Savings Calculator
Enter a starting amount, a regular deposit, an interest rate, and a number of years — and watch compound growth turn small, regular deposits into a serious balance.
Your savings plan
Advanced options — frequencies, yearly contribution & increases, tax, inflation
Deposit frequency, compounding, deposit increases, a separate yearly contribution, tax and inflation are already included in the result with their default values — open Advanced options to change them.
🔒 All calculations happen in your browser — no data leaves your device.
Your projected balance
Year-by-year schedule
The same projection, stopped at the end of each year: what you put in that year, what the account added, and where the balance stood.
Deposits in a year include both the regular deposit and any annual contribution. The final row always matches the projected balance above.
Work backwards from a goal
Set the starting amount, rate, years and Advanced options above first — then enter the balance you want, and this solver names the exact regular deposit that reaches it, checked to the cent against the same projection.
The solver changes only the regular deposit amount; every other setting stays exactly as you left it above.
- The plan above — $1,000 started, $200 a month at 5% for 10 years — builds $32,703.47: $1,647.01 from the starting amount and $31,056.46 from the deposits.
- Time beats rate: at 5%, $200 a month is worth about $15,528 after 6 years but $31,056 after 10 — the final 4 years add nearly as much as the first 6.
- Doubling the deposit beats doubling the rate: deposits are guaranteed, while higher rates usually mean taking risk.
Watch it grow, year by year
The green area is your projected balance; the straight line is what you put in. The gap between them is pure interest.
Keep exploring
Three companion tools for growing money.
How it works
Three steps from a savings habit to a projected balance.
Start with what you have
Enter today’s balance — even $0. Your starting amount compounds for the whole period.
Add a regular deposit
Pick an amount and how often you will repeat it. Consistency beats size: small deposits compound too.
Set rate and years
You choose how often interest compounds — from yearly all the way to continuous — and time does the heavy lifting: the curve bends upward in later years.
The math behind your savings growth
Your final balance is two growth engines added together: the starting amount compounding on its own, and the stream of monthly deposits, each compounding for the months it stays invested. With monthly rate r = annual rate ÷ 12 and n = years × 12:
Optional settings refine the projection: an annual deposit increase raises the regular deposit once each year; a separate annual contribution adds a once-a-year deposit with its own yearly increase; a tax-on-interest rate reduces each year’s credited interest by that percentage before the remaining interest compounds onward; and an inflation rate restates the final balance in today’s dollars. The year-by-year schedule under the results is this same math, paused at the end of each year.
Worked examples:
| Plan | Calculation | Future value |
|---|---|---|
| $0 start, $200/mo, 5%, 10 yrs | 200 × [((1.004167)120 − 1) ÷ 0.004167] | $31,056.46 |
| $10,000 lump only, 5%, 10 yrs | 10,000 × (1.004167)120 | $16,470.09 |
| $1,000 start, $200/mo, 5%, 10 yrs | 1,647.01 from start + 31,056.46 from deposits | $32,703.47 |
| $5,000 start, $200/mo, 0%, 10 yrs | No interest — deposits simply add up | $29,000.00 |
Interest on a savings account, explained
What the interest half of this savings account interest calculator is actually doing, month by month.
A savings account pays interest on the money sitting in it, and the interest itself starts earning interest — that is the whole engine. When people search for a savings interest calculator, what they usually want is the split this page shows at the top: how much of the final balance is money you put in, and how much is money the account added. On the default plan here — $1,000 to start, $200 a month, 5% for 10 years — you deposit $25,000.00 in total and the account adds $7,703.47. Neither half is a guess: both come out of the same two formulas, applied deposit by deposit.
