2025 Social Security COLA
The 2025 Social Security COLA is 2.5%.
Effective 2025-01-01Source: Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)Verified 2026-09-01
Compared with 2024
| Item | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost-of-living increase | 3.2% | 2.5% | -0.7% (-21.9%) |
Who it applies to
The increase applies to people receiving Social Security retirement, survivors or disability benefits under title II of the Social Security Act, and to people receiving Supplemental Security Income under title XVI. Both rise by 2.5 percent. A title II benefit reflects the increase from the December 2024 benefit, which is payable in January 2025; an SSI payment reflects it from the payment made for January 2025. It is a single rate rather than a per-person calculation, so every benefit it applies to rises by the same 2.5 percent and what differs between people is the amount the rate is applied to. The same notice settles other program amounts for 2025 as well, among them the contribution and benefit base, the retirement earnings test exempt amounts and the substantial gainful activity amounts; this page states the cost-of-living increase only, and each of those is a separate figure with its own sentence in the notice.
What changed this year, and why
The Social Security Administration determined a cost-of-living increase of 2.5 percent for 2025. Its notice states the increase as 2.5 percent for benefits under title II of the Social Security Act and for payments under title XVI, so retirement, survivors and disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income payments all rise by the same 2.5 percent. Under title II the increase reaches individuals eligible for December 2024 benefits, which are payable in January 2025. SSI payments increase by 2.5 percent effective for payments made for January 2025. The increase for 2024 was 3.2 percent; each year's figure is determined on its own and stated in its own notice.
Common questions
- What is the 2025 Social Security COLA?
- It is 2.5 percent. SSA's notice for 2025 states that the cost-of-living increase is 2.5 percent for benefits under title II of the Social Security Act and for payments under title XVI.
- When does the 2025 COLA take effect?
- Under title II it is effective for individuals eligible for December 2024 benefits, which are payable in January 2025. That is why an increase settled in the autumn of 2024 is the increase people see in their 2025 payments.
- Does the 2025 COLA apply to Supplemental Security Income?
- Yes. Federal SSI payments also increase by 2.5 percent, effective for payments made for January 2025. The notice states the same increase for title XVI payments as for title II benefits.
- Who settles the COLA, and where is it published?
- The Social Security Administration does, and it publishes the determination as a notice in the Federal Register titled "Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025". That notice is the document this page cites, and it is where 2.5 percent is stated in a sentence.
- How is the cost-of-living increase worked out?
- From the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics produces. SSA compares that index for the calendar quarter ending in September with the same quarter of the most recent year in which an increase was determined, and rounds the result. For 2025 that computation gave 2.5 percent.
- Does every beneficiary get the same increase?
- The rate is the same for everyone it applies to: the notice states a single increase of 2.5 percent for benefits under title II and payments under title XVI. What differs between people is the benefit the rate is applied to, not the rate itself.
- What else does the same notice decide?
- The notice that carries the 2.5 percent increase also settles other amounts for 2025, including the contribution and benefit base, the retirement earnings test exempt amounts, the substantial gainful activity amounts and the SSI student earned income exclusion. Each of those is a separate figure with its own sentence in the notice, and this page publishes the cost-of-living increase only.
- How does the 2025 COLA compare with the year before?
- The increase for 2025 is 2.5 percent. The increase for 2024 was 3.2 percent. Each year's figure is settled on its own and stated in its own notice, so an increase in a given year does not carry into the next.
Every amount on this page is a published figure rather than yours. The Social Security benefit after the COLA takes the number you enter and works it out against them, showing which published figure it used.
How the increase is computed, and when there is none
The Social Security Administration computes the annual cost-of-living adjustment by comparing the Consumer Price Index for the third quarter of the current year against the third quarter of the previous year. The percentage increase between these two quarterly averages determines the benefit increase for the following year. For 2025, the comparison showed a 2.5% increase. If the third quarter index does not exceed the prior year's third quarter level, there is no cost-of-living adjustment for that year. The law provides no mechanism to reduce benefits if prices fall. Once an increase is calculated and applied, it becomes the baseline for future comparisons, even if subsequent years show deflation. This method protects beneficiaries from benefit cuts while ensuring adjustments only occur when there is actual price inflation over the measurement period.
