Paycheck Calculator 2026

Reading your first result

The big green number is what reaches your account on payday. Under it, every line that came out is listed in the order it leaves, with the percentage of gross it represents, because «7.65% for FICA» tells you more than a dollar figure alone. Two boxes below the lines do the work most calculators skip. The first says on which paycheck of the year Social Security stops, if your salary reaches the $184,500 wage base. The second compares what this paycheck withholds over a full year with what the 2026 rules say you will owe, and turns the gap into the refund or bill you are heading for.

Everything updates as you type, and the address bar updates with it: the URL is the calculation, so copying it is saving it, and sharing it shares exactly what you see. «Pay stub» renders the same figures as a pay stub you can print or save as PDF. «Explain my paycheck» sends the totals — never anything identifying — to a language model that puts them into plain English; every number in its answer is checked against the engine's output before you see it, and an answer that invents a figure is discarded rather than shown.

If you know your gross paid so far this year, put it in the advanced panel. It is the one input that makes the Social Security cap and the additional Medicare threshold land on the right paycheck instead of being averaged across the year, and it is why the «your year, paycheck by paycheck» chart can show the step up in your pay rather than a flat line.

Example paychecks in 2026

The table below is computed by the same engine as the calculator, for a single filer with a clean W-4, paid every two weeks, with no pre-tax deductions, in three states that bracket the country: Texas (no income tax), California (the highest graduated schedule) and New York (state tax without the city). It is the fastest way to see how much of the difference between two paychecks is the state and how much is the salary itself.

$40,000 a year is $1,538.46 gross every two weeks. In Texas that leaves $1,320.00 (14.2% to taxes); in California $1,297.59 (15.7%); in New York State $1,259.88 (18.1%). Federal withholding alone is $100.77 per paycheck at this salary, and FICA $117.69.

$60,000 a year is $2,307.69 gross every two weeks. In Texas that leaves $1,938.07 (16.0% to taxes); in California $1,875.01 (18.7%); in New York State $1,836.42 (20.4%). Federal withholding alone is $193.08 per paycheck at this salary, and FICA $176.54.

$85,000 a year is $3,269.23 gross every two weeks. In Texas that leaves $2,639.52 (19.3% to taxes); in California $2,498.75 (23.6%); in New York State $2,485.94 (24.0%). Federal withholding alone is $379.62 per paycheck at this salary, and FICA $250.09.

$120,000 a year is $4,615.38 gross every two weeks. In Texas that leaves $3,586.54 (22.3% to taxes); in California $3,320.58 (28.1%); in New York State $3,354.24 (27.3%). Federal withholding alone is $675.77 per paycheck at this salary, and FICA $353.07.

$200,000 a year is $7,692.31 gross every two weeks. In Texas that leaves $5,691.00 (25.5% to taxes); in California $5,138.88 (32.7%); in New York State $5,277.16 (30.9%). Federal withholding alone is $1,412.85 per paycheck at this salary, and FICA $588.46.

Notice how the gap between Texas and California widens as the salary rises: at $40,000 it is $22.41 per paycheck, at $200,000 it is $552.12. That is what a graduated state schedule does, and it is why «which state is cheapest» has no single answer. The salary after tax pages give the full 51-state table for any salary.

What actually comes out of a paycheck

Three different taxes leave a paycheck before anything else does, and they behave so differently that blending them into one «taxes» line hides what is going on. Federal income tax is progressive: the first $16,100 a single filer earns in 2026 is not taxed at all, because that is the standard deduction, and the rate then climbs through seven brackets from 10% to 37%. FICA is the opposite: Social Security at 6.2% and Medicare at 1.45% come off the very first dollar with no deduction, which is why a low earner often pays more in FICA than in income tax. And state income tax is whatever your state decided: nothing in 9 states, a single flat rate in 13, and graduated brackets in the other 29.

On top of those three, 11 states let a county, a city or a school district take a cut of wages too. New York City, Philadelphia, every municipality in Ohio and most of Pennsylvania are the famous cases, but Maryland's counties, Indiana's counties, Kentucky's cities and Michigan's cities all do it as well. Most paycheck calculators leave this line out entirely, which is why their number is too high for a quarter of the country. This one asks for the city when the state has one.

