Your Social Security COLA Notice Arrives in December. Here's How to Estimate Your 2027 Raise Before Then.

Social Security beneficiaries will receive their biggest raise in four years in 2027. The On Oct. 14, 2026, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for next year.

SSA will send personalized notices to all beneficiaries that detail exactly what their new benefit payments will be, but those notices won't arrive until December. You could wait six weeks to find out how much you'll receive. However, you could also do the calculation yourself in under two minutes.

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An easy calculation and an even easier online tool

If you want to know what your 2027 Social Security benefit will be before SSA's personalized notice comes in December, the math is simple. Just multiply your monthly gross benefit before any deductions by 1.036. The result will be your new monthly gross benefit for 2027 with the 3.6% COLA applied.

For example, the average retiree's gross monthly benefit as of September 2026 was $2,088.79, based on SSA's monthly statistical snapshot. Multiplying that amount times 1.036 gives $2,163.99. The monthly increase equals $75.20, which is exactly 3.6% of the September average monthly benefit of $2,088.79.

Keep in mind that those example numbers are only averages. Your projected Social Security benefit will likely be different, based on how much you earned over your career and when you claimed Social Security retirement benefits (if you claimed before your full retirement age, your benefits will be lower than they would otherwise be).

You don't have to perform this simple calculation to find out how the 2027 COLA will impact your Social Security benefits before the personalized notice arrives in the mail, though. The "my Social Security" account for most beneficiaries will display those personalized notices in late November before the mailed paper notices make it through the U.S. postal system. Just log into your account at SSA.gov. Then, navigate to the Message Center section to see the online notice.

A Medicare wildcard

Importantly, the numbers we have discussed are gross Social Security benefit amounts rather than the actual amount that will be deposited into your checking account. You won't be able to calculate this "take-home" amount yet. Why? The 2027 Medicare premiums haven't been finalized yet, and Medicare Part B premiums are deducted from most beneficiaries' Social Security payments.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will announce the 2027 premiums in November. In the meantime, retirees have reason to be optimistic. The 2026 Medicare Trustees Report, which was released in June, projected that the standard Part B premium would increase by around 3.25% next year. That's less than the Social Security COLA increase, which translates to good news for seniors.

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