The law states that a cost-of-living increase for benefits is determined based on the percentage increase, if any, in the CPI from the last computation quarter to the third quarter of the current year.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
Only three months of the CPI decide it
The increase is not measured over a year of prices. The Act defines a cost-of-living computation quarter as three months, and the index for that quarter is one number: the arithmetic mean of the index for the 3 months in it. That mean is rounded to the nearest 0.001 before any comparison is made, and the comparison is then between two such means a year apart. Two things follow for anyone reading the 2.5% on this page against inflation reported elsewhere. Prices in the other nine months of the year never enter the calculation directly; they matter only insofar as they are still showing in the third quarter when it comes round. And a sharp move late in the year does not raise the increase announced for 2025. It falls inside the following year's quarter, so it is carried into the next announcement instead.
Section 215(i)(1) of the Act states that the CPI for a cost-of- living computation quarter is the arithmetic mean of this index for the 3 months in that quarter. In accordance with 20 CFR 404.275, we round the arithmetic mean, if necessary, to the nearest 0.001.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
It starts with December benefits, paid in January
Although the adjustment is called a 2025 COLA, the new benefit amount technically starts with benefits for December 2024. Those December 2024 benefits are the ones SSA actually pays out in January 2025, so the first checks that reflect the higher figure arrive in January. The increase applies only to workers and family members whose eligibility for benefits - meaning the worker reached age 62, or became disabled, or died before age 62 - occurred before 2025. People who first become eligible in 2025 or later do not receive this 2.5 percent bump; their initial benefit is calculated under the separate rules for new eligibilities and the higher figure is not layered on top. After January, every subsequent monthly payment continues at the adjusted amount until the next COLA takes effect.
In accordance with section 215(i) of the Act, for workers and family members for whom eligibility for benefits (that is, the worker's attainment of age 62, or disability or death before age 62) occurred before 2025, benefits will increase by 2.5 percent beginning with benefits for December 2024, which are payable in January 2025.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
Working before full retirement age withholds part of the benefit
Beneficiaries who are below full retirement age and work may have part of their Social Security benefit withheld under the retirement earnings test. The rate at which benefits are withheld depends on how close the person is to full retirement age. In the year a beneficiary reaches full retirement age, the program withholds $1 in benefits for every $3 of earnings above the exempt amount, counting only months before the month of attainment. For all other beneficiaries below full retirement age at all other times, the withholding is $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings over the annual exempt amount. Once the beneficiary reaches full retirement age, earnings no longer reduce benefits, no matter how much is earned.
For beneficiaries who attain NRA in the year, we withhold $1 in benefits for every $3 of earnings over the annual exempt amount for months before NRA. For all other beneficiaries under NRA, we withhold $1 in benefits for every $2 of earnings over the annual exempt amount.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
The year you reach full retirement age has its own limit
The year you reach full retirement age - called NRA in the statute - has its own, more generous earnings limit. A higher exempt amount applies in the year in which a person attains NRA, but only for earnings in months before such attainment. That means the higher annual threshold counts only wages and self-employment income earned in the months from January through the month before your birthday month; once you reach that birthday month, the earnings test drops away entirely and you can earn any amount without withholding. At all other ages below NRA, a lower exempt amount applies instead. The higher figure for the NRA year is recalculated each year using a formula tied to the national average wage index, and the lower figure is recalculated on the same basis. SSA publishes both amounts each year in the Federal Register alongside the COLA notice.
A higher exempt amount applies in the year in which a person attains NRA, but only for earnings in months before such attainment.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
What earnings count as substantial gainful activity
For Social Security disability purposes, a person must be unable to engage in substantial gainful activity. The program uses a bright-line earnings test: a person who is earning more than a certain monthly amount is ordinarily considered to be engaging in SGA, and that fact alone can be enough to find the person not disabled. The monthly SGA amount is higher for statutorily blind individuals than for non-blind individuals with a determined disability. The amounts are updated each year using a wage-indexing formula tied to the national average wage index. For 2025, the COLA of 2.5 percent does not by itself set the SGA figures; those figures move with average wages, not prices, though they are adjusted annually alongside the COLA announcement.
A person who is earning more than a certain monthly amount is ordinarily considered to be engaging in SGA
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
How each figure was verified
Each number below was read from a stored copy of the document named beside it, and checked to occur word for word in the quoted sentence. The digest is of that stored text.
Cost-of-Living Increase and Other Determinations for 2025 (SSA)
- Cost-of-living increase
The cost-of-living increase is 2.5 percent for monthly benefits under title II and for monthly payments under title XVI of the Act.