Savings account calculator
Project any savings account's future value. Plug in your APY, starting balance, monthly deposit, and timeframe. Works for HYSA, money market, regular savings — any rate.
How to Calculate Savings Account Interest
Project the future value of any savings account — HYSA, money market, or traditional — in five steps using daily compounding.
- Step 1Enter your starting balance
Use the current balance in the savings account. Enter 0 if you're starting from scratch and relying entirely on monthly deposits.
- Step 2Enter your monthly deposit
Set the recurring amount you plan to add each month (e.g., $200). Direct deposit splits and auto-transfers from checking are the most consistent way to hit this.
- Step 3Set the APY (annual percentage yield)
Use the bank's published APY, not APR. Top 2026 HYSAs: 4.0–5.0%. National average savings: 0.42%. The 4-point gap is exactly the cost of inertia at a brick-and-mortar bank.
- Step 4Choose the time horizon in years
Pick how long the money will sit. Savings accounts shine for 1–3 year goals (emergency fund, house down payment); longer horizons usually justify investing instead.
- Step 5Read the future balance and total interest earned
The calculator breaks down contributions vs interest. At 4.5% APY, interest covers ~30% of the final balance over a 5-year window with consistent deposits.
Types of savings accounts compared
| Account type | Typical APY (2026) | Liquidity |
|---|---|---|
| Big-bank savings (Chase, Wells) | 0.01–0.50% | Immediate |
| High-yield savings (HYSA) | 4.00–5.00% | 1–3 business days |
| Money market account | 4.00–4.50% | Check or debit access |
| Cash management (Fidelity) | ~4.50% (SPAXX) | Brokerage access |
| CD (12-month) | 4.25–5.25% | Locked until maturity |
The cost of staying with a big bank
$20,000 sitting in a Chase or Bank of America savings at 0.01% earns $2/year. The same $20,000 in a HYSA at 4.5% earns $900. That's an $898 annual cost for inertia — pure free money left on the table.
Switching takes 15 minutes online. FDIC insurance is identical. There's no reason to leave cash in a 0.01% account in 2026.
Goal: $25,000 saved
- $200/month at 4% APY: ~9.3 years
- $400/month at 4% APY: ~4.8 years
- $500/month at 4% APY: ~3.9 years
- $1,000/month at 4% APY: ~2.0 years
Savings Account Calculator FAQ
What's the best savings account in 2026?
How is savings account interest calculated?
Are savings account deposits taxed?
Can I lose money in a savings account?
How often can I withdraw from a savings account?
Savings account vs investment account — when?
How much interest will I earn on $10,000 in a savings account?
How much should I keep in a savings account vs invested?
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Methodology, sources, and editorial standards
The savings account calculator on this page uses the same closed-form math published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's consumer-investor portal at Investor.gov and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Every number you see is generated client-side in your browser — no data is sent to our servers, no account is required, and no personally identifiable information is stored or shared. The calculation assumes constant rates and contributions over the modeled period; real-world returns, fees, and tax treatment vary year to year, and the figures presented are educational projections, not personalized financial advice.
We cite primary data sources directly within the FAQs and snapshot block above. Historical return assumptions are drawn from NYU Stern's historical returns database (Aswath Damodaran) and Robert Shiller's S&P 500 dataset. Inflation comparisons rely on the Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI series. Mortgage and credit-card market data come from Freddie Mac's PMMS and the Federal Reserve's G.19 release, respectively. Where we publish our own multi-scenario research, the dataset is available under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license at snowballr.io/data.
Snowballr is an independent, ad-supported publication. We do not sell financial products, accept affiliate commissions on bank, brokerage, or loan products, or take payment for editorial placement. Our editorial standards describe how we source, fact-check, and update every calculator and guide. The full master sources index lists every primary reference used across the site, organized by topic. For corrections, updates, or fact-checking inquiries, contact us via the contact page; we typically respond within 24–48 hours.
Important disclaimer: This calculator is provided for educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment, tax, accounting, legal, or financial-planning advice and should not be used as the sole basis for any decision about your money. Compound projections, debt-payoff schedules, and retirement estimates depend on assumptions that will change in real life — investment returns are not guaranteed, market downturns can extend recovery timelines, fees and taxes reduce realized growth, and inflation erodes the real purchasing power of nominal balances. Before making a financial decision based on any number you calculate here, consult a fiduciary financial advisor, a licensed tax professional, or both, as appropriate to your situation. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Who uses this calculator
The savings account calculator is used by three distinct audiences, each for a different question. New investors and savers use it to answer the foundational "what could this become?" question — they enter conservative monthly amounts and realistic return assumptions to see whether building meaningful wealth on a normal salary is actually possible. The answer, for almost every income level, is yes; the math just requires patience and consistency that intuition resists. Mid-career professionals use the same tool to stress-test their retirement plan against catch-up contributions, late-career raises, and the trade-off between paying down debt and investing in tax-advantaged accounts.
Pre-retirees and recent retirees use the calculator to validate withdrawal sustainability and to model what happens if a market downturn coincides with the start of retirement. Educators, financial coaches, and personal-finance bloggers use Snowballr's calculators in their teaching because every input is visible, every formula is documented, and the year-by-year breakdown lets learners see exactly where compounding pulls ahead of contributions. We support that use case explicitly under our Creative Commons license — you can embed any calculator on your own site using the snippet generator at /widgets and cite Snowballr per the citation guide.
Common assumptions and how to interpret the numbers
The output is only as accurate as the inputs and the assumptions that bridge them to real life. Three categories of assumption deserve the most scrutiny. Returns are nominal unless explicitly labeled real (inflation-adjusted); a seven-percent nominal return is closer to four-percent real, which materially changes long-horizon projections. Inflation itself averaged just under three percent in the U.S. from 1928 through 2024 but ran above five percent in roughly fifteen of those years and below zero in three. Average expense ratios for index funds dropped from roughly one-and-a-half percent in 2000 to under a tenth of a percent today, but actively managed mutual funds still average about half a percent — which translates to a quarter of the final balance lost to fees over a thirty-year horizon at typical contribution rates.
Taxes affect both contributions and withdrawals in ways the headline number does not show. Pre-tax contributions in a traditional 401(k) or IRA receive a deduction today but trigger ordinary income tax on withdrawal. Roth contributions are post-tax today but grow and withdraw tax-free. Taxable brokerage accounts pay tax annually on dividends and at sale on capital gains. If you are comparing projected balances across account types, equalize by reducing pre-tax balances by your expected retirement tax rate and adding back the dividend drag on the taxable account; otherwise the comparison is misleading. Our 401(k) vs Roth IRA comparison walks through this explicitly with worked examples at three tax-bracket scenarios.
For inputs you are uncertain about, run the calculator twice with a high and a low value to see how sensitive the answer is to your assumption. If a two-percent rate change moves the final balance by less than ten percent, the assumption is not very load-bearing. If it moves the balance by forty percent or more, that input dominates the model and deserves the most careful estimation. The single highest-leverage input in almost every compound-interest scenario is time — every additional year compounds geometrically — followed by rate, then contribution, then starting principal in roughly that order.