Terms of Service

The Site is free and needs no account. By using it, you confirm that you are at least 13 years old.

The Site offers, free of charge:

• an inflation calculator that adjusts US dollar amounts between years using Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics;
• an investment calculator that compares the historical growth of a lump sum in the S&P 500, gold, US home prices, US bonds, and Bitcoin;
• reference pages for each year, showing what a dollar from that year is worth today;
• educational guides on inflation and investment returns;
• a free JSON API and Markdown versions of each page, returning the same figures.

Everything on the Site is for information and education. The data sources and methods are described on the About page. I may change, add, or remove features at any time.

The calculations and information on this Site are for general informational purposes only and are not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Don't rely on the Site in place of professional guidance; consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions. Past returns shown on the Site don't predict future results.

I work to keep the figures accurate, but I make no representations or warranties about the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the data or results on this Site.

The CPI data comes from the US government and is in the public domain; you can use it freely. The Site's text, design, and code are mine, and you may not republish substantial parts of them without permission. Quoting short passages or citing figures is welcome, with attribution and a link to the page they come from.

Search engines, AI assistants, agents, and other automated clients are welcome to access the Site within the rules in robots.txt and the license terms in rsl.xml. Under those terms, indexing the Site for search, indexing it for AI retrieval, and using it in AI answers and agent tasks are permitted free of charge, provided you give visible attribution and a link to the source page. Using the Site's content to train or fine-tune AI models is not licensed. The API and llms.txt are the easiest ways to get the figures programmatically.

Whether you visit in person or through software, you may not:

• send requests at a volume that degrades the Site for others, or try to get around its rate limits;
• attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Site or the systems behind it;
• send malicious code or probe the Site for vulnerabilities;
• use the Site in a way that breaks applicable law.

I may block clients that do these things.

The Site shows ads served by Google AdSense. I don't choose the individual ads and am not responsible for them or for the products and services they promote. Your dealings with advertisers are between you and them.

The Site links to data sources and other websites for your convenience. I don't control them and am not responsible for their content or for any loss arising from your use of them.

The Site is provided "as is" and "as available," without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. I don't warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted or error-free.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, I am not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from your use of, or inability to use, the Site or its content, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. My total liability for any claim arising from these terms or your use of the Site will not exceed $100.

You agree to indemnify and hold me harmless from claims, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from your misuse of the Site or your violation of these terms.

These terms are governed by the laws of the United States and of the state in which the Site's operator resides, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

I may update these terms. Changes take effect when posted, and the "Last updated" date above will change. Continuing to use the Site after a change means you accept the updated terms.

Questions about these terms: contact@inflationcalculator.app, or see the contact page.