CSRS Retirement Calculator
Estimate your Civil Service Retirement System annuity: the three rate tiers, the 80 percent limit, the sick leave credit that beats that limit, what the survivor election costs you, and the CSRS Offset reduction at 62.
Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Formulas verified against OPM CSRS Handbook ch. 50 ·
The highest average of your basic pay over any 3 straight years of service, weighted by how long each rate was in effect. Enter a figure between 1 and 1,000,000.
All creditable civilian service plus creditable military service, from your service history rather than your hire date. Then enter the military part on its own below, because 5 U.S.C. 8333(a) needs 5 years of civilian service for any CSRS annuity and military service cannot fill that floor. Two exceptions change what goes in. If you were first hired under CSRS before October 1, 1982, post-1956 military service counts without a deposit until you are eligible for Social Security, normally at 62, and then drops out: include it for the figure before 62, leave it out for the figure after. Civilian service after September 30, 1982 with no retirement deductions and no deposit counts toward eligibility but not the computation, so leave it out here; if leaving it out puts you under an age-and-service threshold, ask your HR office, because this tool uses one total for both.
Enter 0 if you have none. Your civilian service is the total minus this, and it has to reach 5 years: 5 U.S.C. 8333(a) says an employee “must complete at least 5 years of civilian service before he is eligible for an annuity.”
From your leave and earnings statement, 0 to 10,000. Under 5 U.S.C. 8339(m) this credit is added without regard to the 80 percent limit, so it can push your annuity above 80 percent of high-3. It applies only to an immediate annuity, so a deferred annuity gets none.
Under 5 U.S.C. 8339(p) the share of the annuity earned after April 6, 1986 is cut in proportion to the hours you actually worked. If this applies to you and you leave it unchecked, the estimate will be too high. Enter your high-3 at full-time rates either way; the law uses the full-time rate for part-time years.
Your age on the separation date (for a deferred annuity, the date it begins). OPM counts you as reaching each age on the day before your birthday, so separating the day before your 55th birthday is 55 years, 0 months, 0 days. The days matter under 55: the reduction counts only full months, so even one day past a whole month of age saves a month.
Work out my age from my dates
An early out under 5 U.S.C. 8336(d) needs 25 years at any age, or age 50 with 20 years, and costs 2 percent a year for every year you are under 55. A deferred annuity under 8338(a) starts at 62 after 5 years of civilian service and gets no sick leave credit.
The “one-out-of-two” rule, 5 U.S.C. 8333(b). Someone who stays in a CSRS job to the end meets it. It bites a returning employee or anyone whose last two years were mostly outside CSRS coverage. If you untick it, no annuity is payable on this separation (only a separation for death or disability is exempt).
Members of Congress and Congressional employees (2.5 percent under 5 U.S.C. 8339(b) and (c)), air traffic controllers (a 50 percent minimum under 8339(e)), law enforcement officers and firefighters (8339(d)), Capitol and Supreme Court Police (8339(q), (r)), CIA, DIA or NSA service abroad (OPM Handbook ch. 50 special computation), and military technicians (dual status) retiring under 8337(h). The form has no input for these, so the figure uses the general formula and will be wrong for you. Time on workers' compensation (OWCP) counts as service under 8332(f): include it in your total.
Electing less than the maximum needs your spouse's written consent.
| Modeled | Not modeled |
|---|---|
| The three rate tiers in 5 U.S.C. 8339(a), with OPM’s six-decimal factor rounding, and the 8339(a) alternative of “1 percent of his average pay plus $25” per year of service where that produces a larger annuity (it only can below a high-3 of $5,000) | The law enforcement and firefighter formula in 8339(d), which pays 2.5 percent on the first 20 years |
| The 5-year civilian-service floor in 5 U.S.C. 8333(a) ("at least 5 years of civilian service before he is eligible for an annuity"), tested on the total minus the military service you enter, for every retirement type | Members of Congress and Congressional employees. Under 8339(b) a Congressional employee with 5 years of Congressional or Member service and deductions covering the last 5 years of civilian service gets "2½ percent of his average pay" for that service; Members are under 8339(c). The tool uses the general formula, which understates them |
| The one-out-of-two rule in 8333(b) as a yes-or-no question: unticked, no annuity is payable on the separation. Ticked, the result repeats that it rests on your answer | Checking the rule against your record, and its exception for a separation because of death or disability (disability retirement is out of scope). 8333(b) also says a failure "does not deprive the individual or his survivors of annuity rights which attached on a previous separation"; the tool does not model an earlier separation |
| One general formula for everyone, with a warning on the result | Air traffic controllers retiring under 8336(e), whose annuity "may not be less than 50 percent of the average pay" (8339(e)); Capitol Police (8339(q)) and Supreme Court Police (8339(r)); and CIA, DIA or NSA service abroad after 1986, where OPM Handbook ch. 50 (50A3.1-1 C) computes up to 10 certified years "at the 2% rate in place of the 1.5% and 1.75% rates" |
| Service credit you enter, including time on workers’ compensation, which 8332(f) credits as leave without pay "while receiving benefits under subchapter I of chapter 81" | Military technicians (dual status). A technician separated after losing Selected Reserve membership for a disability retires under 8337(h), a disability provision this tool does not model |
