Free calculator | Updated October 2026
Paycheck Calculator: Your Take-Home Pay After Tax
See exactly what lands in your bank account each payday: federal, Social Security, Medicare, state and local tax taken out, with your 401(k) and benefits, for any state and any pay schedule.
Pre-tax deductions and local tax
Traditional, % of pay
Sets the IRS 401(k) limit
Pre-tax, per month
Per year, through payroll
Take-home pay, every two weeks
Each paycheck
| Gross pay | $2,884.62 |
| Federal income tax | -$295.00 |
| Social Security (6.2%) | -$178.85 |
| Medicare | -$41.83 |
| Texas income tax | $0.00 |
| Take-home pay | $2,368.94 |
Where each dollar goes
- Total tax rate
- 17.9%
- Federal marginal rate
- 22%
A 3.6% raise adds $2,700 to your salary but $1,899 to your take-home pay ($73.06 a paycheck). You keep 70 cents of every extra dollar.
2026 federal brackets and standard deduction (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32), Social Security on wages up to $184,500, Medicare plus the 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax, Texas income tax and payroll programs for 2026. An estimate of withholding at the standard deduction: credits, other income and extra withholding on your W-4 change the actual figure.
What comes out of a paycheck
Every paycheck loses money to the same handful of lines. Federal income tax is graduated: the first dollars after the standard deduction are taxed at 10%, rising to 37% only above $640,600 for a single filer in 2026. Social Security is a flat 6.2% on wages up to $184,500, so very high earners stop paying it partway through the year. Medicare is 1.45% on every dollar, with another 0.9% above $200,000. Then your state: nothing in nine states, a single flat rate in fourteen, and graduated brackets in the rest. A few states add payroll programs for disability or paid leave, and some cities, New York City and Philadelphia among them, levy their own income tax.
Pre-tax deductions, and the states that treat them differently
A traditional 401(k) contribution is taken out before federal and state income tax but after Social Security and Medicare. Health, dental and vision premiums under a Section 125 plan come out before all of them, and so do payroll HSA contributions. Two state rules catch people out: Pennsylvania taxes 401(k) contributions at the state level, and California and New Jersey tax HSA contributions, because neither state recognizes HSAs. The calculator applies all three.
Compare states before you move
The same salary takes home very different amounts in different states, and it buys different amounts too. Change the state above to see the tax difference, then use the cost of living calculator to see what that take-home pay buys there.
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Frequently Asked