Quick answer
Starting CPP at 60 pays 64% of your age-65 amount, while waiting to 70 pays 142% — both fixed by Service Canada's own adjustment factors. On the July 2026 average of $858.34 a month for a new beneficiary starting at 65, that's $549.34 at 60 or $1,218.84 at 70, and the break-even for waiting from 65 to 70 is around age 82.
What this calculator computes
The Canada Pension Plan pays a different monthly amount depending on the age you start it, and the rule is exact and public: Service Canada reduces your pension for every month you start before 65 and increases it for every month you delay past 65, and the adjusted amount is what you are paid for life (you can cancel a pension up to 12 months after your first payment, by asking in writing and repaying what you were paid). This calculator applies that rule to your own estimated age-65 amount, then does the arithmetic most people actually want: what does each start age pay monthly and per year, what does each add up to by a given age, and — since the smaller early cheques arrive first — at what age does waiting actually overtake starting early?
The adjustment, in plain text
at 60: 1 − 0.006 × 60 = 0.64 → 64% of your age-65 amount
Start after 65 (ages 65–70): monthly amount = age-65 amount × (1 + 0.007 × months late)
at 70: 1 + 0.007 × 60 = 1.42 → 142% of your age-65 amount
Those two rates — 0.6% a month early (7.2% a year) and 0.7% a month late (8.4% a year) — are Service Canada's own published figures, and they cap at 60 months in either direction: starting any earlier than 60 isn't allowed, and delaying past 70 buys nothing further. Because the adjustment is a multiplier on your own amount, the percentages (64%, 100%, 142%) are identical for almost everyone (the Act changes the factor for a pension that is combined with a reduced survivor's pension or changed by a credit split, which this calculator does not model: s. 46(4) to (6)); only the dollar figure they're applied to changes from person to person.
Worked example
Take the July 2026 average for someone starting at 65: $858.34 a month ($10,300.08 a year). Starting at 60 applies the maximum 36% reduction (0.6% × 60 months): $858.34 × 0.64 = $549.34 a month ($6,592 a year) — $309.00 less every month, for life. Waiting to 70 applies the maximum 42% increase (0.7% × 60 months): $858.34 × 1.42 = $1,218.84 a month ($14,626 a year) — $360.50 more every month than starting at 65, and $669.50 more than starting at 60.
Running the same 12-month-a-year total out to a planning horizon of 87 (roughly the StatCan life expectancy for a 65-year-old woman) makes the trade-off concrete: starting at 60 totals about $177,985 by 87; at 65, about $226,602; at 70, about $248,644. Waiting keeps winning on total dollars the longer you assume you'll live — which is exactly why the break-even ages below matter more than any single total on its own.
Break-even ages, and why they don't depend on your amount
60 vs 65: (1.00×65 − 0.64×60) ÷ (1.00 − 0.64) ≈ age 73.9
65 vs 70: (1.42×70 − 1.00×65) ÷ (1.42 − 1.00) ≈ age 81.9
60 vs 70: (1.42×70 − 0.64×60) ÷ (1.42 − 0.64) ≈ age 78.2
Because both sides of the comparison scale with the same age-65 amount, it cancels out of the equation entirely — the break-even ages above (roughly 74, 82 and 78) hold whether your own CPP is $400 a month or $1,500. They only move if you change which ages you're comparing, or — using the optional field above — assume every cheque under either start age gets invested rather than spent, at the same real return. Because the earlier start's cheques have longer to compound, a positive return gives it a bigger head start, so the break-even age moves later; push the assumed return high enough and the early option stays ahead indefinitely, and the calculator reports that instead of a fake crossing age. Where that happens depends on how fast waiting grows the cheque, not on how long the gap is: the early option stays ahead once the return beats the yearly growth the later cheque earns by waiting. From 60 to 65 the cheque grows from 64% to 100% of the age-65 amount, about 9.3% a year; from 65 to 70 it grows from 100% to 142%, about 7.3% a year; and from 60 to 70, about 8.3% a year. Stepping the return field by 0.5%, 60 vs 65 still shows a break-even at 9% but not 9.5%, 60 vs 70 at 8% but not 8.5%, and 65 vs 70 at 6.5% but not 7%; the calculator reports n/a whenever there is no crossing or it would come after age 110.
What this calculator assumes and leaves out
It takes whole start ages only. The rule runs month by month (0.6% for each month before the month you turn 65 and 0.7% for each month after, to 60 months either way: Canada Pension Plan Regulations, ss. 78.3 and 78.4), so a start at 62 and a half is not shown, and a typed 62.5 is rounded to 63. It applies the factor to the age-65 amount you enter, while the Act applies it to the pension as calculated when your pension starts (s. 46(3.1)), so your age-65 estimate is only a stand-in for what a different start age would be based on. It leaves out income tax, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and any survivor's pension or other combined CPP benefit, and it pays nothing for the months you wait if you die before the pension starts.
When starting early can make sense — and when it usually doesn't
Starting CPP before 65 tends to make sense when health or family history point to a shorter-than-average retirement, when you need the cash flow now more than a larger amount later (paying down debt, bridging a gap before another pension or RRSP withdrawals start), or when you've already stopped working and a smaller guaranteed cheque beats drawing down savings. It tends not to make sense when you're still working and earning enough that a large share of CPP would go to income tax, or when you or your household have reasonable longevity odds and other savings to bridge the gap. None of that is arithmetic this calculator can see — it only shows you the numbers each choice produces. One thing is not a reason either way: the reduction for an early start, or the increase for a late one, is not carried into the survivor's pension a spouse or partner could receive, because Service Canada works that out from your retirement pension as if you had been 65 (the Act, ss. 58(1), 58(3) and 57(2)(c)), and a survivor who has a retirement pension of their own gets the two combined under a cap.
