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Market Intelligence

Inflation & Purchasing Power

How consumer prices have changed over time, and what that has meant for the purchasing power of a dollar — based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index.

10-second takeaway

Inflation (year-over-year CPI change): +3.74%

CPI-U index: 336.9 (September 2026) vs. 324.8 (September 2025)

$100 in January 2015 would take about $144.17 in September 2026 to buy the same basket of goods — realized historical inflation, not a projection.

What changed: Year-over-year CPI inflation was +3.74% as of 2026-09-01, up from +3.40% the prior month (2026-08-01).

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), all items, measures the average change over time in prices paid by urban consumers for a representative basket of goods and services. The year-over-year percent change in this index is the figure most commonly reported as “the inflation rate.” Because prices generally rise over time, a dollar from an earlier year typically buys less today than it did then — the purchasing-power comparisons on this page quantify exactly how much less, using the CPI-U’s own realized historical values.

Source
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
Observation date
September 2026
Last refreshed
Nov 1, 2026, 2:37 AM UTC
Methodology — how this is calculated

Values come directly from the BLS Public Data API, series CUUR0000SA0 (CPI-U, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted) — source endpoint, data accessed 2026-11-01 — fetched and committed as a static, versioned snapshot; this page never fetches data at request time. Year-over-year change is computed as (this month’s index − the same month one year earlier) ÷ that prior value, × 100. The purchasing-power figure converts a dollar amount at one month into the equivalent amount at another month’s price level: amount × (CPI at the later month ÷ CPI at the earlier month).

Limitations — what this does NOT tell you

BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov. The figures and calculations on this page are derived from BLS data but are not produced, reviewed, or endorsed by BLS. No BLS logo or seal is used anywhere on this site, and nothing here is presented as BLS’s own analysis or output. CPI-U is a national average — it does not reflect any specific household’s actual spending mix or any specific local cost of living, and BLS itself periodically revises index weights and methodology over long historical spans, which can affect precise comparisons across very distant time periods. At least one month in this snapshot’s window (October 2025) has no published value — BLS itself reported this was due to a lapse in federal appropriations — and is simply omitted here rather than estimated.

Not investment advice — not a prediction

Market Intelligence indicators describe publicly available historical data. They are not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice, and no indicator shown in this section should be read as a buy/sell signal or a guarantee about future market direction.

Realized history, not a planning assumption

Everything on this page describes inflation that has already happened, as published by BLS through September 2026. This is separate and unrelated to any hypothetical, forward-looking inflation rate a visitor might enter into the Planning Studio’s calculators (e.g. the Investment Growth Calculator’s inflation assumption) — that is a user-chosen “what if” input for a future projection, not a historical fact, and the two should never be read as the same number.

CPI-U over time

Monthly CPI-U index level, January 2007 through September 2026.

