Paycheck Calculator – Payroll and Take-Home Pay
Estimate take-home pay per paycheck from an annual salary or hourly rate. Enter your pay schedule, filing status, 401(k) contribution, insurance cost, and other deductions.
Estimate Your Take-Home Pay Per Paycheck
Paycheck Formula
Where:
- \(N\) — estimated take-home pay per paycheck; \(G\) — annual gross pay; \(n\) — paychecks per year; \(g\) — gross pay per paycheck.
- \(r\) — 401(k) contribution rate as a decimal; \(c\) — 401(k) contribution per paycheck; \(h\) — pre-tax health insurance per paycheck; \(o\) — other post-tax deductions per paycheck.
- \(I\) — annual income-tax wages; \(W\) — annual Social Security and Medicare wages; \(s\) — estimated state and local tax rate as a decimal.
- \(F\) — estimated annual federal income tax; \(S\) — annual Social Security tax; \(M\) — annual Medicare tax, including Additional Medicare tax; \(L\) — estimated annual state and local income tax.
- \(A\) — Additional Medicare tax threshold: $250,000 for married filing jointly or $200,000 for the other available filing statuses.
Federal income tax \(F\) applies the 2026 standard deduction for the selected filing status, then taxes the remaining income through the 2026 federal brackets. The formula spreads estimated annual taxes evenly across paychecks; actual withholding can vary.
Paycheck – Calculation Example
Example: With the default settings, an employee earns $78,000 annually, receives 26 paychecks, contributes 5% to a traditional 401(k), and pays $120 in pre-tax health insurance per paycheck. The employee files as single, with no state or local tax rate or other deductions entered.
Gross pay is $3,000 per paycheck, and the 401(k) contribution is $150. Annual income-tax wages are $70,980, leaving $54,880 after the $16,100 standard deduction. Applying the 2026 single-filer brackets gives $6,785.60 in federal income tax.
Health insurance reduces annual Social Security and Medicare wages to $74,880. Social Security tax is $4,642.56, Medicare tax is $1,085.76, and Additional Medicare tax is $0.
\[ N=\frac{78{,}000-3{,}900-3{,}120-6{,}785.60-4{,}642.56-1{,}085.76}{26}=\$2{,}248.70 \]
Result: estimated take-home pay is $2,248.70 per biweekly paycheck. Total estimated annual taxes are $12,513.92, an effective tax rate of 16.04% of gross pay.
How to use the Paycheck Calculator
- Choose Pay type. Select Annual salary and enter your Annual salary, or select Hourly rate and enter your Hourly rate and Hours per week.
- Set Pay frequency to monthly, semi-monthly, biweekly, or weekly. Choose the schedule on which you want to view your average take-home pay.
- Select your Filing status: single, married filing jointly, or head of household. This determines the federal standard deduction and tax brackets used in the estimate.
- Enter your 401(k) contribution as a percentage of gross pay and your Health insurance per paycheck as a dollar amount.
- If applicable, enter a flat estimated State and local income tax rate and any Other post-tax deductions taken from each check.
- Read Take-home pay per paycheck, Effective tax rate, and the Pay and deduction breakdown. The breakdown shows both per-paycheck averages and annual totals.
What take-home pay tells you
Take-home pay is the amount left after the calculator subtracts the entered deductions and estimated income and payroll taxes from gross pay. It is more useful than gross salary when planning how much is available for rent, debt payments, savings, and everyday spending. For a pay increase, you can compare the estimate with your current pay; the Annual Salary Increment calculator can help you express that change as an annual raise.
The result is an annualized average, not a prediction of every individual deposit. For example, biweekly pay divides estimated annual amounts by 26. Social Security tax stops applying after the annual wage base is reached, so checks later in a high-earning year may differ from earlier ones. Employer withholding methods can also produce a different deposit even when the annual tax estimate is reasonable.
The effective tax rate is estimated federal, Social Security, Medicare, and entered state and local taxes divided by annual gross pay. It does not include 401(k) contributions, health insurance, or other deductions. It is also different from your marginal federal tax bracket: only income within each bracket is taxed at that bracket’s rate. If you are deciding what portion of your estimated take-home pay to set aside, the Savings / Investment calculator can model a regular savings amount.
Assumptions and limits
The calculator uses 2026 federal tax brackets, standard deductions, and the $184,500 Social Security wage base. It assumes a traditional pre-tax 401(k): contributions reduce income-tax wages but not Social Security or Medicare wages. It assumes the entered health insurance cost reduces both income-tax and payroll-tax wages. Different benefit arrangements, including a Roth 401(k), can change the result.
Hourly pay is calculated as hourly rate × hours per week × 52, with identical hours every week and no overtime premium, unpaid leave, or bonuses. The state and local tax entry is a flat rate applied to estimated income-tax wages; it does not model state-specific brackets, deductions, or credits. Federal tax credits, itemized deductions, other household income, and other tax situations are not included. In particular, married filing jointly uses the pay entered here rather than automatically adding a spouse’s income.
If you use the estimate to budget for a major payment, leave room for differences between estimated and actual checks. For example, compare a proposed housing payment from the Mortgage Calculator with your observed deposits as well as this estimate. This calculator is for planning, not a pay stub or tax return.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I estimate my take-home pay by hand?
Start with gross pay for the period, then subtract your retirement contribution, health insurance, and other paycheck deductions. Estimate annual income and payroll taxes using the wages each tax applies to, and divide those taxes by your number of yearly paychecks. Subtract that per-check tax amount from gross pay. This gives an average, not necessarily the amount your employer will deposit.
Is biweekly pay the same as twice-monthly pay?
No. Biweekly means every two weeks, usually 26 checks a year; twice-monthly means two checks each month, or 24 a year. At the same annual salary, a biweekly check is generally smaller, but you receive two extra checks during the year. Confirm which schedule your employer uses before comparing a paycheck estimate with your pay stub.
What percentage of gross pay should I expect to take home?
There is no universal “good” percentage. Take-home pay depends on your income, filing status, state taxes, benefits, retirement savings, and other deductions. A lower percentage is not necessarily bad if more of your pay is going into a 401(k) or insurance. For budgeting, compare the estimated dollar amount with your actual deposits rather than aiming for a particular percentage.
Why is my paycheck different from this calculator’s estimate?
Your employer withholds tax using payroll rules and your Form W-4, rather than dividing your eventual annual tax evenly among checks. Bonuses, changing hours, benefit changes, and the timing of annual payroll-tax thresholds can also affect a deposit. Compare the individual lines on your pay stub to identify the difference; ask payroll about a deduction you do not recognize.
Can I use this estimate for a Roth 401(k) contribution?
Not without adjusting for the tax difference. A Roth 401(k) contribution generally comes from pay after income tax, while a traditional 401(k) contribution generally reduces current income-tax wages. Entering a Roth contribution as a traditional contribution will usually make the estimated income tax too low. Check your plan’s contribution type and your pay stub before relying on the result.
How should I account for overtime, bonuses, or unpaid time off?
Estimate your expected total annual gross pay, including likely overtime and bonuses and excluding unpaid time, then use the annual salary option as a planning approximation. A single bonus check may have different withholding from a regular check, so the displayed per-check average will not predict that deposit. Use your employer’s payroll information for a closer check-by-check estimate.
Why does the calculator show very little or negative take-home pay?
Check whether you entered an annual amount in a per-paycheck deduction field, or entered a percentage as a whole number incorrectly. Large post-tax deductions can exceed the amount left after taxes and pre-tax deductions, producing a negative mathematical result. That is not a prediction that payroll will issue a negative deposit; ask your payroll department how it handles insufficient pay.