Then come the things that are not taxes but still reduce the deposit: your 401(k) contribution, your share of health insurance, an HSA or FSA, and after-tax items like a Roth contribution, union dues or a garnishment. Some of these reduce your taxable wages and some do not, and the difference is worth real money. A 401(k) contribution avoids income tax but not Social Security or Medicare; a health premium or HSA contribution through a Section 125 plan avoids all three. The calculator keeps them on separate lines for that reason.

The result is that two people with the same salary can take home very different amounts. A single filer on $85,000 in Texas keeps more per paycheck than the same person in California, and both keep more than someone in Philadelphia, where the city's wage tax comes on top of Pennsylvania's flat rate. The chart above shows exactly where each dollar of your own paycheck goes, in the order it leaves.

How this calculator works, step by step

The federal line is computed the way your employer's payroll software computes it: the percentage method for automated payroll systems in IRS Publication 15-T, applied to a 2026 Form W-4. The method has four steps. First, your taxable wages for the period are multiplied by the number of pay periods in the year to get an annualised figure. Second, that figure is adjusted: the amounts from Step 4(a) and 4(b) of your W-4 are added and subtracted, and if the box in Step 2(c) is not checked, a fixed $8,600 ($12,900 for joint filers) is subtracted. Third, the adjusted figure is run through the withholding rate table for your filing status to get a tentative annual withholding. Fourth, your Step 3 dependent credits are subtracted, the result is divided back into pay periods, and any extra amount from Step 4(c) is added.

Those withholding tables are not a separate set of numbers the IRS invents. They are the 2026 brackets and the standard deduction rearranged so that the fixed $8,600 subtraction in step two works out. That is why a person with a clean W-4 and a single job is withheld almost exactly their real annual tax: the table already contains the $16,100 deduction. It is also why two jobs, a working spouse or untaxed side income throw the number off, and why the W-4 has boxes for exactly those cases. The «Show me the math» diagram below the calculator walks through the four steps with your own figures.

Social Security and Medicare are simpler and stricter. Social Security is 6.2% of wages up to $184,500 in 2026, and then it stops for the rest of the year. Medicare is 1.45% with no ceiling, plus an extra 0.9% that employers must withhold once your wages in the year pass $200,000, regardless of your filing status. The calculator tracks your year-to-date wages so that the Social Security cap and the additional Medicare threshold land on the right paycheck, which is something a flat monthly average cannot do.

State tax is computed with each state's own rules — its brackets, deduction, exemptions or credits — on an annualised basis and divided back into pay periods. That is what a correctly completed state withholding form produces, and it is the only way to compare states fairly. Where a city or county has its own income tax, the local line uses the jurisdiction's published rate on the base it actually applies to: gross wages in Pennsylvania and Ohio, state taxable income in Indiana and Maryland, the city's own taxable income in New York. Every one of those parameters is listed under the calculator with the document it was read from and the date it was checked.

One thing this calculator does not pretend to know is what your employer's software will do with a W-4 that was filled in years ago, or with a benefit it treats differently from the rule. If your real stub differs from the figure here, the difference is almost always in one of three places: the W-4 on file, a deduction the calculator was not told about, or a local tax. The pay stub preview is there so you can put them side by side.

Salary or hourly: which mode to use

Use salary if you are paid a fixed annual amount split evenly over the year, whatever your hours. Use hourly if your gross depends on the hours you work — including overtime, a second rate for a different role, or shift differentials. The tax rules are identical in both modes; what changes is how the gross for the period is built. In hourly mode the calculator asks for your rate, your hours per pay period and your overtime hours, applies time-and-a-half (or double time where you tell it to), and then runs the same withholding.

Hourly workers have two things salaried workers do not. The first is that a single paycheck with a lot of overtime is withheld as if you earned that much every period, because the percentage method annualises whatever it sees. That over-withholds in a heavy week and comes back as a refund. The second is new in 2026: the federal deduction for overtime pay, which is applied when you file, not on the paycheck. The hourly calculator estimates it for you and shows what it does to your refund. The hourly paycheck calculator has the full version, with multiple rates, tips and the state overtime rules.

