Savings Calculator

Pick your question: how much a plan grows to, when you reach a goal, or what to save each month to hit a goal by a date. All three run on the same honest arithmetic, with the APY converted the way banks actually pay it and every assumption stated.

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One calculator, three questions

Every savings plan is the same four quantities: what you start with, what you add each month, what it earns, and how long it runs. Pin any three and the fourth follows. This page solves the three versions people actually ask: how much a plan grows to, how long a goal takes, and what monthly deposit a goal demands. The interest arithmetic converts APY the way banks pay it, as (1 + APY)^(1/12) − 1 per month, never APY divided by 12, for reasons our HYSA calculator lays out in full.

Worked examples, one per question

How much will I have? $1,000 to start, $200 a month, 4.10% APY, five years: $14,490.68. Of that, $13,000 is your own deposits and $1,490.68 is interest.

When do I reach $10,000? Same start, same $200 a month: you cross the line in month 42, which is 3 years and 6 months. Without any interest it would take 45 months, so the rate buys back 3 of them.

What must I save monthly? $20,000 in three years, starting from $2,000 at 4.10%: $464.55 a month, landing on the goal to the dollar.

The honest split: the habit is the engine, the rate is the trim

Run $200 a month at 4.10% from zero and look at where the money comes from. After one year, interest has added 1.9% on top of your deposits. After five years, 10.6%. It takes about twenty years for interest to add half of what you contributed, and about thirty for it to roughly match your deposits dollar for dollar.

Saving $200/mo at 4.10%You put inInterestInterest as % of deposits
1 year$2,400$44.771.9%
5 years$12,000$1,268.1710.6%
10 years$24,000$5,488.6822.9%
20 years$48,000$25,560.6753.3%
30 years$72,000$67,427.9793.6%

Both halves of that table are true and they answer different lives. At savings-account horizons, the deposit is nearly everything, which is liberating: a plan does not stall because rates dipped, and you do not need a perfect account to start. At retirement horizons, compounding becomes the main character, which is our compound interest calculator's territory. The mistake is applying either lesson at the other horizon: waiting to optimize the rate before starting a five-year plan, or trusting deposits alone to fund a thirty-year one.

What this page assumes, said out loud

Deposits land at the end of each month. The APY holds for the whole projection, which for a variable savings rate makes every multi-year figure an illustration at today's rate rather than a promise. Interest is taxable as ordinary income, so the real after-tax figure is smaller; our HYSA calculator prices that, along with what current high-yield rates actually pay and what staying at a low rate costs. And a goal with a fixed deadline that must not miss is a case for locking the rate, which is what CDs are for, priced on our CD ladder calculator.

Frequently asked questions

How much will my savings grow?

Starting balance times growth, plus each deposit times the growth it has time for. The clean example: $1,000 to start and $200 a month at 4.10% APY reaches $14,490.68 in five years, of which $13,000 is your own money and $1,490.68 is interest. The pattern that surprises people is the split: at savings-account rates and horizons, the deposits do most of the work.

How long will it take to save my goal?

This page solves it exactly rather than making you guess and check: it finds the first month your balance crosses the goal. From $1,000 with $200 a month at 4.10%, a $10,000 goal arrives in 3 years and 6 months. It also shows what the rate contributed, which in that example is 3 months off the no-interest plan: real, but small next to the habit.

How much do I need to save each month?

The reverse solve: the deposit that lands exactly on the goal by the deadline, after your starting balance and its growth are counted. $20,000 in three years from a $2,000 start at 4.10% needs $464.55 a month. If your starting balance alone would grow past the goal in time, the answer is zero and the page says so rather than inventing a number.

Does the interest rate matter for short-term saving?

Less than the deposit does, and it is worth seeing the sizes. Saving $200 a month at 4.10%, interest adds 1.9% on top of your deposits after one year and 10.6% after five. Only around the twenty-to-thirty-year mark does compounding rival the deposits themselves. So for a five-year goal: start now with whatever account you have, then move the balance to a better rate, in that order. Both steps are worth doing; the order is the point.

What rate should I enter?

Whatever your account actually pays, as its APY. In August 2026 high-yield savings accounts pay roughly 3.8 to 4.5 percent while ordinary accounts average 0.38 percent, and the gap between those is worth far more than any projection detail on this page. Our HYSA calculator carries the current anchors and prices the switch. Left blank, this page computes at 0%, which understates rather than flatters.

Are these projections guaranteed?

No, and the reason is specific: savings rates are variable, so a multi-year projection at a fixed APY is an illustration at today's rate. The deposit math is exact; the rate is the moving part. If a goal has a hard deadline and the money must be there, a certificate of deposit locks the rate for the term, which is the trade our CD ladder calculator prices.

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