Social Security Spousal & Survivor Benefit Calculator (2026)

Up to half of the other spouse's benefit at full retirement age (their primary insurance amount; the other spouse's delayed retirement credits do not raise it). If you also have your own record, SSA pays your own benefit and adds only the difference, so the two are never added in full. Starting before your own full retirement age cuts the extra amount by 25/36 of 1% for each of the first 36 months and 5/12 of 1% for each month after that, which is 35% (a spouse with no benefit of their own gets 32.5% of the other's amount) at 62 when full retirement age is 67.

SSA's own example: a worker with a $1,600 benefit and a spouse who starts 36 months early. Half is $800, 25% off is $600. In the default example here, the higher earner has $3,200 and the spouse $1,100 of their own, so at full retirement age the spouse is paid $1,100 plus a top-up of $500 ($1,600 less $1,100).

Only when both of you have started your benefits; the top-up is on the other person's record. Under section 202(r), someone who files for their own benefit while eligible for a spouse's benefit is treated as filing for both. The reduction for starting early counts from the month the top-up starts, not from the month your own benefit started.

Example: the spouse in the default couple (born 1964) starts at 62, in 2026, and the higher earner (born 1962) waits to 67, in 2029. The spouse gets $770 a month (70% of $1,100) from 62. The top-up begins in 2029, when the spouse is 65 and 24 months from full retirement age, and is $416 instead of $500.

A survivor benefit is the deceased spouse's benefit, and it can start as early as 60. SSA says it starts at 71.5% and reaches 100% at the survivor's full retirement age; the reduction is 28.5% at 60 falling in a straight line to nothing at that age (20 CFR § 404.410(c)(1)). If you also have your own retirement benefit you are paid the larger of the two, not the sum, and SSA says you can start with one and switch to the other later.

Example: a husband or wife who was getting $3,200 at full retirement age dies, and the survivor (born 1964, survivor full retirement age 67) starts survivor benefits at 60 for $2,288, at 62 for $2,548, at 64 for $2,809 and at 67 for $3,200.

The survivor benefit is built from the deceased spouse's record. If they waited past full retirement age, the delayed retirement credits pass to the survivor. If they started before it, the survivor benefit is held to the greater of what they would be getting now and 82.5% of their benefit at full retirement age (Social Security Act § 202(e)(2)(D); 20 CFR § 404.338(c)).

With $3,200 at full retirement age, a survivor at their own full retirement age gets $2,640 if the first spouse started at 62 (they were getting $2,240; 82.5% of $3,200 is the higher figure), $3,200 if at 67 and $3,968 if at 70. The limit only matters for a survivor who waits: someone who starts survivor benefits at 60 gets 71.5%, which is under 82.5%.

It is later by two birth years than the table for your own retirement benefit, because the statute ties it to the calendar year in which you reach the early age (60 for a survivor, 62 for retirement; Social Security Act § 216(l)). Born 1945 to 1956: 66. Born 1957 to 1961: 66 and 2 months, rising by 2 months a year to 66 and 10 months. Born 1962 or later: 67. SSA's retirement-age page says the same thing in one line: widows and widowers add 2 years to the year of birth in the table.

It assumes the benefit amounts you enter and today's dollars (cost-of-living increases would raise every figure by about the same percentage), a worker who had started their benefit when they died, and birthdays in January with ages in whole years. It does not model the family maximum when children also receive benefits, a spouse caring for a child under 16 (whose spouse's benefit is not reduced), divorced spouses, the earnings limit, the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision (both repealed in 2025, so there is nothing to subtract), disability, remarriage, or the special rules for people born before 1955.

One reading is ours: when the spouse's own benefit includes delayed credits, the whole benefit is subtracted from the spouse's amount (the wording of 20 CFR § 404.407(a)); SSA's internal manual, which was not reachable when this was written, may treat that case in more detail. For your own case use your my Social Security account.