Social Security credits: How to get them and how many you need to be eligible for retirement
Americans are required to reach a certain number of credits before one can claim retirement benefits. But how much you’ll receive is based on other factors.
There are now nearly 75.5 million Americans receiving some form of Social Security benefit. However, the vast majority of those are people collecting retirement benefits based on their work record.
In order to claim retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration based on your account, you must first attain 40 Social Security credits and have reached age 62. However, the amount that you will receive once you are approved is based on other factors.
Social Security credits and your retirement benefit
Workers can earn up to four Social Security credits per year, so that means you must have worked the equivalent of at least 10 years to qualify for SSA retirement benefits. Each credit is based on an amount of earnings from wages and self-employment income, and that amount changes each year to reflect inflation.
Currently, in 2026, for every $1,890 in covered earnings, you earn one Social Security and Medicare credit. Times that by four and you must earn $7,560 to get the maximum four credits for the year in 2026.
Obviously, you may well earn far more than that, and hopefully you do, as it will affect how much you will receive when you can finally claim your retirement benefit.
How are Social Security payments calculated?
The SSA bases the Social Security entitlement on data gathered throughout your working life, which is formed into an earnings record. This information is then used, with a three-part process, to calculate the size of payments:
Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME)
The SSA uses your 35 best-paid years to calculate your AIME, essentially a snapshot of your historical earnings. The more you earn, the higher your monthly entitlement. Currently, Social Security only taxes your income up to a maximum threshold of $184,500 in 2026. This amount is adjusted annually for inflation.
Primary Insurance Amount (PIA)
Assuming that you wait until full retirement age (67 for those born in 1960 or later) before claiming Social Security, your PIA is the amount you’ll receive each month from the SSA.
Your PIA in 2026 is comprised of:
- 90% of the first $1,286 of your AIME;
- 32% of any amount over $1,286up to $7,749;
- and 15% of any amount over $7,749
Age of claim
If you decide to claim Social Security before you reach full retirement age, your monthly entitlement will decrease. This is done on a sliding scale, with up to 30% of the payment size being lost if you claim at the age of 62. Alternatively, if you delay the payment until you are 70, you can get a boost your payment amount by up to 24%.
You can use the Social Security Administration’s quick calculator to estimate what your monthly retirement benefit could be on the agency’s official website.
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