Convert your gross salary into actual take-home pay after federal tax, FICA, 401(k), and health premiums.
Free 2026 take-home pay calculator. See what your real paycheck looks like after federal income tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare, 401(k) contributions, and health insurance premiums.
Direct answers to the most common questions, in plain language. Skim if you're in a hurry; dig deeper below.
Gross is your salary; take-home is what hits your bank.
Gross pay is the headline number on your offer letter. Take-home pay is what lands in your bank account after federal tax, state tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), 401(k) contributions, and health premiums are removed. For many workers the gap is 25–35%.
Usually 20–35% combined federal, state, and FICA.
A single filer at $80,000 typically loses around 12% to federal income tax, 7.65% to FICA, and 0–8% to state tax — roughly 22–28% total. High earners push past 35%. The exact split depends on filing status, state, and pretax deductions.
Yes, traditional 401(k) contributions are pretax.
Traditional 401(k) contributions come out before federal and state income tax is calculated, lowering your taxable wage. FICA still applies to the contribution. A 10% contribution at a 22% federal bracket typically saves about $2.20 in tax per $10 contributed.
No. Effective rate is almost always lower.
Your marginal bracket is the rate on your next dollar. Your effective rate is total tax divided by total income — much lower because earlier dollars are taxed at lower brackets and the standard deduction shields the first chunk entirely.
The mechanics in short answers — no jargon, no upsell.
Your 401(k) and pretax health premiums are subtracted from gross before federal and state income tax is calculated. FICA still applies to those dollars.
After the standard deduction ($15,000 single / $30,000 married in 2026), each chunk of income is taxed at progressively higher rates — 10%, 12%, 22%, and up.
Social Security is 6.2% on wages up to $168,600, then stops. Medicare is 1.45% with no cap, plus an extra 0.9% above $200K single / $250K married.
Seven states have no income tax. The rest range from a flat 3% to a graduated 13.3% in California. This calculator uses a flat rate on taxable income for transparency.
Designed so anyone can model their situation in under a minute, with or without a finance background.
Skip the surprise on payday — know exactly what hits your account before you accept an offer.
Uses the current-year IRS brackets and standard deduction, plus FICA caps and Medicare surcharges.
Side-by-side single vs. married numbers so you can model life changes before they happen.
Watch your tax bill shrink as you bump your retirement contribution percentage.
Slider covers everything from 0% (no-income-tax states) to California-style 13.3%.
Numbers stay in your browser. No accounts, no email forms, no data leaving the page.
Everything you might ask before, during, or after using this tool.
Take-home pay (also called net pay) is what actually lands in your bank account after federal income tax, state income tax, FICA, 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums, and any other voluntary deductions are removed from your gross salary.
It uses 2026 IRS federal brackets, the standard deduction, the Social Security wage cap of $168,600, and the additional Medicare tax thresholds. State tax is modeled as a flat percentage of taxable income — accurate for flat-tax states and a reasonable approximation for graduated states. It does not include local city taxes, employer benefits beyond health premiums, or itemized deductions.
The U.S. uses a progressive tax system. If you are in the 22% bracket, only the dollars above that bracket's threshold are taxed at 22%. The first $15,000 (standard deduction) is taxed at 0%, the next chunk at 10%, then 12%, then 22%, and so on. Your effective rate averages all of these together.
Each pretax dollar you contribute saves you tax at your marginal rate. At the 22% bracket, $10,000 contributed saves $2,200 in federal tax (plus state). But you still pay FICA on it. The 2026 employee limit is $23,500 ($31,000 if 50+).
Yes, if they are paid through an employer-sponsored Section 125 cafeteria plan (most are). They come out pretax — before federal, state, and FICA — making them more tax-advantaged than a traditional 401(k).
Social Security tax (6.2%) only applies to the first $168,600 of wages in 2026. Past that, you stop paying it. Medicare tax (1.45%) has no cap, and an additional 0.9% kicks in above $200,000 single / $250,000 married.
