI rises by exactly the same $15,000, to $91,800, because nothing in the adjustment list depends on the wage figure at these levels. Add taxable interest of $5,000 and ordinary dividends of $2,000, and total income becomes $107,000, adjustments stay at $8,200, and AGI becomes $98,800. Add business income of $10,000 instead, with wages at $100,000, and total income becomes $110,000, adjustments stay at $8,200, and AGI becomes $101,800. In each variant the arithmetic is the same two-step shape, add up every income source, subtract the adjustments, and the calculator’s “where the number comes from” breakdown shows both steps, so an unexpected AGI can always be traced to one side or the other.
The adjustments themselves carry the 2025 caps the page applies, and those caps are where most real returns differ from a naive subtraction. The student loan interest deduction is capped at $2,500 for 2025: raise the entered student loan interest from $1,200 to $2,500, with wages at $100,000, and total adjustments rise from $8,200 to $9,500, giving AGI of $90,500, an improvement of $1,300, exactly the increase in the entered interest, because the entry was below the cap throughout. The IRA deduction is capped at $7,000, or $8,000 at age 50 or older, which is why the default IRA field shows $7,000 and the age-50 checkbox exists beside it. The HSA deduction is capped at $4,300 for self-only coverage or $8,550 for family coverage in 2025, with an additional $1,000 if 55 or older, which is why the page offers both a coverage selector and a 55-or-older checkbox: enter an HSA deduction of $4,300 for self-only coverage, with wages at $100,000 and the other defaults restored, and total adjustments become $12,500, giving AGI of $87,500. Educator expenses are capped at $300 per educator for 2025. Those caps are dollar limits, not rates, so an entry above a cap does not raise the adjustment further, and the calculator applies the cap rather than passing the entered figure through, which is the behaviour to check whenever an adjustment seems smaller than the amount you typed.
What AGI controls, and what it deliberately does not do
AGI’s importance is out of proportion to its size, because so many other figures are keyed to it or to MAGI, modified AGI, which starts from AGI and adds specific items back. The page’s own guide lists the examples: credits for health insurance, eligibility for deductible IRA and Roth IRA contributions, the net investment income tax threshold, and even the income-related surcharges on Medicare premiums two years later are all keyed to AGI or to MAGI built on top of it. That is why a dollar of above-the-line adjustment is worth more than a dollar of below-the-line deduction in one specific sense: it lowers the figure that all those tests read, while a below-the-line deduction, however large, leaves AGI untouched and therefore leaves every AGI-keyed test untouched as well. The classic mistake, which the page’s own guide warns against, is testing yourself against a credit limit using gross pay and wrongly giving up, or assuming an itemized deduction lowered your AGI when it could not possibly have, because itemized deductions only ever come off after AGI is fixed. If a credit or a phase-out is the question, AGI, not gross pay and not taxable income, is the number to compare, and MAGI, not AGI, is the number for those tests that add items back, which is why the related MAGI calculator exists as a separate tool.
Two scope limits on this page deserve a plain statement, because they are easy to miss and they change answers. First, the student loan interest deduction phases out between $85,000 and $100,000 of modified AGI for single filers, $170,000 to $200,000 if filing jointly, and cannot be claimed at all when filing separately, and the IRA deduction can shrink if you or your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan, as the page’s own scope note explains. Those phase-outs are not modelled as a gradual reduction in the calculator’s headline AGI in the same way the caps are applied; they are stated as limits on whether the entered adjustment is available at all, and a return near a phase-out boundary should be checked against the IRS instructions for that adjustment rather than assumed from the calculator’s total. Second, AGI is not taxable income, and it is not the tax owed: taxable income is AGI minus the standard or itemized deduction, and the tax is computed from taxable income through the brackets, with credits applied afterwards. The default AGI of $76,800 would become a much smaller taxable income once a standard deduction is applied, and quoting $76,800 as “what I am taxed on” would overstate the taxable base by the full amount of that deduction. The calculator’s job ends at line 11, deliberately, and the income tax calculator linked from this page carries the computation forward from there.
