Pension drawdown calculator
See how long your pension pot lasts in drawdown and the age it runs out, after tax-free cash, with your state pension, growth, charges and inflation.
- Your pot pays that income for
- 18 years 9 months
- and runs out at age 83 and 9 months
- Tax-free cash
- £75,000
- 25% of your pot, at the start
- Left to draw from
- £225,000
- invested in drawdown
- From your pot each year
- £25,000
- until your state pension starts at 67, then £12,452
- State pension
- £12,547.60 a year
- £241.30 a week from 67
Show the figures for each year
| Age | From your pot | State pension | Pot at the end of the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 65 | £25,000 | £0 | £203,611 |
| 66 | £25,000 | £0 | £181,857 |
| 67 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £172,394 |
| 68 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £162,770 |
| 69 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £152,982 |
| 70 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £143,027 |
| 71 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £132,901 |
| 72 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £122,603 |
| 73 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £112,129 |
| 74 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £101,476 |
| 75 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £90,641 |
| 76 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £79,622 |
| 77 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £68,414 |
| 78 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £57,015 |
| 79 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £45,421 |
| 80 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £33,629 |
| 81 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £21,636 |
| 82 | £12,452 | £12,548 | £9,438 |
| 83 | £9,492 | £12,548 | £0 |
All figures are in today’s money and before tax. Drawdown income is taxed like wages, so you’d get less than this after tax; the tax-free cash is the only part that isn’t. Tax-free cash is up to 25% of your pot, capped at the £268,275 lump sum allowance across all your pensions, and this assumes you haven’t used any of it. The income you want and the state pension both rise with inflation. The pot grows at the growth rate less charges and inflation, worked out monthly, with each month’s income taken at the start of the month. It starts on your birthday, as if you’ve just turned the age you enter, and the state pension starts on the birthday you set for it. State pension age is 67 for anyone born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977. If you were born before 6 March 1961 you’ll reach it before 67, at 66 years and 1 to 11 months if you were born from 6 April 1960, so change the start age to the nearer whole year; the state pension age calculator gives your exact date. The default is a full new State Pension of £241.30 a week, counted as 52 weeks a year; yours depends on your National Insurance record. You can usually take money from a personal pension from 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028. Returns change from year to year and this uses the same rate every year, up to age 100.
What goes in
Your pot is everything in the pension before you take anything out. Tax-free cash is the share you take as a lump sum at the start, up to 25%. The income you want is the total you’d like each year in today’s money, including your state pension, so once the state pension starts the pot only has to cover the rest.
What the result means
The calculator starts on your birthday, at the age you enter, then takes each month’s income from the pot, lets what’s left grow, and counts how long it keeps going. In the example, a £300,000 pot at 65 gives £75,000 tax-free and leaves £225,000 invested. Taking £25,000 a year, with a full state pension from 67, it lasts 18 years 9 months, until age 83 and 9 months. The pot pays the whole £25,000 until the state pension starts, then £12,452 a year. State pension age is 67 for anyone born from 6 March 1961 to 5 April 1977. If you were born before 6 March 1961 you’ll reach it before 67, so change the start age.
Everything is in today’s money and before tax. Drawdown income is taxed like wages. Before your state pension starts, and with no other income, the first £12,570 a year you draw is within your personal allowance. Once it starts, a full new State Pension of £12,547.60 a year uses almost all of that allowance, so almost all of your drawdown income would be taxable. Try a lower growth rate too: returns change from year to year, and a bad few years early on shortens how long the pot lasts. This is general, not about your situation.
The rules behind it
You can usually take up to 25% of a pension tax-free, up to a lump sum allowance of £268,275 across all your pensions. You can usually take money from a personal pension from 55, rising to 57 from 6 April 2028. The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week in 2026 to 2027, and your own amount depends on your National Insurance record.
Sources
- Lump sum allowance, GOV.UK
- Tax when you get a pension: what’s tax-free, GOV.UK
- Income Tax rates and Personal Allowances, GOV.UK
- Increasing normal minimum pension age, GOV.UK
- The new State Pension: what you’ll get, GOV.UK
- Check your State Pension age, GOV.UK
- Benefit and pension rates 2026 to 2027, GOV.UK
- Check your State Pension forecast, GOV.UK