How long will my pension last in drawdown?

It depends on your pot size, spending, growth and tax. This calculator runs a full year-by-year projection with UK income tax, inflation-linked spending and the State Pension to find the first year your spending can no longer be funded.

What is a sustainable withdrawal amount from my pension?

The calculator solves for the highest annual spending (in today's terms) that keeps every year funded to age 100 on your assumptions, by re-running the full projection at different spending levels.

Is this calculator free and private?

Yes. It runs entirely in your browser: nothing you enter is sent to a server or stored. It is education, not regulated financial advice.

Pension drawdown calculator — how long will your pension last?

Enter your pot, spending and retirement age. Unlike rule-of-thumb calculators, this runs a full year-by-year projection — income tax on your withdrawals, the State Pension when it starts, inflation on your spending — using the same engine as the Hundred Summers planning app. Your figures never leave your browser.

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How this calculator works

Each year of your retirement is simulated in sequence: your spending rises with inflation (2.5% assumed), the State Pension arrives at your State Pension age and is triple-locked, your pot grows at your assumed rate, and withdrawals are sized so your after-tax income meets your spending — income tax on drawdown is calculated with real UK bands, not ignored. The pot “lasts” until the first year that spending can no longer be funded. The sustainable-spending figure is found by re-running the whole projection at different spending levels until the highest one that stays funded to age 100 is found.

It deliberately keeps to one pot and one taxpayer. The full Hundred Summers plan adds ISAs and other accounts, tax-free cash, couples, property, one-off events, and stress-tests the result against thousands of simulated market paths and every historical market sequence since 1928 — free to start, with your data stored only on your device.

Education, not advice. Results depend entirely on the assumptions you enter; investments can fall as well as rise. For a personal recommendation speak to an FCA-regulated financial adviser, or get free impartial guidance from MoneyHelper.

Common questions

What is pension drawdown? Leaving your pension invested and withdrawing an income from it, rather than buying an annuity. Your money can keep growing, but it can also run out — which is exactly what this calculator tests.

Is the 4% rule reliable? It is a US-derived rule of thumb. A projection like this one — with your actual tax, State Pension and time horizon — answers the question the rule approximates. The full app goes further and stress-tests the answer against bad market sequences.

How is tax handled? Withdrawals beyond the personal allowance are taxed at rest-of-UK income tax rates within the projection. (Tax-free cash and Scottish bands are modelled in the full app.)