Married filing jointly roughly doubles every federal bracket and the standard deduction, so a married couple earning the same combined income as a single filer pays substantially less federal tax. The additional Medicare tax threshold is also higher ($250K vs $200K).
The slider tops out at 13.3% — California's top marginal rate. For exact California or New York numbers, our state-tax calculator models the full graduated brackets. This tool uses a flat rate for simplicity and speed.
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Calculate your real take-home pay after federal, state, and FICA taxes. Includes 401(k), HSA, health insurance, and other pre-tax deductions.
Convert any salary to hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly pay. Model raises, compare inflation-adjusted pay, and see the real per-hour rate when you work overtime.
Estimate your 2026 US federal income tax: brackets, FICA, effective rate, deductions, capital gains, and take-home pay — all in one place.
Estimate your state income tax in any of the 50 US states. Compare states side-by-side with effective and marginal rates.
Convert any hourly wage to annual, monthly, biweekly, and weekly salary. Includes overtime, unpaid leave, and a side-by-side offer comparison.
See exactly how much you take home from a bonus — flat 22% vs. aggregate withholding methods, plus FICA and state withholding modeled separately.
Calculate 1099 / freelancer self-employment tax, federal income tax, the half-SE deduction, and your quarterly estimated payment.
When you accept a $100,000 job, you do not get $100,000. You get roughly $70,000–$75,000, depending on where you live. The rest disappears into a stack of deductions that get taken automatically: federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and whatever you opted into for retirement and health care.
The shock is biggest on the first paycheck. The fix is to plan in net dollars from the beginning — when you negotiate, when you budget, when you compare offers in different states. This calculator turns the headline number into the only number that matters: what hits your account on payday.
Every dollar you route through a pretax bucket — 401(k), HSA, FSA, or employer health premiums — is a dollar the IRS never sees as income. At the 22% federal bracket plus a 5% state, every $1,000 of pretax contribution costs you only about $730 of take-home.
That is why maxing a 401(k) almost never feels as painful as it sounds. The math does most of the work for you. The trade-off is liquidity — that money is locked until 59½ — so build the emergency fund first, then layer pretax on top.
Social Security tax is 6.2% on the first $168,600 of wages in 2026, then it stops. If you earn $250,000, you stop paying SS tax sometime in early September and your paychecks jump for the rest of the year. Many people mistake this for a raise; it is not. It is a tax shelf.
Medicare keeps going, and adds an extra 0.9% above $200,000 single / $250,000 married. So as you cross those thresholds, the headline number on your paycheck moves in opposite directions depending on which tax is currently applying.
Your marginal rate is the percentage you pay on your next dollar of income. Your effective rate is the percentage you pay on all your dollars combined. They are almost never the same number, and the gap is often 8–12 percentage points.
Why does this matter? Because financial decisions — should I work overtime, should I take the bonus, should I do Roth or traditional — are decided at the margin, not the average. Knowing both numbers lets you reason about extra income correctly.
Seven states have no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. New Hampshire taxes only interest and dividends. The rest range from flat 3% (Pennsylvania-ish) to California's graduated 13.3% top rate.
A $150,000 salary in Texas yields roughly $11,000 more take-home than the same salary in California — but Texas has higher property tax, California has milder weather, and so the comparison never reduces to a single number. The calculator handles the tax part; you handle the rest.
Two short notes worth reading before you trust any number on this page.
Your loan amount, rate, and prepayment inputs never leave your device. No accounts, no cookies on your numbers, no analytics on the values you type. Disconnect from the internet and it still works.
We are not a bank, NBFC, advisor, broker, or distributor of any financial product. The numbers shown here are estimates for educational purposes only, based on the inputs you provide.
Results are not financial, legal, or tax advice. Please consult a qualified professional before any decision about your loan, investments, or personal finances. Actual loan terms and charges depend on your bank and individual circumstances.