The mechanics are simple. Each period, the balance is multiplied by the period rate. With monthly compounding, the period rate is the annual rate ÷ 12, so a 4.00% annual rate credits 0.3333% a month. Your starting amount compounds for the whole term. Each monthly deposit compounds only for the months it is actually in the account — the first deposit earns for the full term, the last one barely earns at all. Add the two streams together and you have the future value. That is why a savings calculator with interest behaves so differently from a simple multiplication of deposit × months: the deposits are not equal citizens, because time in the account is what interest pays for.
One naming trap is worth clearing up. Banks advertise an APY — the effective yearly yield after compounding. This tool asks for an annual interest rate and then compounds it at the frequency you choose, which is how the underlying account contracts are written. Enter the account’s stated rate here; if all you have is the APY, the Compound Interest Calculator linked below works in those terms. Either way, do not compare a rate from one page with an APY from another and expect the balances to match — a 4.00% rate compounded monthly yields slightly more than a 4.00% APY, because the compounding itself adds a little extra.
The same plan at three rates — $5,000 to start, $200 a month, monthly compounding:
| Annual rate | After 1 year | After 5 years | After 10 years |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.50% | $7,430.57 (interest $30.57) | $17,275.24 (interest $275.24) | $29,861.17 (interest $861.17) |
| 2.00% | $7,523.04 (interest $123.04) | $18,134.87 (interest $1,134.87) | $32,649.93 (interest $3,649.93) |
| 4.00% | $7,648.20 (interest $248.20) | $19,364.78 (interest $2,364.78) | $36,904.12 (interest $7,904.12) |
The difference is not academic. Put $5,000 in an account for one year with no deposits: at a 4.00% APY it earns exactly $200.00, because APY is defined as the year’s actual yield. At a 4.00% annual rate compounded monthly — the way this calculator models it — it earns $203.71, because monthly compounding lifts the effective yield to 4.0742%. Same headline number, two different contracts, $3.71 apart on a modest balance in a single year. Scale that across a decade and a real balance and the naming trap stops being a footnote, which is why every rate on this page is labelled as the annual rate the tool compounds, and every bank APY quoted is labelled as an APY.
Read the 10-year column slowly, because it carries the section’s lesson. At 0.50% — close to the FDIC national average savings rate of 0.38% (FDIC, October 2026) — a decade of steady saving turns $29,000.00 of deposits into $29,861.17. At 4.00% the identical deposits reach $36,904.12. The deposits did not change; the rate contributed $7,904.12 instead of $861.17. The first row is what a traditional account quietly pays; the last row is roughly what competitive online accounts pay. Everything between is a choice of where the account lives, not how hard you save.
How savings grow over time
The deposits-versus-interest split, year by year — the view a savings growth calculator exists to show.
Early in any savings plan, growth is mostly you. Late in the plan, growth is increasingly the account. The table below follows $300 a month from a standing start at a 4.00% annual rate, compounded monthly, and splits every year’s balance into the two parts. In year 1 you deposit $3,600.00 and the account adds just $66.74 — interest is a rounding error at the start, which is exactly why so many plans feel pointless in their first year and why quitting then is so expensive.
$300 a month at 4.00%, from $0:
| Year | You deposited | Interest added | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $3,600.00 | $66.74 | $3,666.74 |
| 2 | $7,200.00 | $282.87 | $7,482.87 |
| 3 | $10,800.00 | $654.47 | $11,454.47 |
| 4 | $14,400.00 | $1,187.88 | $15,587.88 |
| 5 | $18,000.00 | $1,889.69 | $19,889.69 |
| 6 | $21,600.00 | $2,766.77 | $24,366.77 |
| 7 | $25,200.00 | $3,826.25 | $29,026.25 |
| 8 | $28,800.00 | $5,075.56 | $33,875.56 |
| 9 | $32,400.00 | $6,522.44 | $38,922.44 |
| 10 | $36,000.00 | $8,174.94 | $44,174.94 |
Watch the middle column. Cumulative interest passes $1,000 during year 4, and the single year 10 adds $1,652.50 by itself — more than the first four years combined. By year 10 the account has added $8,174.94 on top of $36,000.00 of deposits — interest is then close to a fifth of everything in the account, and it arrived without a single extra deposit. One honest boundary: within this ten-year window the monthly interest credit — averaging $137.71 a month during year 10 — still does not exceed the $300 deposit itself. The true crossover, where the account adds more each month than you do, needs a balance north of $90,000 at this rate, or a much longer runway. Growth calculators sometimes hide that; this table would rather show it, because it explains why the early and middle years of any plan are won by the deposit habit, not by yield hunting. Extend the same table mentally to year 20 and the effect compounds again: each year’s interest is calculated on a balance that includes all the previous years’ interest. This is the curve the chart at the top of the page draws — nearly straight while deposits dominate, bending upward as interest takes over. Two practical consequences follow. First, the deposit habit matters more than the starting amount: $300 a month from zero beats $3,000 left alone at the same rate within a few years. Second, time is the one input you cannot buy back later, which is why the years field moves the result more than small rate differences do.