Working while collecting: the Post-Retirement Benefit
Starting CPP doesn't have to freeze the amount for life if you keep working. Every year you contribute while collecting your pension earns a small top-up called the Post-Retirement Benefit (PRB) — paid on top of your regular pension, for life, and itself indexed to inflation. Contributions are mandatory while working and under 65, optional from 65 to 70 (an employee opts out with form CPT30; the self-employed elect on Schedule 8 of their tax return), and stop accruing entirely after 70. For 2026 the maximum PRB for someone aged 65 is $54.69 a month for each year contributed (lower if it starts before 65, higher after, going by your age on 1 January of the year it starts); the average new recipient at 65 got $26.25 a month in July 2026. It's a modest add-on, not a reason on its own to change your start age, but it's part of the full picture if you plan to keep working.
Where OAS fits in
Old Age Security (OAS) is a separate, non-contributory pension — you don't pay into it the way you do CPP — worth up to $742.31 a month for ages 65–74 in January–March 2026, rising to up to $762.50 a month in October–December (it rises each quarter with inflation — it rose 1.4% in October; 10% more from 75), adjusted quarterly rather than annually. It can also be deferred past 65, up to age 70, for a higher pension. Higher earners should know OAS is subject to a "clawback", the OAS recovery tax: you repay 15% of your net income over the year's threshold ($95,323 for 2026), up to the OAS you were paid that year, and that repayment is a tax for the year, payable with that year's return. What comes off the monthly payments is withholding toward it, set from an earlier year's income: from July 2026 through June 2027 it is taken once your 2025 net income passed $93,454, and it takes the whole payment once that income reaches $152,062 at ages 65 to 74 ($157,923 at 75 and over). This calculator covers CPP only — OAS runs on its own separate rules.
This page is arithmetic applied to Service Canada's published factors — general information, not personal financial or tax advice. Your health, other income, employment plans and household situation all matter more to this decision than any single break-even number; talk to a financial planner or Service Canada about your own case.
FAQ
How much CPP do you get at 60 compared with 65?
36% less than your age-65 amount, for life. Service Canada reduces the pension by 0.6% for every month you start before 65 — 60 months early at 60 means 0.6% × 60 = 36%, leaving 64% of your age-65 entitlement for the rest of your life, though you can cancel a pension up to 12 months after your first payment by asking in writing and repaying what you were paid. Someone entitled to $858.34 a month at 65 gets $549.34 a month at 60.
How much more is CPP if I wait until 70?
42% more than your age-65 amount, for life. The pension increases 0.7% for every month you delay past 65, up to a maximum of 60 months — 0.7% × 60 = 42%, so at 70 you receive 142% of your age-65 entitlement. There is no benefit to waiting past 70; the increase simply stops. On $858.34 at 65, that's $1,218.84 a month at 70.
What is the break-even age for CPP?
Around age 74 for choosing 65 over 60, around age 82 for choosing 70 over 65, and around age 78 for choosing 70 over 60 — the age by which the larger, later cheques have paid back the head start the earlier ones had, assuming no investment growth on the difference. These ages come out of Service Canada's 0.6%/0.7% factors alone, so — perhaps surprisingly — they're the same for almost everyone, whatever your own dollar amount (a pension combined with a reduced survivor's pension, or changed by a credit split, is the exception).
Does CPP keep up with inflation?
Yes. CPP payments in pay are adjusted every January by the change in the Pension Index, which is the average Consumer Price Index for the 12 months ending the previous 31 October compared with the same average a year earlier. The index cannot fall, so payments do not go down if prices do. The adjustment applied for January 2026 was +2.0%. Because of that indexing, this calculator works entirely in today's dollars: your amount, the lifetime totals and the break-even ages are all real (inflation-adjusted) figures, not numbers you need to inflate yourself.
What is the CPP Post-Retirement Benefit?
If you work and contribute to CPP after you start collecting it, each year of contributions earns you a small top-up called the Post-Retirement Benefit (PRB), paid on top of your regular pension for life and itself indexed to inflation. Contributions are mandatory if you're working and under 65, and optional from 65 to 70 (an employee opts out with form CPT30; if you're self-employed you elect on Schedule 8 of your tax return); nothing more accrues after 70. For 2026 the maximum PRB for someone aged 65 is $54.69 a month for each year of contributions (lower if it starts before 65, higher after), and the average for new recipients at 65 was $26.25 a month in July 2026.
Is this a recommendation of when I should start CPP?
No — it's arithmetic, not advice. It applies Service Canada's own published factors to the numbers you enter so you can see the trade-off clearly; it can't know your health, your other savings, whether you're still working, or whether a spouse depends on your income. Those are exactly the things that should drive the actual decision, ideally with a financial planner or a call to Service Canada.
Does this calculator work for QPP in Quebec?
Not exactly. Under the Quebec Pension Plan, Retraite Québec reduces the pension by 0.5% to 0.6% for each month it starts before 65, with the exact percentage depending on the amount of the pension, and increases it by 0.7% for each month after 65, with the increases stopping at 72. CPP uses a flat 0.6% reduction per month, the same 0.7% increase, and stops at 70. So the after-65 side of this calculator matches QPP, the early-start side can differ slightly, and QPP can be deferred two years longer than this page allows.