How much does a TSP annuity pay per $100,000?

It depends almost entirely on your age and the interest rate index in force on the purchase date. At the October 2026 index of 5.2 percent, TSP's own calculator quotes about $714 a month for a 65 year old buying a single life annuity with level payments and no extra features. The same $100,000 pays roughly $605 at 55 and about $1,174 at 80. Adding a survivor benefit or a beneficiary feature lowers all of those.

What is the TSP annuity interest rate index?

It is the single number TSP publishes each month that sets annuity prices, and it moves. TSP lists it at 5.2 percent for October 2026, up from 4.575 percent in January 2026. A higher index means a higher monthly payment for the same money, so timing matters. TSPFS24 warns that if you request an annuity near the end of a month, the purchase may fall into the next month and use that month's index instead.

Do TSP annuity payments keep up with inflation?

No. The increasing-payment option rises a flat 2 percent on each anniversary of the first payment. That is a fixed 2 percent, not a cost of living adjustment and not tied to CPI. It is worth checking against your own expectations: the payment starts noticeably lower than a level annuity, and at 65 it takes roughly 11 years of 2 percent rises before the increasing option catches the level one in dollar terms.

What does the 100 percent survivor option cost?

Roughly 12 percent of the monthly payment compared with the 50 percent option, at typical retirement ages. For a 65 year old with a 62 year old spouse, TSP quotes about $614 a month at 100 percent survivor against about $695 at 50 percent on a $100,000 purchase. The 100 percent option keeps the payment whole for whoever survives. The 50 percent option halves it for the survivor, whichever of you that turns out to be.

What is the difference between cash refund and ten-year certain?

Cash refund pays your beneficiary a lump sum equal to whatever is left of the purchase price if you die before the payments add up to it. Ten-year certain keeps the monthly payments going to your beneficiary for the rest of a ten year period if you die inside it. Both reduce your own payment. Ten-year certain is cheaper because its guarantee ends at ten years, and TSPFS24 states it cannot be combined with a joint life annuity.

Are TSP annuity payments subject to the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty?

No, and TSPFS24 is explicit: your annuity payments are not subject to the IRS early withdrawal penalty, regardless of your age. That makes an annuity one of the few ways to get TSP money moving before 59 and a half with no penalty exposure. Payments bought with traditional money are still taxed as ordinary income in the year you receive them.

Can I change my mind after buying a TSP annuity?

No. TSPFS24 states that once the funds have been disbursed to the annuity provider you cannot cancel the annuity, change the option, or change the joint annuitant. You can change your beneficiary with the provider afterwards, and that is all. The money also stops being yours to manage, which is the real trade: you swap control and any upside for a payment that cannot run out.

Why is this an estimate rather than a quote?

TSP does not publish the annuity factors its vendor uses, so there is no table anyone can look up. This tool prices the annuity from the SSA 2023 unisex mortality table and the published TSP interest rate index, then calibrates against 63 runs of TSP's own calculator taken on 2026-10-03. Measured against outputs held back from that calibration it was accurate to 0.38 percent on average and 2.52 percent at worst. Use it to compare options. Get the binding figure from TSP.

Calculator

TSP Life Annuity

What would your TSP balance actually pay as a lifetime monthly check? This estimates the payment under every option TSP offers, priced at the October 2026 annuity interest rate index of 5.2 percent, so you can see what each survivor benefit and beneficiary feature costs before you give up control of the money for good.

Reviewed by Jonathan D., 20-year federal employee · Formulas verified against TSP.gov · Updated October 2026

Rule snapshot

Reviewed October 3, 2026 · Sources: TSP: Annuities (TSPFS24), TSP annuity interest rate index, October 2026, TSP annuity calculator (the authoritative quote), SSA 2023 period life table · Inputs stay in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved.

What you are buying with

Amount from your TSPMinimum $3,500, applied separately to your traditional and Roth balances.

Your age at purchaseWhole years. TSPFS24 says months are not considered in the annuity calculation.

Interest rate index (%)Prefilled with 5.2%, the published index for October 2026. TSP changes it monthly, and the rate in force on your purchase date is the one that counts.

The annuity option

Whose life it covers

Payment patternIncreasing starts lower and rises a flat 2% a year, not with inflation.

Extra featureEither feature lowers your monthly payment in exchange for paying a beneficiary.

What this models, and what it does not

Read the second list before you act on the number.