Working backwards: set a goal, get the monthly deposit
The savings calculator goal method — start from the amount you need and let the math name the monthly deposit.
Most savings plans are not “save what I can” plans; they are “I need $12,000 in two years” plans — a house deposit, a car, a wedding, a tax bill with a date on it. The goal-first method runs this calculator backwards. Start with the no-interest answer, because it is the ceiling on what you will ever need to deposit: $12,000 ÷ 24 months = $500.00 a month. Then let interest do part of the work. At a 0.50% annual rate the required deposit falls to $497.61 a month; at a 4.00% rate it falls to $481.10 a month. Over the two years you would deposit $11,546.38 of your own money and the account contributes the remaining $453.62 — the goal is met exactly, which you can confirm by entering $481.10 as the monthly deposit above with a $0 start, 4.00% and 2 years.
The formula underneath is the same future-value math run in reverse: the monthly deposit is the goal, minus whatever your starting amount grows to, divided by the growth factor of a monthly deposit stream. In practice you never need the algebra — the goal tool under the results runs it for you and names the exact deposit, checked to the cent. Set the years field to your deadline and the rate to what your account actually pays first: the solver uses every setting above exactly as it stands, and changes only the deposit. If the required deposit is more than you can afford, the honest levers are a longer deadline or a bigger goal-down payment, not a fantasy rate: doubling the assumed rate in the example above only moves the deposit from $497.61 to $481.10, while adding six months to the deadline cuts it far more. Goals are reached by deposits and time; interest is the discount, not the plan.
For the two methods argued side by side — percentages of pay against dated goals, with an emergency fund worked both ways — read our guide: how much should you save each month.
Money market accounts: the other place savings sit
What a money market account is, how its interest works, and how to run the numbers on one.
A money market account (MMA) is a deposit account that behaves like a savings account with a debit card attached. It pays interest, it is insured the same way, and at most banks it also lets you write checks or spend with a card — access a plain savings account usually does not offer. In exchange, money market accounts often ask for a larger opening deposit or a minimum balance, and their rates are frequently tiered: bigger balances earn the higher rate, smaller balances a lower one. Everything in this section treats the calculator above as a money market calculator: the deposit math is identical to a savings account’s, so the same tool prices both — a money market account calculator is a savings calculator wearing a different account’s clothes.
How the interest works. To calculate money market interest by hand, follow the same three steps as any deposit account. First, take the balance the bank uses — usually your average daily balance for the month. Second, apply the rate for your tier: monthly interest is roughly balance × annual rate ÷ 12. Third, remember the credit lands monthly and then compounds, because next month’s interest is figured on a balance that includes this month’s. Run as a money market calculator monthly, the example below shows the rhythm: $10,000 in the account and $250 added each month at an illustrative 4.00% annual rate. The first month’s interest is $33.33 — the opening balance at 4.00% ÷ 12 — and it creeps upward every month as the balance grows.
