CPP and OAS calculator: what will I get?

You've got one number from Service Canada and a decision that affects years of payments. That's a lot to rest on one figure, so we show every step we take with it, and you can check each one by hand.

First, the age your estimate is for. We can't see inside My Service Canada Account, and Canada.ca's public pages, as we read them on October 8, 2026, describe the estimate only as what you'd get "if you're eligible to receive it now". If you're 62, that figure may already carry the cut for starting early. So we ask which age it's for and work back to the age-65 amount before doing anything else. Take $820.00 quoted for 62 years 6 months. That's 30 months early, 18% less, so the age-65 amount is $1,000.00, and at 70 it becomes $1,420.00. Treat the same $820.00 as an age-65 figure and you'd get $1,164.40 at 70, because the early-start cut has been taken off twice.

Next comes the start date, counted in months. The CPP Regulations take 0.6% off for each month you start before 65 and add 0.7% for each month after, for up to 60 months either way. So 60 years 0 months is 36% less and 70 years 0 months is 42% more. The law treats you as reaching an age at the start of the month after your birthday month. We count the same way, which is why "65 years 0 months" means the month after the month you turn 65.

OAS runs on your years in Canada instead. A full OAS pension takes 40 years in Canada after 18. With fewer, you get a fortieth for each whole year, and you need at least 10, or 20 if you'll live abroad. Waiting past 65 adds 0.6% a month, up to 36% at 70.

If you won't have 40 years, waiting does two things at once. It raises the pension you qualified for, and it lets more years in Canada count. The OAS Act works out both and pays you the bigger one. We show you both too, and mark the one it pays. With 12 years at 65, waiting to 70 pays more through the extra years ($324.06 a month at the October to December 2026 rate) than through the raise ($311.10). With 14 years, it flips.

The clawback, on your own numbers. For a Canadian tax resident, the OAS recovery tax takes 15% of your net income above the year's threshold, up to all the OAS you were paid. We add a full year of your CPP and OAS to your other income and test the total against the 2026 or 2025 threshold, once for each age band. We assume you're a Canadian tax resident throughout that income year. If you'll live abroad, we leave the clawback to the CRA because tax treaties can change it. The tax for a year is settled on that year's return, and Service Canada uses that return to set deductions from the next July to the June after.

What we leave out. We don't project your career, earnings or future contributions, and we don't work out income tax, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, survivor benefits or the Quebec Pension Plan. Every figure is before tax and in your estimate's own dollars. For a whole-career projection, the Canadian Retirement Income Calculator is the government's own.

One small rounding question is still open. Service Canada doesn't say whether it rounds a deferred partial pension before adding the 10% at 75, and the Old Age Security Act and Regulations, as we read them on October 8, 2026, don't settle it either. The Regulations only say cents round half up. We round once, at the end, from the exact amount, so a figure can differ from Service Canada's by a cent.

If you live in Quebec, Retraite Québec runs your pension under the Quebec Pension Plan, which has its own rules. OAS and the recovery tax work the same in Quebec as everywhere else in Canada.

When you're ready to apply, your own record in My Service Canada Account is the one that counts, so check your Statement of Contributions against your T4 slips first.