Payroll & Take-Home

Paycheck Calculator

Estimate your take-home pay per paycheck after federal tax, state tax, FICA, and 401(k) contributions.

Effective rate — not your marginal bracket

Results

Fill in the fields and click Calculate.

What this calculator tells you

A paycheck calculator shows what actually lands in your bank account each pay period. It starts from your annual salary, divides it by your pay frequency, and subtracts federal income tax, state income tax, FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and your traditional 401(k) contribution to reveal your net take-home pay.

How your paycheck is built

Your gross pay per period is your salary divided by the number of paychecks per year. Traditional 401(k) contributions come out pre-tax, so they lower the income used to calculate federal and state tax — but FICA is charged on your full gross. What is left after all deductions is your take-home pay.

Gross per check = Annual salary ÷ Pay periods Taxable pay = Gross − 401(k) contribution Fed + State tax = Taxable pay × your rates FICA = Gross × 7.65% Take-home = Gross − Fed − State − FICA − 401(k)

Why it matters

Your gross salary and your take-home pay can differ by 25-35%. Seeing the breakdown helps you budget on your real net income, understand how a raise or a bigger 401(k) contribution changes each check, and check that your withholding looks right before it becomes an April surprise.

What is FICA and why is 7.65% taken out? +
FICA is the payroll tax that funds Social Security and Medicare. Employees pay 6.2% for Social Security (up to the annual wage base, $184,500 in 2026) plus 1.45% for Medicare, for a combined 7.65%. Your employer pays a matching amount.
Should I enter my marginal or effective federal rate? +
Enter your effective rate — total federal tax divided by income — not your top bracket. For most salaries the effective rate is several points lower than the marginal bracket. You can estimate it with our Federal Income Tax Calculator, then plug it in here.
How does a traditional 401(k) affect my paycheck? +
Traditional 401(k) contributions are pre-tax, so they reduce the income your federal and state tax are calculated on, softening the hit to your take-home pay. They are still subject to FICA. A Roth 401(k), by contrast, is taken after tax and does not lower current taxable income.
Why is my take-home so much lower than my salary? +
Between federal tax, state tax, the 7.65% FICA tax, and retirement contributions, 25-35% of gross pay is commonly withheld before it reaches you. Health insurance premiums and other benefits, which this tool does not include, can reduce it further.
Does this include state and local taxes? +
It includes a state income tax rate that you enter. It does not automatically know your state, and it excludes local city taxes, disability insurance, and benefit deductions. Set the state rate to 0 if you live in a no-income-tax state such as Texas or Florida.

For educational purposes only. This is a simplified estimate using the tax rates you provide and a flat 7.65% FICA rate; it does not account for the Social Security wage cap on very high salaries, additional Medicare tax, local taxes, or benefit deductions. Confirm your actual withholding on your pay stub.

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