Money market worked example — $10,000 start, $250 a month, 4.00% (illustrative rate):
| Month | Interest credited | Balance after deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | $33.33 | $10,283.33 |
| Month 2 | $34.28 | $10,567.61 |
| Month 3 | $35.23 | $10,852.84 |
Those monthly lines are the money market interest calculator monthly view: interest first, deposit second, balance carried forward. Let the plan run three years and the account holds $20,818.11 — $19,000.00 of deposits plus $1,818.11 of interest. For scale, the FDIC’s national average money market rate was 0.63% (FDIC, October 2026); the same plan at 0.63% ends at $19,273.93, earning $273.93. The gap between those two outcomes is the entire argument for shopping around — and a money market rate calculator comparison like this one, run at each account’s real tier rate for your balance, is how you shop honestly: rates are tiered, so the only rate that matters is the one your balance actually qualifies for.
Savings account vs money market account:
| Feature | Regular savings account | Money market account |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday access | Deposits and transfers; spending usually via a linked checking account | Often a debit card and check-writing on the account itself |
| Minimums | Often none, or a small opening deposit | Frequently a higher opening deposit or minimum balance |
| How the rate is set | One APY for the whole balance | Often tiered — higher balances earn higher rates |
| Interest credited | Usually monthly | Usually monthly |
| Insurance | FDIC insured to $250,000 per depositor, per bank | FDIC insured to $250,000 per depositor, per bank |
| Suits | Goals you fund and leave alone | Money you want earning while staying spendable |
Fees and minimums deserve the same scepticism as rates. Some money market accounts charge a monthly maintenance fee when the balance falls below a threshold, and a $10 fee against a $2,000 balance quietly wipes out half a percent of yield — the equivalent of a much lower rate. Others pay the headline tier rate only above a balance you may not keep. None of that appears in any calculator, including this one: the projection assumes the rate you enter is the rate your whole balance earns, with nothing skimmed off. Read the account’s fee schedule, enter the tier rate your balance actually qualifies for, and the comparison stays honest.
Two cautions before you move money. An MMA calculator result is a projection at a constant rate, and money market rates are variable — they move when the Federal Reserve moves, usually faster than savings-account rates at sleepy banks. And “money market account” is not “money market fund”: the fund is an investment product sold by brokerages, it is not FDIC insured, and its value can dip. The account described here — the one this page prices — is the insured bank product. If an offer does not name the FDIC, it is probably the fund.
One tool, three jobs
How to read this page as a savings account calculator, a deposit calculator, and a simple savings calculator — because it is all three.
The head term for this page is savings calculator, but the same screen quietly does two other jobs. As a deposit calculator, it is built around the two deposit inputs: the initial deposit you start with and the recurring deposit you repeat — weekly, monthly, yearly, at whatever rhythm your paycheck keeps — and it reports the deposited total separately from the interest, so you always know how much of the outcome is your own money. Strip it back and it is a simple savings calculator: one starting amount, one rate, one number of years, and a single future value, with nothing else to configure. Most visitors need nothing more than that simple mode; the extra fields exist for the plans that do.
The people who call it a saving calculator and the people who call it a savings calculator are running the same arithmetic, and the results block is worth reading properly whichever name you arrived with. The headline is the projected balance. Beneath it, “you put in” is every deposit you will make, the interest line is what the account adds, and the two growth rows split the balance into the part that came from your starting amount and the part that came from the deposit stream — the split the growth section above tabulates year by year. Four advanced levers refine a projection when your plan needs them: an annual deposit increase, for savers who raise their deposit each year with their pay; a separate annual contribution with its own increase, for once-a-year money; a tax-on-interest rate, which trims each year’s credited interest before it compounds; and an inflation rate, which restates the balance in today’s dollars. Leave them all at zero and the tool stays the plain, honest projection most plans need.