If you are converting between the two — «what is $25 an hour a year?» or «what is $60,000 a year per hour?» — the hourly to salary converter does it in both directions, before and after tax, for any number of hours a week.

Pay frequency changes the number, not the pay

The same $60,000 salary is $1,153.85 a week, $2,307.69 every two weeks, $2,500.00 twice a month and $5,000.00 a month. Nothing about the tax changes; only the slice you see on payday. The mistake people make is budgeting from the wrong slice: biweekly and semi-monthly look similar but the biweekly paycheck is about 8% smaller, because there are 26 of them rather than 24. In return, two months a year contain three biweekly paydays instead of two, and those are the months that feel like a bonus.

Frequency also matters for withholding precision. The percentage method annualises each paycheck, so a monthly paycheck with a bonus in it is annualised twelve times over, while the same bonus in a weekly paycheck is annualised fifty-two times. That is one reason bonuses are usually withheld separately at a flat rate instead — more on that in the bonus section. And some years have an extra period: 27 biweekly paydays or 53 weekly ones, depending on which day of the week the first payday falls. The advanced panel has both options, because your employer's software has them.

The payday calendar on the biweekly pay calculator shows which two months of 2026 have three paychecks for your first pay date, and the paycheck on which Social Security stops if your salary is above the wage base.

Your state and your city

9 states take nothing from wages: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming. Federal tax and FICA still come out there — no state can change those — and the missing income tax is usually made up in property or sales tax, so a bigger paycheck does not always mean a cheaper life. 13 states charge a single flat rate on wages, from Arizona's 2.5% to Massachusetts' 5% with a surtax on very high incomes. The remaining 29 use brackets, the way federal tax does, with California's schedule running to 13.3% at the top.

Local income taxes are the part most calculators skip, and they are not small. A resident of New York City pays a city tax of roughly 3% to 3.9% on top of the state's; a Philadelphia resident pays 3.74% on every dollar of wages; most Ohio cities charge 1% to 3%, and Ohio school districts can add more, on a different base, with no credit between the two. Indiana and Maryland charge by county on your state taxable income. The calculator lists the cities it knows for each state, and the state pages explain who pays what and whether it depends on where you live or where you work.

The «same salary, 51 states» chart under the calculator ranks every state for the salary you entered. It is worth reading with the state hub open, because the ranking changes with income: a state with a high top rate and a generous deduction can be cheaper than a flat-tax state at $40,000 and dearer at $200,000. Each state page has the full picture, checked against that state's revenue department.

Withholding is not your tax

The federal line on your paycheck is an estimate your employer makes on your behalf, based on the W-4 you gave them. Your actual tax is settled once a year on your return. If the estimate was too high, the difference comes back as a refund; if it was too low, you owe. A refund is not a gift and a bill is not a penalty — both just mean the W-4 on file did not describe your year. The calculator shows the two figures side by side: what this paycheck withholds over a year, and what the 2026 rules say you will owe.

The W-4 is where you fix it. Step 2 is for a second job or a working spouse; without it, each employer withholds as if their paycheck were your only income, and both apply the $16,100 deduction — which is why two-earner couples so often owe. Step 3 turns your child tax credit into a reduction of withholding. Step 4(a) covers income nobody withholds on, like interest or freelance work; Step 4(b) is for itemised deductions above the standard amount; Step 4(c) is a fixed extra amount per paycheck. Older forms from before 2020 used «allowances» worth $4,300 each; the IRS still honours them, but the newer form is more precise and the W-4 fixer will tell you exactly which lines to change to land where you want.

A quick way to check yourself: if you got a large refund last year and nothing has changed, your withholding is too high and you are lending the government money at no interest. If you owed, it is too low. The reality check quiz walks through the five questions that catch most cases.

Pre-tax deductions: what each one really costs

A $200 contribution to a traditional 401(k) does not cost you $200 of take-home. It reduces your federal taxable wages, so the income tax on that $200 disappears, and in most states the state tax does too. What it does not reduce is FICA: the IRS is explicit that elective deferrals to a 401(k) are wages for Social Security and Medicare purposes. So the saving is your marginal income tax rate, not your marginal rate plus 7.65%. For someone in the 22% bracket, $200 into the 401(k) lowers the paycheck by about $156 — and the chart under the calculator draws that curve for your own numbers, one percent at a time.