For the 2025 tax year, the sources behind the caps applied here are the IRS forms themselves: Schedule 1 (Form 1040), Part II, for the adjustment lines, with the 2025 dollar caps for student loan interest, educator expenses, IRA contributions and HSA contributions as stated above, and Form 1040, line 11, for the AGI total. Figures for other tax years will differ, because caps and phase-out ranges are adjusted, and this calculator is built for 2025, so a 2026 return should not be run through it without checking which caps have moved. Within 2025, though, the construction is exact given the inputs: every income source added, every adjustment subtracted subject to its cap, and the result labelled with its form line, so that the number on this page can be compared, line by line, with the number on a filed return, and any difference traced to a specific line rather than to a general disagreement about method.
Three mistakes that move AGI the wrong way
The first mistake is subtracting a below-the-line deduction before AGI. A taxpayer with $100,000 of wages, $8,200 of above-the-line adjustments and a large itemized deduction sometimes reports an “AGI” of $100,000 minus $8,200 minus the itemized amount, and then wonders why the calculator disagrees. The calculator is right and the hand figure is wrong, because the itemized deduction is subtracted from AGI, not from total income, so the correct AGI on those figures is $91,800, and the itemized deduction lowers taxable income, not AGI. The consequence is not merely cosmetic: every AGI-keyed test, for credits, for IRA eligibility and for phase-outs, reads the $91,800 figure, and a hand figure reduced by an itemized deduction would test against the wrong number and could wrongly disqualify a credit or wrongly qualify for one. When a calculator and a hand figure disagree, check the order of subtraction first, because order is the most common source of disagreement and the easiest to fix.
The second mistake is testing against a limit using gross pay instead of AGI, or using AGI instead of MAGI where the test requires MAGI. Gross pay overstates the figure the test reads whenever any above-the-line adjustment exists: on the default, gross wages of $85,000 against a limit of $80,000 would suggest disqualification, while the correct AGI of $76,800 sits below the limit, and the difference, $8,200 of adjustments, is exactly the amount the test ignores if gross pay is used. The reverse mistake, using AGI where MAGI is required, understates the figure by whatever items the MAGI definition adds back, and the size of that understatement depends on the test, which is why the page links to a separate MAGI calculator rather than treating the two figures as interchangeable. The discipline is to name the figure the test asks for, AGI or MAGI, compute that figure, and compare that figure, with no substitution of a nearby number that happens to be to hand.
The third mistake is entering an adjustment at its paid amount rather than its deductible amount, and the student loan interest deduction is the clearest example. A borrower who paid $3,000 of student loan interest in 2025 and enters $3,000 will find the calculator’s adjustment smaller than $3,000, because the deduction is capped at $2,500, and the extra $500 is not deductible however it is entered. A borrower near the phase-out range, between $85,000 and $100,000 of modified AGI for single filers, faces the further complication that the deductible amount shrinks across that range and disappears at the top of it, and filing separately removes it entirely, so the entered figure and the deductible figure can differ for two separate reasons, cap and phase-out, at once. The calculator applies the cap; the phase-out boundaries are stated on the page as limits to check against the IRS instructions for the adjustment. Entering the paid amount and expecting the deductible amount is the one mistake in this list that feels like honesty, because the paid amount is the true amount, but the form asks for the deductible amount, and the two are equal only below the cap and outside any phase-out. Check the cap, check the phase-out, and enter the deductible figure, and the calculator’s AGI will match the form’s line 11.
Capital gains and AGI: how investment income flows into line 11
Gains and losses enter total income before any adjustment is taken. The tax rate on the gain is decided later, on a different worksheet — it does not change the AGI figure.
