Social Security Benefit Calculator Download

Obtaining the calculator electronically

The calculator (see description) can be obtained from this website. The sections below describe how to do this for the Windows and Mac OS versions.

Note on downloading files

If you have trouble using one of the links below to download the files to a Windows machine, try right-clicking the link and selecting the "Save target as" or similar option on the pop-up menu. This will allow you to download the file to your computer.

Downloading a Windows installation file

The downloadable files are stored in an InstallShield file. InstallShield uses the Windows Installer service, which comes with all recent versions of Windows. You can simply download our InstallShield installation file by clicking on Calculator.msi (4,690,944 bytes).

Downloading a Windows zip file

If you would rather not use the Windows installation file, we provide an alternative version of the calculator setup package as a simple Winzip self-extracting file. It contains the same files as Calculator.msi, and installs them in the same place, but the Winzip version of the calculator setup package does not create desktop and start menu shortcuts, and does not allow for uninstallation from the Control Panel.

The 2024.1 version of the calculator and data, updated through 2023, can be downloaded by choosing the appropriate setup file in the following table.

Installation type

Install file

Comments

Windows Installer file

Calculator.msi (4,690,944 bytes)

Uses the Windows installer service, and creates shortcuts and Start Menu items.

Windows self-extracting zip file

anypia32z.exe (1,793,024 bytes)

Forget the Windows Installer! Just give me the files!

Installing the Windows version

After downloading the calculator, install it by executing the downloaded file. The InstallShield dialog boxes will guide you through the installation process. When it is finished, you will have a folder named Calculator with 32 files: anypia32.exe, anypia32.chm, 29 sample files, and a readme file (readme.txt). The default location for the folder is in a folder named SSA, inside your Program Files folder. There will also be an entry in your Start Menu and an alias on your desktop for the benefit calculator. To start the calculator, choose it from the Start Menu, or click the alias on the desktop.

To uninstall the calculator, choose Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs from the Start menu. Highlight Social Security Benefit Calculator and click Remove.

Note on installation

Some people have encountered problems installing the detailed calculator on computers running Windows where the installation file is not allowed to write to the installation directory. If you encounter this problem, download the installation file to your machine as explained in the note above. Then try changing the installation directory from the default C:\Program Files\SSA Benefit Calculator\ to a directory outside of Program Files such as C:\SSA Benefit Calculator\. This works for most people. If this doesn't work for you, contact us using the link below.

As an alternative, you can download the zip installation file, which should install without any problems. However, you will have to create your own shortcuts and start menu items if you do this.

Downloading the Mac OS version

The downloadable files are stored in a self-extracting archive. The 2024.1 version of the calculator and data, updated through 2023, is in the Anypia.dmg disk image file. Click on Anypia.dmg (10,306,971 bytes) to download the Mac OS version.

Install the calculator by expanding Anypia.dmg, which will create a disk image on your computer. Then run the Anypia.app program inside the disk image, which will prompt you to select a folder where you want the calculator installed. A folder called Benefit Calculator will be created in the folder you select. It contains 31 files: Anypia, 29 sample files, and a readme file (readme.txt). Start the calculator by double-clicking on Anypia.

The Benefit Calculator folder also contains two subfolders named html and images. The html subfolder contains about 400 help files in html format, divided among 12 subfolders. The images subfolder contains 17 .gif files used in the html files. Start your browsing of the help files with main_index.html in the html subfolder.

To uninstall the calculator, drag the Benefit Calculator folder to the trashcan.

Note that this Mac version will not work on a Mac running Lion or newer versions of the OS X operating system. We hope to produce a Mac version which will work on newer versions of OS X, but we have very limited resources to devote to that project at this time.

Questions or comments

If you have questions or comments about the Detailed Calculator, please visit our Contact Social Security page for ways to contact us. Remember to use "Detailed Calculator" as the subject so we know which calculator your question or comment refers to.