One sibling note. This page prices a general savings plan at a rate you type in. If your account is specifically a high-yield account and you want the comparison against what a regular account would have paid on the same deposits, the High Yield Savings Calculator runs exactly that two-account race. The two pages share the same deposit math; they differ in the question they answer.
Go deeper
The levers that actually move your final balance.
Compounding is exponential, so the last years of a plan contribute far more growth than the first years:
- The curve bends late: at 5%, $200 a month is worth about $15,528 after 6 years — but $31,056 after 10 years. The final 4 years add nearly as much as the first 6.
- Doubling the deposit beats doubling the rate: deposits are guaranteed; higher rates usually mean taking risk.
- Starting amount matters less than starting date: a $0 start with steady deposits outgrows a lump sum left untouched surprisingly often.
Try it above: keep everything fixed and change only the years — the jump from 10 to 20 years is much bigger than from 0 to 10.
Real savings rarely grow in a perfectly straight line. This calculator assumes:
- A constant rate: savings account APYs change with the market, sometimes several times a year.
- No taxes or fees: interest is usually taxable, and some accounts charge monthly fees that quietly eat growth.
- Inflation stays out of the headline: $32,703 in 10 years buys less than $32,703 today — at 3% inflation its buying power is roughly $24,300 in today’s dollars. Set the Inflation (%) field in Advanced options and the results show that today’s-dollars figure — and a today’s-dollars column in the schedule — next to the headline.
- Perfect consistency: every deposit lands on time, every month, with no withdrawals.
Treat the result as a planning target, not a promise — and review your real rate at least once a year.
The Excel check: one formula, the whole schedule
The calculator’s year-by-year schedule, reproduced in a spreadsheet cell.
Every balance on this page is one formula repeated month after month, and Excel’s FV function is that formula in a single cell. To reproduce the headline — $200 a month at 4% for 10 years, $29,449.96 — enter =FV(4%/12, 120, -200, 0, 0): the annual rate divided by 12, the number of months, the deposit as a negative number because it leaves your pocket, and the final 0 for deposits at the end of each month, matching this calculator’s assumption. The result agrees with the schedule above to the cent, because both are the same geometric series: each deposit compounds for the months remaining after it lands, and the sum of those grown deposits is the balance. If a projection found elsewhere cannot be reproduced by this one formula, something — the timing, a fee, a tax, a different compounding frequency — is being handled differently, and that difference is what to ask about.
The same function runs the goal backwards. To find the monthly deposit that reaches a target, use PMT: =PMT(4%/12, 120, 0, -50000) returns the deposit needed to reach $50,000 in 10 years at 4%, starting from nothing. To find what a lump sum becomes, drop the payment: =FV(4%, 10, 0, -10000) grows $10,000 at 4% for 10 years with no deposits. And to check the companion guide on living off savings, the same formula runs in reverse — withdrawals are negative deposits, and the question becomes how many withdrawals the balance survives, which is the drawdown math worked there in full.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this savings calculator.
How is the future value of my savings calculated?
Two parts are added: your starting amount grown at the monthly rate (annual rate ÷ 12) for every month, plus each monthly deposit grown for the months it stays invested. A yearly contribution, if you set one in Advanced options, compounds the same way and is added as a third part. Saving $200 a month at 5% for 10 years from $0 grows to $31,056.46.
How often does interest compound here?
Monthly. The annual rate is divided by 12 and applied every month, matching how most savings accounts credit interest and how the monthly deposits are timed. More frequent compounding grows money slightly faster than annual compounding at the same stated rate.
How much should I save each month?
A common starting point is the 50/30/20 guideline: about 20% of take-home pay toward savings and debt payoff. For an emergency fund, many advisors suggest 3–6 months of essential expenses. Enter your own amount above — any consistent deposit beats waiting for the perfect one.
What happens if the interest rate is 0%?
Then nothing compounds — your balance is simply your starting amount plus all your deposits. A $5,000 start plus $200 a month for 10 years at 0% is exactly $29,000. The calculator handles 0% without any division errors.
