Military Retirement Pay Calculator
Sep 1980 – Dec 2017 entry: 2.5%/yr × High-3 average
2026 table pay: $6,610/mo
2026 COLA is 2.8% for all systems except REDUX (1.8%)
Enter Your Service Details
Select your retirement system, pay grade, and years of service to estimate your monthly military pension and projected lifetime retirement income.
How to Use This Calculator
Select Your Service Component and Retirement System
Choose Active Duty or Guard/Reserve, then select the retirement system that applies to you. Your system is determined by your DIEMS (Date of Initial Entry to Military Service): Final Pay for pre-1980, High-36 for 1980–2017, BRS mandatory for 2018+. REDUX is an optional choice for 1986–2017 entrants.
Enter Your Pay Grade and Years of Service
Select the pay grade you expect to hold at retirement and adjust the years of service slider. The calculator automatically looks up your 2026 DFAS base pay. You can override this with a custom amount if you prefer to use your personal High-3 average or a projected final pay.
Configure SBP and Optional Settings
Choose your Survivor Benefit Plan coverage level: full (6.5% of total retired pay), a custom base amount, or none. If selecting BRS, enter your TSP contribution percentage and expected annual return to see projected TSP balances at 10, 20, and 30 years. Adjust the COLA rate to match your inflation assumption.
Review All Results and Export
Review your estimated monthly and annual retirement pay, the side-by-side system comparison, COLA projections, SBP costs, and replacement rate. Toggle between monthly and annual display. Export a CSV of your projection data or print results for your financial planning folder.
Frequently Asked Questions
What retirement system applies to me?
Your retirement system is determined by your DIEMS — the date you first entered military service. If you entered before September 8, 1980, you fall under the Final Pay system. Members who entered between September 8, 1980 and July 31, 1986 use High-36. Those who entered between August 1, 1986 and December 31, 2017 use High-36 by default but had the option to elect REDUX/CSB at the 15-year mark. Anyone who entered service on or after January 1, 2018 is automatically enrolled in the Blended Retirement System (BRS) with no option to choose another system.
What is the High-3 average and how is it calculated?
The High-3 (High-36) average is the mean of the 36 highest months of basic pay in a service member's career. Because pay generally increases over a career, the highest 36 months are typically the final three years before retirement. The calculator approximates this by averaging pay at the current years of service and the two preceding breakpoints in the DFAS pay table. Using a custom pay override gives you the most accurate result if you know your actual average. The High-3 figure is used as the retirement base for all systems except Final Pay, which uses the literal last month's pay.
How does REDUX compare to High-36?
REDUX offered a $30,000 tax-advantaged Career Status Bonus at the 15-year mark in exchange for a lower pension (2.0% per year for years 1–20, then 3.5% per year from 20–30) and a COLA rate of CPI minus 1% instead of full CPI. At age 62, a one-time adjustment recalculates the pension as if full COLA had been received and resets to full CPI. Most financial analyses find that REDUX rarely makes sense: the compound effect of a 1% lower annual COLA over 20–30 years of collecting retirement pay far exceeds the value of the $30,000 bonus for most service members. The breakeven point is generally 30+ years post-retirement.
How does the BRS TSP benefit work?
Under BRS, the government automatically contributes 1% of your base pay to your TSP account each month, regardless of whether you contribute yourself. Once you have served two years, that 1% vests permanently. Additionally, the government matches your contributions dollar-for-dollar on the first 3% and 50 cents per dollar on the next 2%, for a total government match of up to 5% of base pay. Matching contributions vest immediately. At retirement, your TSP account is portable — it can be kept in the TSP, rolled into an IRA, or transferred to a civilian 401(k). Penalty-free withdrawals from TSP are available at age 55 for separated service members, versus age 59.5 for most civilian accounts.
What is the Survivor Benefit Plan and should I elect it?
The SBP is an annuity program that pays a portion of your retired pay to a designated beneficiary (typically a spouse) after your death. The premium is 6.5% of your elected base amount, deducted pre-tax from your monthly retirement pay. Your beneficiary receives 55% of the elected base amount for life, adjusted for COLA. The SBP election must be made at retirement — there is no open-season option otherwise. Since January 2023, the SBP-DIC offset has been fully eliminated, meaning survivors can receive both full SBP and full VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation simultaneously, significantly improving the SBP's value proposition. SBP premiums also cease when you reach age 70 AND have paid for 30 years (the paid-up provision).
How does Guard and Reserve retirement differ from active duty?
Guard and Reserve retirement is points-based rather than years-based. Points accrue as follows: 15 per year for membership, 4 per inactive duty training (drill) weekend, 1 per day of annual training, and 1 per day of active duty. A qualifying year requires at least 50 points, and 20 qualifying years are needed for retirement eligibility. Dividing total career points by 360 gives equivalent active-duty years for the multiplier calculation. The key difference from active duty is that Guard and Reserve retirement pay does not begin until age 60, though post-2008 active-duty mobilizations of 90 consecutive days can each reduce the retirement age by three months (to a minimum of age 50).