What this models

The published TSP annuity interest rate index, 5.2 percent for October 2026, editable so you can model another month
Single life, joint life with a spouse, and joint life with a non-spouse survivor
Level payments and increasing payments, which rise a flat 2 percent each anniversary
The cash refund and ten-year certain features, priced as the actual contracts rather than as flat haircuts
The 100 percent and 50 percent survivor options, with the resulting survivor payment shown
Every combination TSP refuses, with the reason quoted from TSPFS24
The $3,500 minimum purchase, flagged rather than silently ignored
A side by side table of every legal option, so the cost of each choice is visible
Break even in months and years, and what you give up against plain single life level

Not modeled

A binding quote. TSP does not publish its vendor’s annuity factors, so this is a calibrated model, not the price. The real price is set on the purchase date
Precision limit: measured against TSP outputs held back from the calibration, this engine was accurate to 0.38 percent on average and 2.52 percent at worst, with the cash refund option the least accurate
Precision limit: the calibration was taken at one interest rate index. A very different rate may shift accuracy, because the model, not the calibration, carries the rate change
Precision limit: joint life calibration was measured with a three year age gap between annuitants. A very wide gap carries more error
The tax on the payments. Traditional money is taxed as ordinary income when received. Use the TSP Withdrawal Tax Calculator for that
Combat zone tax-exempt contributions, which the annuity vendor spreads across your payments under a separate IRS calculation
Spousal rights paperwork. A married FERS or uniformed services participant needs a spousal waiver for any option other than joint life with spouse, level, 50 percent survivor
Any comparison against commercial annuities. TSP charges no commission, which commercial quotes usually do not match

The interest rate index is the part people miss

An annuity price has two moving parts: how long you are expected to live, and the interest rate TSP uses to discount the payments. The second one changes every month and it changes a lot. TSP held the index at 4.575 percent from January through April 2026, then moved it five times, reaching 5.2 percent for October 2026. On a $300,000 purchase at 65, that swing is worth roughly $100 a month for life.

TSPFS24 adds a timing warning worth reading twice. If you request an annuity late in a month, the purchase may not complete until the following month, and the provider uses the index in force when the annuity is actually purchased. The rate you saw when you filed the paperwork is not necessarily the rate you get.

TSP annuity interest rate index by month in 2026
Month	Interest rate index
October 2026	5.200%
September 2026	5.075%
August 2026	4.950%
July 2026	4.950%
June 2026	4.825%
May 2026	4.700%
January to April 2026	4.575%

Source: TSP historical annuity interest rate index, read 2026-10-03. TSP publishes a new figure every month.

Which combinations TSP actually sells

The option set is narrower than it looks. Three limits catch people out: a non-spouse joint annuitant gets level payments only, the ten-year certain feature cannot be attached to a joint life annuity, and a non-spouse survivor more than 10 years younger than you must take the 50 percent benefit unless they are a former spouse under a court order.

TSP life annuity options and which features each one allows
Annuity	Payment pattern	Survivor benefit	Extra features
Single life	Level or increasing	Not applicable	None, cash refund, or ten-year certain
Joint life with spouse	Level or increasing	100% or 50%	None or cash refund
Joint life with other survivor	Level only	100% only if not more than 10 years younger, otherwise 50%	None or cash refund

Source: TSPFS24, Annuities, pages 2 and 3. Note that TSPBK06, the old withdrawal booklet, is retired. The live publications are TSPFS24 for annuities and TSPBK25 for distributions.

How this estimate is built, and why it is only an estimate

TSP keeps its annuity factors private, so no honest tool can claim to reproduce the vendor's price. What this calculator does instead is price the contract properly and then check itself against TSP. Survival comes from the Social Security Administration 2023 period life table, blended to one unisex rate because annuities inside a qualified plan are priced unisex. Payments are discounted at the TSP interest rate index. Joint annuities use the standard last survivor identities, the ten-year certain option pays for the greater of life or 120 months, and the cash refund option is priced as the decreasing death benefit it actually is.

Then the calibration. We ran TSP's own annuity calculator across 63 input combinations on 2026-10-03 and stored the ratio between TSP's figure and this engine's, which captures the difference between population mortality and the provider's own pricing. To check that this was not just curve fitting, 18 of those outputs were held back from the calibration and used purely as a test: the model landed within 0.38 percent on average and 2.52 percent at worst, with the cash refund option the weakest.

Use this to compare options against each other, which is what it is good at. Then take your chosen option to TSP's own annuity calculator for the authoritative figure. If you are weighing the annuity against simply drawing the money down, the withdrawal tax calculator and the RMD calculator show the other side of that decision.