Checking for a fresher refresh…

CPI-U index over timeLine chart of the monthly CPI-U index level from 2007-01-01 to 2026-09-01. A full data table is provided below the chart for screen readers and other non-visual access.202.4236.0269.7303.3336.9Jan 2007Dec 2010Nov 2014Oct 2018Sep 2022Sep 2026
Hover or tab to the start/end of the chart to see the first and most recent exact values; the full series is in the data table below.
View full data table (236 observations)
CPI-U index by date — the complete committed data series for this chart
DateCPI-U index
Jan 2007202.4
Feb 2007203.5
Mar 2007205.4
Apr 2007206.7
May 2007207.9
Jun 2007208.4
Jul 2007208.3
Aug 2007207.9
Sep 2007208.5
Oct 2007208.9
Nov 2007210.2
Dec 2007210.0
Jan 2008211.1
Feb 2008211.7
Mar 2008213.5
Apr 2008214.8
May 2008216.6
Jun 2008218.8
Jul 2008220.0
Aug 2008219.1
Sep 2008218.8
Oct 2008216.6
Nov 2008212.4
Dec 2008210.2
Jan 2009211.1
Feb 2009212.2
Mar 2009212.7
Apr 2009213.2
May 2009213.9
Jun 2009215.7
Jul 2009215.4
Aug 2009215.8
Sep 2009216.0
Oct 2009216.2
Nov 2009216.3
Dec 2009215.9
Jan 2010216.7
Feb 2010216.7
Mar 2010217.6
Apr 2010218.0
May 2010218.2
Jun 2010218.0
Jul 2010218.0
Aug 2010218.3
Sep 2010218.4
Oct 2010218.7
Nov 2010218.8
Dec 2010219.2
Jan 2011220.2
Feb 2011221.3
Mar 2011223.5
Apr 2011224.9
May 2011226.0
Jun 2011225.7
Jul 2011225.9
Aug 2011226.5
Sep 2011226.9
Oct 2011226.4
Nov 2011226.2
Dec 2011225.7
Jan 2012226.7
Feb 2012227.7
Mar 2012229.4
Apr 2012230.1
May 2012229.8
Jun 2012229.5
Jul 2012229.1
Aug 2012230.4
Sep 2012231.4
Oct 2012231.3
Nov 2012230.2
Dec 2012229.6
Jan 2013230.3
Feb 2013232.2
Mar 2013232.8
Apr 2013232.5
May 2013232.9
Jun 2013233.5
Jul 2013233.6
Aug 2013233.9
Sep 2013234.1
Oct 2013233.5
Nov 2013233.1
Dec 2013233.0
Jan 2014233.9
Feb 2014234.8
Mar 2014236.3
Apr 2014237.1
May 2014237.9
Jun 2014238.3
Jul 2014238.3
Aug 2014237.9
Sep 2014238.0
Oct 2014237.4
Nov 2014236.2
Dec 2014234.8
Jan 2015233.7
Feb 2015234.7
Mar 2015236.1
Apr 2015236.6
May 2015237.8
Jun 2015238.6
Jul 2015238.7
Aug 2015238.3
Sep 2015237.9
Oct 2015237.8
Nov 2015237.3
Dec 2015236.5
Jan 2016236.9
Feb 2016237.1
Mar 2016238.1
Apr 2016239.3
May 2016240.2
Jun 2016241.0
Jul 2016240.6
Aug 2016240.8
Sep 2016241.4
Oct 2016241.7
Nov 2016241.4
Dec 2016241.4
Jan 2017242.8
Feb 2017243.6
Mar 2017243.8
Apr 2017244.5
May 2017244.7
Jun 2017245.0
Jul 2017244.8
Aug 2017245.5
Sep 2017246.8
Oct 2017246.7
Nov 2017246.7
Dec 2017246.5
Jan 2018247.9
Feb 2018249.0
Mar 2018249.6
Apr 2018250.5
May 2018251.6
Jun 2018252.0
Jul 2018252.0
Aug 2018252.1
Sep 2018252.4
Oct 2018252.9
Nov 2018252.0
Dec 2018251.2
Jan 2019251.7
Feb 2019252.8
Mar 2019254.2
Apr 2019255.5
May 2019256.1
Jun 2019256.1
Jul 2019256.6
Aug 2019256.6
Sep 2019256.8
Oct 2019257.3
Nov 2019257.2
Dec 2019257.0
Jan 2020258.0
Feb 2020258.7
Mar 2020258.1
Apr 2020256.4
May 2020256.4
Jun 2020257.8
Jul 2020259.1
Aug 2020259.9
Sep 2020260.3
Oct 2020260.4
Nov 2020260.2
Dec 2020260.5
Jan 2021261.6
Feb 2021263.0
Mar 2021264.9
Apr 2021267.1
May 2021269.2
Jun 2021271.7
Jul 2021273.0
Aug 2021273.6
Sep 2021274.3
Oct 2021276.6
Nov 2021277.9
Dec 2021278.8
Jan 2022281.1
Feb 2022283.7
Mar 2022287.5
Apr 2022289.1
May 2022292.3
Jun 2022296.3
Jul 2022296.3
Aug 2022296.2
Sep 2022296.8
Oct 2022298.0
Nov 2022297.7
Dec 2022296.8
Jan 2023299.2
Feb 2023300.8
Mar 2023301.8
Apr 2023303.4
May 2023304.1
Jun 2023305.1
Jul 2023305.7
Aug 2023307.0
Sep 2023307.8
Oct 2023307.7
Nov 2023307.1
Dec 2023306.7
Jan 2024308.4
Feb 2024310.3
Mar 2024312.3
Apr 2024313.5
May 2024314.1
Jun 2024314.2
Jul 2024314.5
Aug 2024314.8
Sep 2024315.3
Oct 2024315.7
Nov 2024315.5
Dec 2024315.6
Jan 2025317.7
Feb 2025319.1
Mar 2025319.8
Apr 2025320.8
May 2025321.5
Jun 2025322.6
Jul 2025323.0
Aug 2025324.0
Sep 2025324.8
Nov 2025324.1
Dec 2025324.1
Jan 2026325.3
Feb 2026326.8
Mar 2026330.2
Apr 2026333.0
May 2026335.1
Jun 2026334.0
Jul 2026333.9
Aug 2026335.0
Sep 2026336.9