Health insurance premiums, HSA contributions and FSA contributions made through a Section 125 cafeteria plan are the exception: they come out before FICA as well as before income tax. That makes the HSA the single most tax-efficient dollar in the system — untaxed going in, untaxed growing, untaxed coming out for medical costs, and free of payroll tax too. The 2026 HSA limit is $4,400 for self-only coverage and $8,750 for a family; the 401(k) elective limit is $24,500, with an extra $8,000 from age 50 and $11,250 between 60 and 63.

After-tax deductions — Roth 401(k), post-tax life cover, union dues, garnishments — reduce nothing but the deposit. They still belong in the calculator, because the point of the exercise is the number that reaches your account, not a theoretical net.

What changed in 2026

The standard deduction rose to $16,100 for single filers, $32,200 for joint filers and $24,150 for heads of household, and every bracket threshold moved up with inflation. The Social Security wage base is $184,500. The 401(k) elective limit is $24,500. All of those are read from the documents that set them — IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32, the Social Security Administration's contribution and benefit base, and IRS Notice 2025-67 — and each is listed with its source under the calculator.

The bigger change is the set of new deductions from the 2025 budget law: qualified overtime pay is deductible up to $12,500 ($25,000 joint), reported tips up to $25,000, and people aged 65 and over get an additional $6,000 each, all phasing out above $150,000 of income ($300,000 joint). None of them changes what your employer withholds: Publication 15-T does not know about them. They reduce the tax you owe when you file, which is why the calculator shows them in the «withholding vs what you owe» box rather than on the paycheck. Only the overtime *premium* — the extra half of time-and-a-half — qualifies, not the whole overtime wage.

The what changed in 2026 guide keeps the full list, dated, including state changes such as Ohio's move to a single 2.75% rate.

Why calculators disagree

Enter the same salary into five paycheck calculators and you will get five numbers. Most of the gap is assumptions, not arithmetic. One tool models the W-4 with pre-2020 allowances; another has no head-of-household option; a third has no state selector and asks you to type a percentage; several skip local taxes entirely. Some are simply out of date: in September 2026 we found major calculators still describing the $147,000 Social Security wage base from 2022, California's disability insurance rate from 2023, and 401(k) limits from 2024, in text sitting next to a calculator that may or may not use the same figures.

We do not claim to be the only accurate one. We claim something checkable: every parameter used on this page is listed with its source document and the date it was read, the method is the one in Publication 15-T, and when a state's official figures disagreed with the compiled sources most calculators rely on, the methodology page says which state, what the difference was and what we changed. If your stub still disagrees with us, the report a discrepancy form goes to a real person and the fix is published in corrections.

The are paycheck calculators accurate? guide lets you enter a salary and see, assumption by assumption, why three well-known tools give three different answers for it.

A worked example: $85,000 in Texas, paid every two weeks

Take $85,000 a year in Texas, paid every two weeks (26 paychecks), single, standard W-4, no pre-tax deductions. The gross per paycheck is $3,269.23. Federal income tax withholding, from the 2026 Publication 15-T percentage method, takes $379.62. Social Security takes 6.2% of gross, $202.69, and Medicare 1.45%, $47.40. Texas withholds no income tax. The net deposit is $2,639.52, 80.7% of gross; over the year that is $68,628 from $85,000, an effective rate of 19.3% on all taxes together. Every line is reproducible from the documents on the sources page, and the table below lists them in the order they appear on a stub.

Two things on that stub are not obvious from the totals. First, the federal line is withholding, not tax: the tables annualise this paycheck as if all 26 were identical, and the year's actual tax, $9,870, differs from the $9,870 withheld by $0, which becomes a refund in April. Second, Social Security and Medicare are the same fraction of every paycheck of the year, because the salary is under the wage base, and no form can change them; only Section 125 deductions reduce their base. The reading guide walks each line and names what it should equal.