Paycheck / Take-Home Pay Estimator

Estimate net take-home pay after federal and state taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and deductions.

How to Use Paycheck / Take-Home Pay Estimator

1

Enter gross pay

Type your salary or hourly rate with hours worked.
2

Set deductions

Enter federal tax, state tax, insurance, and other deductions.
3

View net pay

See your take-home pay after all deductions are applied.

Tested tool guide Tested browser tools Checked August 16, 2026

What Paycheck / Take-Home Pay Estimator does and how it behaves

This tool takes a gross pay amount, pay frequency, filing status, state, and any pre-tax or post-tax deductions, then works backward to an estimated net paycheck. It applies flat-rate Social Security and Medicare withholding, an estimated federal income tax withholding based on filing status and standard deduction, and a simplified state tax estimate. The mistake people make most often: entering an annual salary while leaving the frequency set to biweekly or semimonthly, which divides the tax calculation against the wrong period and produces a distorted percentage taken out of each check.

How the result is produced

Payroll tax withholding

Social Security is withheld at 6.2% of gross wages up to the annual Social Security wage base, and Medicare at 1.45%, with an additional 0.9% withheld on wages this employer pays above $200,000 in the year. That $200,000 withholding trigger is fixed by law and is the same for every filing status; the filing-status thresholds ($250,000 married filing jointly, $125,000 married filing separately, $200,000 others) only affect the taxpayer's actual year-end Additional Medicare Tax liability, reconciled on Form 8959, not what gets withheld from a given paycheck. These rates are fixed by statute and do not depend on W-4 elections, so they compute the same way for every user regardless of filing choices.

Income tax estimate

Federal and state income tax withheld is estimated from gross wages minus any pre-tax deductions entered, using the selected filing status and pay frequency to annualize income before applying a standard deduction and marginal bracket estimate. This mirrors the general shape of IRS withholding tables rather than reproducing the exact percentage-method computation from Publication 15-T, so it will not match a pay stub to the cent.

Good uses

comparing two job offers quoted at different gross salaries or pay frequencies to see which actually yields more take-home pay
checking whether an upcoming paycheck lines up with a recent raise, bonus, or change to a 401(k) contribution before payday
estimating take-home pay before relocating to a state with different income tax treatment

Limits and checks

The federal estimate cannot reproduce W-4 Step 2-4 entries such as multiple jobs, dependents, or extra withholding, so two people with identical gross pay but different W-4 elections will see different real paychecks even though the tool shows one number.
State results are simplified; the tool does not model local or municipal income taxes, reciprocity agreements between work and residence states, or state-specific treatment of pre-tax deductions.
The Social Security calculation assumes wages are under the annual wage base for a single employer; it does not track cumulative withholding across employers after a mid-year job change, so a single-paycheck estimate can diverge from what is actually withheld later in the year.

Common questions

Why doesn't the estimate match the net pay on my actual paycheck stub?

It usually will not match exactly. Actual withholding also depends on your specific W-4 elections, employer-specific benefit deductions, local taxes, and the exact IRS withholding tables in effect for your pay date, none of which this tool reproduces precisely. Treat the output as a planning estimate, not a substitute for your pay stub.

If I enter a 401(k) or health insurance deduction, does it lower my taxed wages?

Yes, when entered as a pre-tax deduction it is subtracted from gross pay before the federal and state tax estimate is calculated, consistent with how most employer-sponsored 401(k) and health premiums are treated. Post-tax deductions, if that field is used instead, are subtracted only from the final net figure.

References and verification

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