Savings Calculator
Project a savings balance from a starting amount, monthly deposits, and your account's APY: the ending balance, deposits, and interest earned, year by year.
Quick answer: With the example inputs this page loads by default, the headline result (Ending balance) comes to $14,452.46. Project a savings balance from a starting amount, monthly deposits, and your account's APY: the ending balance, deposits, and interest earned, year by year. Change any input above and every figure updates instantly in your browser.
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Savings growth has three levers: what you start with, what you add each month, and the APY the account pays. Saving $200 a month on a $1,000 start at 4 percent APY reaches $14,452 in five years, of which $1,452 is interest. This calculator projects the balance year by year and separates your deposits from what the interest contributed.
What this result means
On savings-account horizons the deposits do most of the work: in the default example, monthly deposits supply about 90 percent of the ending balance and interest the rest, which is why raising the deposit beats chasing an extra tenth of a percent of APY. Interest still matters as inflation protection, so keep the money in a high-yield account rather than one paying near zero. This tool is the simple projection; the high-yield savings calculator compares rates and deposit frequencies, the compound interest calculator handles investment returns, and the investment goal calculator solves for the deposit a target requires. Estimates, not advice.
Assumptions
- Deposits are made at the end of each month and grow at the exact monthly rate that reproduces the APY, the same convention as the site's CD and high-yield savings calculators, so results are directly comparable across the three tools.
- The APY is held constant for the whole horizon. Savings rates float with the market in reality, so treat long projections as scenarios rather than promises.
- Interest is taxable as ordinary income in the year it is credited, which this calculator does not model, and inflation is not netted out: the inflation calculator converts an ending balance into today's purchasing power.
- This is the plain savings projection. The high-yield savings calculator adds deposit-frequency and rate-comparison detail, the compound interest calculator models investment returns with configurable compounding, and the investment goal calculator solves for the deposit needed to hit a target.
- This is an estimate for educational purposes only, not financial advice.
How it works
The projection uses the account’s own language: an APY and monthly deposits.
Because APY must already include the effect of compounding (Truth in Savings Act, Regulation DD), the calculator converts it to the exact monthly rate that reproduces it, (1 + APY)^(1/12) - 1, and grows the balance month by month: the starting balance compounds, and each deposit lands at month end and compounds from there. Over any 12-month stretch the account earns exactly its APY, and the same convention drives the site’s CD and high-yield savings calculators, so all three tools are directly comparable.
Interest earned is the ending balance minus everything deposited, the honest measure of what the rate contributed versus what you did.
Worked example
$1,000 to start, $200 a month, 4 percent APY, five years.
- Monthly rate: 1.04^(1/12) - 1 = 0.327% per month.
- Ending balance: $14,452.46.
- Of that, $13,000 is deposits ($1,000 + 60 x $200) and $1,452.46 is interest, about 10 percent of the final balance. The deposits, not the rate, do most of the work on a five-year horizon.
Scope and limitations
A constant APY (real savings rates float), end-of-month deposits, no withdrawals, no taxes (savings interest is ordinary income each year), and no inflation adjustment (the inflation calculator converts the ending balance to today’s dollars). For investment returns with configurable compounding and contribution growth, use the compound interest calculator. This is an estimate for education, not financial advice.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
- How much will I have if I save $200 a month?
- At 4 percent APY starting from $1,000, about $14,452 after five years and $30,819 after ten. The deposits do most of the work on these horizons: of the five-year figure, $13,000 is money you put in and $1,452 is interest. Change the rate and the split barely moves; change the deposit and everything moves.
- How is this different from the compound interest calculator?
- This tool speaks savings-account language: one APY, monthly deposits, done. The compound interest calculator is built for investments, with configurable compounding frequency, annual raises to contributions, and inflation and tax adjustments. For money in a bank account, this one asks exactly what you know.
- Does the interest compound monthly or daily?
- It does not matter once you know the APY. By definition, APY already includes the effect of the bank's compounding schedule (Truth in Savings Act), so two accounts with the same APY grow identically. This calculator converts your APY into an exact monthly rate, and a 12-month projection earns precisely the APY.
- Where should I keep savings to earn the APY in this calculator?
- High-yield savings accounts at online banks typically pay several times the national average rate, with FDIC insurance up to $250,000 per depositor per bank. Money market accounts and CDs are the adjacent options; CDs pay a bit more for locking the money up. The account type matters less than not settling for a near-zero rate.
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Learn how this works
New to this topic? Our companion guide explains it in plain language: Save or Invest? A Five-Year Rule That Settles Most of It
By Sam Sage Last reviewed .