Does this include taxes, fees, or inflation?
Taxes — yes, if you set them. Use the Tax on interest (%) field in Advanced options and each year’s interest is taxed at that rate before it compounds (the result is then shown after yearly tax on interest); left at 0, the default, the projection is before tax. Fees are not included. The headline figures are nominal dollars; set an Inflation (%) in Advanced options and the calculator also shows the balance in today’s dollars — left at 0, the default, no inflation adjustment is shown, and your real, spendable growth will be somewhat lower than the headline number.
How is this different from the compound interest calculator?
The compound interest calculator focuses on one lump sum growing untouched. This savings calculator is built around the habit most savers actually have — a starting balance plus a deposit repeated every month.
How much interest will my savings earn each month?
Roughly: your balance × the annual rate ÷ 12, recalculated every month as the balance grows. On $10,000 at a 4.00% annual rate with monthly compounding, the first month’s interest is $33.33, and because each month’s credit joins the balance, the twelve credits of the first year total $407.42 rather than a flat $400. At the FDIC national average savings rate of 0.38% APY (FDIC, October 2026), the same $10,000 earns about $38.00 in a year — roughly $3.17 a month. Enter your own balance and rate above and the interest line gives your exact figure.
What is a money market account, and how is it different from a regular savings account?
A money market account is an insured deposit account that usually adds spending access — a debit card or checks — to a savings-style interest rate, often with a higher minimum balance and rates tiered by balance size. A regular savings account is simpler: deposits in, transfers out, no card. The interest math is identical on both — balance × rate, credited monthly, compounding — and both are FDIC insured to $250,000 per depositor, per bank. The money-market section above runs a full worked example and a side-by-side comparison.
How do I set a savings goal and work out the monthly deposit to reach it?
Divide the goal by the months you have — that is the most you could ever need to deposit — then let interest lower it. A $12,000 goal in 24 months needs $500.00 a month with no interest at all, $497.61 a month at a 0.50% rate, and $481.10 a month at 4.00%, because the account contributes $453.62 along the way. In the calculator: set the years to your deadline, set your real rate, then enter the goal in the goal tool under the results — it names the exact deposit that reaches it.
How often is savings account interest compounded, and why does it matter?
Most savings accounts compound daily or monthly and credit monthly; this calculator lets you choose anything from annually to continuously. Compounding more often means interest starts earning its own interest sooner, so the same rate yields a little more. The effect is real but modest: $10,000 at 4.00% for 10 years grows to $14,802.44 compounded annually, $14,908.33 compounded monthly, and $14,918.25 compounded continuously — a spread of about $116 across a decade. Your deposit amount and the rate itself each matter far more than the compounding frequency.
Should I keep my money in a savings account, invest it, or buy a CD?
It depends on when the money is needed, and the three tools answer different dates. A savings account suits money needed within a year or two, and money that must stay instantly accessible: the balance never falls, the rate is variable, and the return is modest. A CD suits money with a known future date — a deposit in two years, a bill in three — because the rate is fixed for the term and the money is locked, which is a fair trade only when the date is certain. Investing suits money with a horizon of 10 years or more, where the volatility that makes short-term values unpredictable is usually, not always, rewarded over time. The common mistake is using the wrong tool for the date: investing money needed next year risks a loss exactly when it is needed, while keeping 30-year money in savings guarantees it loses purchasing power to inflation. Match the tool to the date, and the return argument mostly settles itself.
Related calculators
More ways to grow and plan your money.
Related guides
Disclaimer
This calculator provides projections for information only — not financial advice. It assumes a fixed interest rate, monthly compounding, and deposits made every month without fail; real accounts change rates, charge fees, and tax interest. Savings accounts are not investments, and past or assumed rates do not guarantee future returns. For decisions about your money, consider speaking with a qualified financial advisor.