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Paycheck Calculator
Find out what actually hits your bank account. Enter your salary, pay frequency and tax rates, then press Calculate to see take-home pay per paycheck and a breakdown of every deduction.
Written by TopicDrill Editorial Team·Updated June 2026
Where each gross dollar goes
- Take-home pay72.2%
- Federal tax11.4%
- State tax3.8%
- Social Security6.2%
- Medicare1.5%
- Pre-tax (401k)5.0%
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How the paycheck calculator works
The tool starts from your annual salary and walks through the same order a payroll system does. It first sets aside your pre-tax 401k contribution, then applies your federal and state income tax rates to the wages that remain. Social Security and Medicare are charged on your full gross wages, since payroll tax does not get the 401k break.
Whatever survives all of that is your net pay. Dividing the yearly net by the number of pay periods gives the figure on each paycheck. The donut chart turns the same numbers into shares, so you can see at a glance how much of every dollar you keep versus hand over.
A worked example
Take a $65,000 salary paid every two weeks, with a 5% 401k contribution, a 12% effective federal rate and a 4% state rate. Around $3,250 goes to retirement, roughly $4,970 to FICA, and the income taxes take their cut of the remaining wages. The take-home lands near $1,840 per bi-weekly paycheck, a little under 74% of gross.
Things to keep in mind
Effective tax rates are simplifications, so check your real withholding against an official source such as the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator. To see how raising your 401k rate compounds over decades, jump to our future value calculator.
Frequently asked questions
What does a paycheck calculator estimate?
It estimates your net pay, the amount that actually lands in your bank account each pay period, after subtracting federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, Medicare and any pre-tax retirement contributions from your gross salary.
Why is my take-home pay so much less than my salary?
Several layers come out of gross pay before you see it. Social Security takes 6.2 percent and Medicare 1.45 percent of wages, federal and state income tax are withheld on top, and pre-tax 401k contributions are set aside for retirement. Together these can easily reduce a paycheck by a quarter or more.
Are 401k contributions taxed?
A traditional 401k contribution is taken out before income tax, so it lowers the wages your federal and state tax are calculated on. It does not lower Social Security or Medicare, though, because those payroll taxes apply to your full gross wages.
How accurate is this estimate?
It uses a flat effective rate you supply for federal and state tax rather than full bracket tables, so treat it as a close planning estimate. Your real withholding depends on your W-4 entries, filing status, credits and local taxes, which your employer's payroll system applies exactly.
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