Capital gains and losses are reported on Schedule D, and the net result flows to Form 1040, line 7, which is part of total income on line 9, from which AGI is calculated on line 11. Short-term gains and losses, on assets held one year or less, are netted against each other, long-term gains and losses, on assets held more than one year, are netted against each other, and the two nets are then combined into the single figure that reaches line 7. The netting order matters, because a long-term loss can shelter a short-term gain, and a short-term loss can shelter a long-term gain, and the character of the surviving net — short-term or long-term — decides the rate that applies later, even though the AGI effect is the same either way: the net enters total income in full, whatever its character.
Where the year produces a net capital loss, the deduction is capped: up to $3,000 of net capital loss, or $1,500 for married filing separately, may be deducted against other income in the year, and the excess is carried forward to future years, keeping its short-term or long-term character, until it is used. A taxpayer with a $10,000 net capital loss and no gains therefore deducts $3,000 this year and carries $7,000 forward, and the AGI reflects the $3,000, not the $10,000 — a common surprise for a first-time seller, and a reason the calculator asks for the net capital gain or loss as a single figure, after netting and after the cap, rather than for the gross proceeds. The wash-sale rule adds a further wrinkle: a loss on a security repurchased within 30 days before or after the sale is disallowed in the year and added to the basis of the replacement security, so the loss does not reach Schedule D at all until the replacement is sold. Enter the Schedule D result, after netting, after the loss cap, and after any wash-sale adjustment, and the AGI will match the form.
Qualified dividends and the net capital gain are taxed at preferential rates through the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet, but that worksheet starts from taxable income, which is calculated after AGI, so the preferential rate never changes AGI itself. The companion guide explains where AGI appears on the return and why the W-2 figure is not AGI, and the MAGI guide explains the add-backs that turn AGI into the programme figures — including the net investment income tax, whose MAGI threshold is tested on a figure that starts from this same line 11.
Frequently asked questions
What is adjusted gross income (AGI)?
Adjusted gross income is your total income from every source, minus a specific list of deductions Congress placed above the line on Form 1040. It is calculated on line 11 of Form 1040, after the adjustments from Schedule 1 are subtracted on line 10. AGI is not your salary and it is not your taxable income: it sits between the two, and a long list of credits, deductions and surcharges are allowed, reduced or cut off by comparing your income against it.
How is AGI calculated?
Add up all your income — wages, taxable interest, dividends, retirement distributions, business and rental results, capital gains, unemployment and anything else — then subtract the above-the-line adjustments from Part II of Schedule 1: things like deductible IRA and HSA contributions, half of self-employment tax, student loan interest and educator expenses. For example, wages of $85,000 with a $7,000 IRA deduction and $1,200 of student loan interest give an AGI of $85,000 minus $8,200, which is $76,800.
What is the difference between AGI and MAGI?
Modified adjusted gross income starts with your AGI and adds certain deductions back — and which ones get added back depends on the rule you are testing. For student loan interest, MAGI adds back that very deduction; for IRA purposes it can add back several others, and for health insurance premium credits the recipe is different again. That is why there is no single MAGI: the same person can have a different modified AGI for each provision. Once you know your AGI from this page, the MAGI calculator works through each version separately.
Which deductions reduce AGI in 2025?
Only the adjustments listed in Part II of Schedule 1 reduce AGI, and you can claim them whether or not you itemize. For 2025 the main ones are educator expenses up to $300 per educator, HSA contributions up to $4,300 with self-only coverage or $8,550 with family coverage, half of your self-employment tax, contributions to a self-employed retirement plan, self-employed health insurance premiums, deductible traditional IRA contributions up to $7,000 (or $8,000 if you are 50 or older), and student loan interest up to $2,500. Itemized deductions and the standard deduction never reduce AGI — they are subtracted after AGI, to reach taxable income.
Is AGI the same as taxable income?
No. Taxable income is what is left after AGI is reduced by the standard deduction or your itemized deductions, whichever is larger, and by the qualified business income deduction where it applies. Two people with the same AGI can end up with different taxable incomes because one itemizes above the standard deduction and the other does not. Your tax is calculated on taxable income, but your eligibility for most credits and phase-outs is tested against AGI, which is why AGI is usually the more consequential number to know.
