What is $1 from 2020 worth today?
$1 in 2020 is worth $1.30 in September 2026, based on the official Consumer Price Index. Prices have risen 30% since 2020, an average of 4.34% a year over 6 years. In other words, prices have doubled about 0.4 times, and a dollar today buys 76.8% of what it bought in 2020.
The same ratio applies to any amount: $20 from 2020 is worth $26.04, $100 is worth $130.19 and $1,000 is worth $1,302 in today's dollars.
Inflation in 2020
The CPI-U averaged 258.811 in 2020, up 1.2% from 255.657 in 2019. From December 2019 to December 2020, prices rose 1.4%. This was the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ranked by annual inflation, 2020 is number 87 of the 112 years from 1914 to 2025.
In the 2020s, annual inflation averaged 3.9% a year (over the 6 years with data). The highest rate was 8.0% in 2022 and the lowest 1.2% in 2020, so 2020 had the decade's lowest inflation.
2020 prices in today's money, and today's prices in 2020 money
If something cost $5 in 2020, the same buying power today is $6.51. Going the other way, $100 in September 2026 would have bought what $76.81 bought in 2020, and a $60,000 salary today has the buying power of a $46,087 salary in 2020.
If your pay in 2020 was, say, $1,000 a month, you would need about $1,302 a month in September 2026 to afford the same basket of goods and services. Remember that this is an average across consumer spending: some prices, such as housing, health care and tuition, have risen faster than the CPI, while others have risen more slowly.
How this 2020 inflation figure is calculated
The calculation divides the latest CPI-U (336.94 for September 2026) by the 2020 annual average (258.811): 336.94 ÷ 258.811 = 1.3019. Multiply any 2020 amount by 1.3019 to convert it to September 2026 dollars. The data is the CPI for All Urban Consumers, U.S. city average, all items, not seasonally adjusted (BLS series CUUR0000SA0), published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Use the calculator above to pick a specific month in 2020 or a different end date. See also $1 in 2019 and $1 in 2021. All years are on the main US inflation calculator page.