German Pension Points Calculator

How this is worked out

The German state pension is refreshingly simple once you see it, and almost nobody explains it in English.

You earn points, not money. Each year, your salary is divided by the national average salary:

points this year = your salary ÷ average salary

Earn exactly the average and you get exactly 1.0 point. Earn double and you get 2.0. Earn half and you get 0.5. The average for 2026 is 51,944.

Points are capped. Earnings above the contribution ceiling of 101,400 a year earn no further points — so the most anyone can collect in 2026 is about 1.95 points, no matter how much they are paid.

At retirement, points become money. Multiply your lifetime total by the Rentenwert:

monthly pension = total points × 42.52

That figure rose from 40.79 on 1 July 2026 and is adjusted most years, roughly in line with wages. Because it tracks wages rather than being a fixed sum, a pension quoted in today's points stays broadly comparable to today's salaries.

This also makes the system unusually transparent: someone who earns the average wage for 45 years collects 45 points, which is about 1,913 a month gross. That is the German pension in one line, and it explains why the conversation about private provision is as loud as it is.

A worked example

Earning 54,000 for 30 years, starting from zero:

• Points per year: 1.04
• Points at retirement: 31.2
• Monthly pension: about 1,326 in today's money
• That is 29% of your current salary, gross

Your own contributions over those 30 years come to roughly 150,700 — and your employer paid the same again. At 1,326 a month, you recover your own half in about 9.5 years of retirement.

Note what the numbers do not say. Thirty years at a slightly above-average salary produces well under a third of that salary as pension, before tax and before health contributions are deducted from it. That gap is the whole argument for the second and third pillars.

What this doesn't cover

• The result is in today's money because both the point count and the Rentenwert move with wages over time. It is a comparison to today's salaries, not a forecast of a future euro amount.
• Pensions are taxable in Germany, and health and care contributions are deducted from them. What arrives is meaningfully less than the gross figure.
• Points from child-raising, education, care work, unemployment and military service are not included and can add up substantially — Kindererziehungs- zeiten alone give roughly three points per child born from 1992.
• Retiring before your statutory age costs 0.3% per month permanently. Working past it adds 0.5% per month.
• The 2026 average income is provisional and is finalised retrospectively.
• If you leave Germany, points already earned are not lost. EU rules and bilateral agreements generally allow periods to be combined, and a refund of your own contributions is possible in some non-EU cases after a waiting period.

Common questions