German Pension Points Calculator 2026

What this calculator estimates

This calculator answers three questions about the German statutory pension. How many pension points do your 2026 earnings or contributions create? What monthly gross pension do the points you already have represent at the current pension value? And what might your pension be at retirement, under assumptions you choose and can see?

The result is an estimate. An official pension notice from Deutsche Rentenversicherung (DRV) rests on your full insurance record and on the rules in force when your pension starts. Use this page to understand how the system works and to compare scenarios, not to replace that notice.

What are pension points?

A pension point, officially an Entgeltpunkt, measures one year of pensionable earnings relative to everyone else's. If you earn exactly the average insured wage in a year, you collect one point. Earn half the average and you collect half a point. Earn more and you collect more, up to the contribution ceiling.

That makes points a statement about your relative position, not a balance in a savings account. Your contributions are not invested for you. They finance current pensions, and in return you acquire a claim whose size is set by your points. The legal basis is section 70 of the Sixth Book of the Social Code (SGB VI): your contribution base for the year is divided by the average earnings of the same year.

Because the average moves every year, a point from 2026 and a point from 2010 stand for the same thing, a year of average earnings, even though the euro amounts behind them differ greatly.

The 2026 figures explained

The average earnings figure of €51,944 is provisional. A final figure is set later, so treat any result as an estimate. It is also not the contribution ceiling and not a typical salary: it is the average across all insured people.

The pension value is a monthly amount, the gross pension that one point earns each month. It changed on 1 July 2026, so this calculator lets you pick the value that applies to the date you care about. It never averages the two values. Switching the value changes the euro amount, never the number of points.

From salary or contributions to points

With earnings, the maths is direct. Pensionable earnings are your gross pay up to the ceiling of €8,450 for each full month. Divide that figure by €51,944 and you have your points. Working only six months does not change the denominator: it stays the full-year average, so six months at €5,000 gives 30,000 divided by 51,944, about 0.58 points.

With contributions, the calculator works backwards. If you enter only your own share, it divides by 9.3 % to reach the earnings behind it. If you enter your share and your employer's share together, it divides by 18.6 %. Either way the earnings are then divided by €51,944. The maximum your own share can be is €785.85 a month, or €1,571.70 for both shares combined. Anything higher is rejected rather than quietly trimmed.

These conversions hold only for ordinary employment in the general scheme where employer and employee split the contribution equally. They do not apply to Minijobs, Midijobs in the transition zone, employer-only contributions, voluntary contributions, special top-up payments, refunded contributions or the miners' scheme. In those cases a lower employee share does not necessarily mean proportionally fewer points, so use the earnings your pension record reports.

Variable pay, one-off payments and several jobs can change how earnings are assigned to months. The calculator assumes even pay across the months you select, so it will not match payroll in every case.

What points mean for a monthly pension

Your monthly gross pension is the product of three things (section 64 SGB VI): your personal earnings points, the pension type factor and the current pension value. For an ordinary old-age pension taken at the regular age, the pension type factor is 1.0 and so is the access factor, which adjusts for retiring early or late. This calculator stays inside that case. The pension value is the same in western and eastern Germany, so you do not need to choose a region. It is set by regulation each year and published in the Federal Law Gazette, which is why this page shows it with its start date.

On your pension record you will see Entgeltpunkte and, separately, personal points that already include the access factor. Enter the right one and never apply the factor twice. The pension level quoted in statistics is a system-wide figure. It is not your own replacement rate, so do not read it as a promise about your pension.

So 40 points at €42.52 give 40 × €42.52, which is €1,700.80 a month. That is a gross amount. Income tax and your health and long-term care insurance contributions come off before you see it, and they depend on your own situation, so this page does not estimate a net pension.

Future retirement scenarios

The projection starts from the points you already have, taken from your pension record, and adds new points after the planning start. It does not add the result from the first tab automatically, because your record may already include that year. If you want it included, you choose that explicitly.

You set the number of years until retirement yourself, so the page never claims to know your statutory retirement date. By default you keep earning a steady number of points each year. That means your pay keeps pace with average pay, which is not the same as a frozen salary.

The advanced section lets you illustrate a rising pension value and inflation. Growth defaults to zero, and the 2 % inflation default is only an illustration you can set to zero. The 4.24 % rise in July 2026 is not a forecast for later years. The 0 %, 1 % and 2 % comparison lines are scenarios, not official forecasts or confidence ranges. Only the result labelled purchasing power is deflated; the constant-value result is not inflation adjusted.

Worked examples

Take an employee on €60,000 a year for twelve months. Pensionable earnings are €60,000, which gives 60,000 divided by 51,944, or 1.1551 points. The employee pays 9.3 % of €60,000, which is €5,580 or €465 a month, and the employer pays the same. Entering €465 a month as employee contributions, or €930 as combined contributions, leads to the same 1.1551 points.

Someone who already has 20 points and expects to add one point a year for 20 more years ends with 40 points, or €1,700.80 a month at the July 2026 value. With the same 20 points and a ten-year horizon, a twelve-month break leaves 29 points instead of 30. And to reach a target of €2,000 a month, you need 2,000 divided by 42.52, about 47.04 points.

Eligibility and omitted periods

Points set the amount of a pension. They do not prove that you qualify for one, and a five-year projection horizon says nothing about entitlement. For the regular old-age pension, DRV requires the general waiting period of five years of qualifying time, and the retirement age depends on your year of birth. Check the current conditions with DRV before you plan around a date.

Some periods outside normal employment can also count, for example time spent raising children or caring for a relative. The calculator does not add any points for them, and it does not assume that every year of unemployment earns points. Your pension record shows what has actually been credited.

This tool does not cover early retirement, pensions for people with reduced earning capacity, survivor pensions, private pensions or civil servant pensions. Each follows separate rules.