How much student loan interest can I deduct in 2025?
Up to $2,500 of the interest you actually paid on a qualified student loan, claimed on line 21 of Schedule 1 — your lender reports the amount on Form 1098-E if you paid $600 or more. For 2025 the deduction is full below a modified AGI of $85,000, or $170,000 if you file jointly; it then phases out and disappears completely at $100,000, or $200,000 filing jointly. It is never available if you file as married filing separately, and you cannot claim it if someone else can claim you as a dependent.
Why did my AGI not fall when I added an itemized deduction?
Because itemized deductions come off after AGI, never before it. AGI is total income minus the above-the-line adjustments on Schedule 1, Part II, only. The standard or itemized deduction is subtracted from AGI to give taxable income, so it lowers the tax base without touching AGI itself, and it leaves every AGI-keyed test, for credits and phase-outs, exactly where it was. If a credit limit is the question, AGI, not taxable income, is the number to compare.
What is the difference between AGI and MAGI?
MAGI starts from AGI and adds specific items back, and which items are added back depends on the test. AGI itself is Form 1040, line 11: total income minus above-the-line adjustments. Several credits and phase-outs read MAGI rather than AGI, so a test that uses MAGI can give a different answer from the same return’s AGI. This calculator produces AGI; the related MAGI calculator carries the computation forward for the tests that need the modified figure.
Why is my student loan interest deduction smaller than the interest I paid?
Because the deduction is capped at $2,500 for tax year 2025, and because it phases out between $85,000 and $100,000 of modified AGI for single filers, $170,000 to $200,000 if filing jointly, and cannot be claimed at all when filing separately. On this page, raising the entered interest from $1,200 to $2,500, with wages at $100,000, raises total adjustments from $8,200 to $9,500 and lowers AGI to $90,500, exactly the increase in the entered interest, because the entry was below the cap throughout. Above the cap, or inside a phase-out, the deduction stops growing with the interest paid.
Is AGI the same as my taxable income?
No. Taxable income is AGI minus the standard or itemized deduction. The default AGI on this page is $76,800, from $85,000 of wages minus $8,200 of adjustments, and that figure would become a much smaller taxable income once a standard deduction is applied. Quoting $76,800 as “what I am taxed on” overstates the taxable base by the full amount of that deduction. This calculator ends at Form 1040, line 11, deliberately, and the income tax calculator carries the computation forward from there.
Do Social Security benefits count toward AGI?
Only the taxable portion. Social Security benefits are reported on Form SSA-1099, and the taxable portion, from zero to 85% of the benefits, is calculated on the Social Security worksheet from provisional income, which is AGI before Social Security plus tax-exempt interest plus half the benefits. The taxable portion enters total income on Form 1040, line 6b, and therefore into AGI. The nontaxable portion never enters AGI, though it is added back for ACA MAGI. A retiree whose only income is Social Security below the thresholds may have no taxable benefits and an AGI of zero.
Does tax-exempt interest count toward AGI?
No. Tax-exempt interest, reported on Form 1040, line 2a, is excluded from gross income and never enters total income or AGI. It is still reported on the return, and it still matters elsewhere: it is added back for ACA MAGI and for Medicare MAGI, and it counts in the provisional income that decides how much of Social Security is taxable. The calculator asks for taxable interest on line 2b, not tax-exempt interest on line 2a, and entering tax-exempt interest as taxable would overstate AGI by the full amount.
Where does rental income go on the tax return?
On Schedule E, which reports rents received, expenses, and depreciation for each property, and whose net result flows to Schedule 1, line 5, and from there to Form 1040, line 8, as part of total income. Rental income is therefore part of AGI in full, net of the expenses and depreciation claimed on Schedule E, before any adjustment. Passive-activity limits can defer the loss where the taxpayer does not materially participate, and the rental real estate rules for depreciation are covered in the rental schedule guide. Enter the Schedule E net figure, and the calculator places it correctly.