CPP Calculator (2026)

How CPP is calculated

CPP takes 5.95% of your pensionable earnings — the slice of income between the $3,500 basic exemption and the $74,600 yearly maximum. Subtract $3,500 from your income (capped at $74,600), multiply by 5.95%, and that's your base contribution, up to $4,230.45. Your employer pays the same amount alongside you.

Since 2024 there's a second tier. Earnings between $74,600 and $85,000 attract CPP2 at 4%, adding up to $416 more. So the most an employee contributes in 2026 is $4,646.45. Below $3,500 you pay nothing, and above $85,000 no further CPP applies.

Two figures do all the work, and both are reset every January against average wage growth: the $74,600 ceiling and the $85,000 upper limit. The $3,500 exemption is the exception — it has been frozen at that level for years and isn't indexed, so it quietly shrinks in real terms each year. The government sets all three each October for the following calendar year.

The 5.95% is itself two rates stacked. 4.95% is base CPP, which earns you a non-refundable tax credit; the remaining 1.00% is the enhancement introduced in 2019, which is deducted from income instead. CPP2 is treated the same way as the enhancement. You don't have to do anything with that split, but it's why CPP shows up in two different places on a return.

If you're self-employed, you pay both halves

There's no employer to match you, so you pay the employee and employer shares together: 11.90% on CPP1 pensionable earnings to a maximum of $8,460.90, plus 8% on the CPP2 band to a maximum of $832. At or above $85,000 of net income that's $9,292.90 for the year.

Two things soften it. Contributions are based on net business income — after expenses, not gross billings. And half the total, the employer-equivalent portion, is deductible on line 22200 of your return, which reduces your taxable income. The other half earns the usual credit and deduction split.

Worth pricing in before you set a contract rate: a T4 job includes roughly $4,230 of employer CPP that never appears on your payslip but is part of what you cost. An equivalent contract rate has to cover it, because as a contractor you pay it yourself.

CPP1 plus CPP2, 2026 rates. The calculator above works out any income between these rows.

Quebec is different: QPP, not CPP

If you work in Quebec you pay into the Québec Pension Plan instead of CPP, and its rate is higher. The exemption ($3,500), the $74,600 ceiling, the $85,000 upper limit and the 4% second tier are all identical to CPP — but the base rate is 6.3% versus CPP's 5.95%. That pushes the first-tier maximum to $4,479.30 (against CPP's $4,230.45), so a Quebec employee's most-you'll-pay is $4,895.30 once the $416 QPP2 is added. Switch the plan above to "QPP — Quebec" to see your Quebec numbers. Your employer still matches you, and the self-employed still pay both halves.

Why your T4 won't match this exactly

This page works out a full year in one step. Your employer doesn't — payroll calculates CPP every pay period, applying the rate and a per-period slice of the $3,500 exemption to that period's earnings, then rounding. Twenty-six of those roundings accumulate, so box 16 of your T4 can sit a few dollars either side of an annual estimate. That's normal.

Bigger gaps usually have a specific cause:

• You didn't work the full year. A mid-year start or finish means fewer pay periods and less exemption used, so contributions come in under the annual figure.
• You had two employers. Each deducts from zero, with no visibility into the other. Combined income above the ceiling means you over-contribute — but nothing is lost: the CRA credits the excess when you file, as a larger refund or a smaller balance owing. Changing jobs mid-year does the same thing.
• A CPT30 election is in effect. Contributions stop from the month after filing, so the year is part-contributed.

For an estimate, enter your total expected income from every source — the annual maximum is what it is regardless of how many employers paid you.

When contributions stop, and what isn't pensionable

Contributions stop automatically at age 70, whether or not you're still working. Between 65 and 70 you can stop early if you're already receiving a CPP retirement pension, by filing form CPT30 with your employer — it takes effect the month after you file. Before 65 there's no opting out.

Carrying on past 65 isn't wasted, though. Every year you contribute while receiving your pension earns a post-retirement benefit, paid from the following year and for life on top of your existing pension. Stopping is a real trade-off rather than an obvious win.

CPP applies to employment income and net self-employment income, and nothing else. Investment income, capital gains, rental income and pension payments are not pensionable — they attract no contributions and build no entitlement, however large they are. Someone living on dividends contributes nothing to CPP and accrues nothing.

What the contributions actually buy

CPP isn't a savings account with your name on it. Contributions don't sit in an individual fund — they buy entitlement to a monthly pension worked out from your average pensionable earnings across your working life. Years near the ceiling pull that average up; years of low or no earnings pull it down.

Gaps are partly forgiven. For the base component, Service Canada excludes up to 8 years of your lowest earnings from the calculation, which covers time spent studying, unemployed or raising children. The enhanced component works differently: it uses your best 40 years. Neither is something you apply for.

Hitting the annual maximum isn't a penalty, and deductions stopping in November doesn't mean you've overpaid — it means the year's contribution is complete. Where the pension itself is concerned, when you start it matters as much as what you paid in: see CPP at 60 vs 65 for the reduction, the increase and the break-even.