| The 80 percent limit in 8339(f), tested on civilian and military service only | Service credit disputes. We use the service total you type, not your official record. Post-1956 military service with no deposit, for employees first hired before October 1, 1982, counts until Social Security eligibility (normally 62) and then drops out; the tool gives one figure, so run it with and without that service. Civilian service after September 30, 1982 with no deductions and no deposit counts for eligibility only, so leave it out of the total |
| Part-time service on or after April 7, 1986 under 8339(p): the pre-1986 and post-1986 annuities computed separately and the post-1986 piece multiplied by the CSRS proration factor, following OPM Handbook ch. 55, with high-3 at full-time rates | Part-time title 38 service with the VA Veterans Health Administration, which uses a different proration (ch. 55 Part 55A3). More than one part-time tour is approximated by one period at an average tour; your agency’s proration worksheet is exact |
| A deferred annuity at 62 under 8338(a), with no unused sick leave credit, since 8339(m) credits it only on an immediate annuity. Under 62 the tool computes the annuity payable from 62 and says it begins then. An early-out choice by someone who already meets 8336(a), (b) or (f) returns that regular annuity with a note, not a refusal | Disability retirement under 8337 |
| Unused sick leave credit under 8339(m), added above the limit | Leave without pay over 6 months in a calendar year, which reduces creditable service |
| The survivor election cost in 8339(j)(4) and the 55 percent payout in 8341(b)(1) | A custom survivor base. CSRS lets you name any amount up to the full annuity; "partial" here means half. Also outside scope: former spouse court orders, insurable interest elections and the deposit for a post-retirement marriage |
| The age reduction in 8339(h) for an early out under 55, counted in full months from your age in years, months and days, with every age reached on the day before the birthday as OPM counts it (Handbook ch. 46 and the ch. 50 worksheets). Age thresholds (50, 55, 60, 62) need the whole months: days never round up to a month | The reduction for unpaid pre-October 1982 civilian deposit service (10 percent of the deposit owed), and the actuarial reduction for an unpaid redeposit of refunded service that ended before October 1, 1990. That refunded service still belongs in your service total, but the annuity is then reduced |
| The CSRS Offset ceiling in 8349(a)(3)(B), which is years of offset service over 40 | The other offset limb in 8349(a)(3)(A), which needs your full SSA earnings record. The real offset can be smaller than shown, never larger. Also not modeled: the survivor’s own offset against Social Security survivor benefits, so an Offset survivor figure is before that cut |
| Annual and monthly figures, with the monthly rate rounded down to the dollar | Tax, FEHB and FEGLI withholding, and COLAs after retirement under 8340. Also a February 29 birthday: no OPM rule we found says whether it falls on February 28 or March 1 in a common year. The date helper counts the age by OPM's Handbook worksheet method (add one day, 30-day months), while the discontinued service calculator treats February 28 as the birthday, so the two can differ by a day and the age reduction by one month |
Precision limit: OPM publishes its annuity factor to six decimal places, and this tool rounds the same way, so dollar figures match the agency worksheet to the cent. Service is counted in whole months with 30-day months, matching OPM practice. Only your HR benefits officer can certify your service record.
Where the 80 percent ceiling actually bites
Most CSRS employees never reach the limit. The formula hits 80 percent of high-3 at 41 years and 11 months of service, so a career that started at 22 crosses it around age 64. Anyone who gets there has been working long enough that each additional year buys nothing except a larger sick leave balance.
That is the quiet part of the rule. Sick leave sits outside the ceiling. OPM's own example in Handbook chapter 50 walks through an employee with 43 years of service and a full year of unused sick leave, and the annuity lands at 82 percent of high-3. If you are past the limit, every 174 hours of sick leave you keep is one more month of service, and a month at the 2 percent tier is worth 0.167 percent of your high-3. On a $100,000 high-3 that is $166.70 a year, for life. Every hour you burn is gone.
Why CSRS Offset looks like a pay cut and is not
CSRS Offset is CSRS service after 1983 that is also covered by Social Security, so the employee pays into both on the same wages. At 62 the CSRS side steps down, and the usual reaction is that the government is clawing something back.
The arithmetic says otherwise, with one condition attached. The offset is capped at your offset service over 40 of the Social Security benefit, so six offset years cap the cut at 15 percent of that check. Claim Social Security at 62 and total income goes up; what changes is which agency sends the money.
The condition is that you have to claim. Under 5 U.S.C. 8349(a)(1) the offset applies to anyone who “is entitled, or would on proper application be entitled, to old-age insurance benefits”, and Handbook chapter 50 spells it out: the offset “is applied when the basic requirements for Social Security are met (usually at age 62) even if the employee does not apply for Social Security.” Delaying Social Security to 70 to grow the benefit means eight years of the annuity cut with no Social Security coming in. Run the offset figure against your own claiming plan before you decide to wait.
The survivor election is cheaper than people assume
A full election costs about 10 percent of your annuity and pays your spouse 55 percent of it for life, with the same cost-of-living increases. Only 2.5 percent is charged on the first $3,600 of the base, so the effective cost on a modest annuity runs under 10 percent. Declining it needs your spouse's written consent, and the choice is close to irreversible once payments start.