Take-Home Pay Calculator UK: Your Real Monthly Pay After Tax
- 2026/27 tax year
- 8 min read
Your monthly take-home
£2,093.34
£25,120.08 a year from £30,000.00 gross. You keep 83.7% of your pay.
- Income tax 11.6%
- National Insurance 4.6%
- Take-home 83.7%
- Gross pay (month)
- £2,500.00
- Income tax
- −£290.50
- National Insurance
- −£116.16
- Take-home (month)
- £2,093.34
Of your next £100 of pay rise, you'd keep £71.96.
Your pay, period by period
| 2026/27 | Year | Month | Week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | £30,000.00 | £2,500.00 | £576.92 |
| Income tax | −£3,486.00 | −£290.50 | −£67.04 |
| National Insurance | −£1,393.92 | −£116.16 | −£26.81 |
| Take-home pay | £25,120.08 | £2,093.34 | £483.08 |
Paid monthly (12 pay periods). Monthly and weekly columns are your annual figures divided by 12 and 52.
Assumptions used
- 2026/27 tax year, England, Wales and Northern Ireland income tax bands
- Tax code 1257L (personal allowance £12,570, reduced above £100,000)
- National Insurance category A (standard), worked out per monthly pay period
- No student loan
- No pension contribution
- No bonus, benefits in kind, other income or underpaid tax from earlier years
If your payslip differs, the input to check is almost always one of these.
Use this free UK take-home pay calculator to see exactly what lands in your bank account each month from any salary. Enter your pay, and the calculator shows your monthly take-home after income tax, National Insurance, student loan, and pension, with every deduction itemised, every assumption listed, and the numbers built to match your actual payslip for the 2026/27 tax year.
It works in both directions: give it a salary to get your take-home pay, or switch to reverse mode, enter the monthly take-home pay you need, and it tells you the salary that delivers it, which is useful for job hunting, negotiating, and budgeting.
How Take-Home Pay Is Calculated in the UK
Your take-home (net) pay is your gross salary minus four possible deductions, applied in this order:
- 1
Pension contributions
Taken first if you're auto-enrolled; salary sacrifice schemes reduce every other deduction below; standard schemes reduce only your tax.
- 2
Income tax
0% on your first £12,570 (the personal allowance), then 20%, 40%, and 45% through the bands. Only the slice of income inside each band is taxed at that band's rate.
- 3
National Insurance
8% on monthly pay between £1,048 and £4,189, and 2% above that. Calculated per pay period, not annually.
- 4
Student loan
9% of pay above your plan's threshold (6% for postgraduate loans), only if you have one.
Everything happens automatically through PAYE using your tax code (1257L for most people). You can confirm your current code with HMRC's income tax checker: a wrong code is the most common reason a payslip doesn't match any calculator.
2026/27 Tax Year Rates Used by This Calculator
Income tax bands for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland (Scottish bands below):
| Band | Income | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Personal allowance | Up to £12,570 | 0% |
| Basic rate | £12,571 – £50,270 | 20% |
| Higher rate | £50,271 – £125,140 | 40% |
| Additional rate | Over £125,140 | 45% |
Full band details are on the official income tax rates page at GOV.UK. The personal allowance tapers away above £100,000 (£1 lost per £2), producing an effective 60% rate between £100,000 and £125,140.
Employee National Insurance (category A)
8%
£1,048 – £4,189 a month
2%
above £4,189 a month
Student loan thresholds
Plan 1
£26,900
Plan 2
£29,385
Plan 4
£33,795
Plan 5
£25,000
Postgraduate
£21,000
Take Home Pay Examples for 2026/27
What common salaries actually pay each month (England/Wales/NI, standard tax code, no student loan or pension):
| Salary | Income tax | National Insurance | Take-home (year) | Take-home (month) | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £2,486 | £994 | £21,520 | £1,793 | 86% |
| £30,000 | £3,486 | £1,394 | £25,120 | £2,093 | 84% |
| £35,000 | £4,486 | £1,794 | £28,720 | £2,393 | 82% |
| £50,000 | £7,486 | £2,994 | £39,520 | £3,293 | 79% |
| £70,000 | £15,432 | £3,410 | £51,158 | £4,263 | 73% |
Notice how the deduction share grows: about 14% of pay at £25,000, rising to 27% at £70,000, because more of the salary sits in the 40% band. Add a Plan 2 student loan and a 5% pension, and each row drops further; the calculator applies your exact combination.
Why Do Take-Home Pay Calculators Give Different Answers?
Put the same salary into three calculators, and you'll often get three answers. None of them are necessarily broken; they're making different silent assumptions. The usual culprits:
Tax year.
Many calculators still run 2025/26 rates months into the new year. This one uses 2026/27.
Pension treatment.
Whether your percentage is taken by salary sacrifice (reduces tax, NI, and student loan) or a standard scheme (reduces tax only) changes the result; some calculators don't ask.
NI category.
Most assume category A. If you're over state pension age, you pay no employee NI at all, and your real take-home is higher than most calculators show.
Tax code.
Calculators assume 1257L. Marriage allowance, benefits in kind, or debt collection through your code all shift the personal allowance.
Rounding and pay periods.
NI is per pay period; annualised approximations drift by a few pounds.
Every assumption, listed
That's why this calculator lists every assumption under your result, so when your payslip differs, you can see exactly which input to change rather than wondering which website to trust.
Scotland: Different Bands, Different Take-Home
Scottish income tax has six bands, 19%, 20%, 21%, 42%, 45%, and 48%, with the 42% higher rate starting at £43,663, almost £7,000 earlier than in the rest of the UK.
National Insurance and student loans are identical UK-wide. Toggle Scotland in the calculator to switch band sets. See the Scottish income tax rates at GOV.UK.
On £30,000
+£34.93
more per year for a Scottish taxpayer than an English one
On £50,000
−£1,496
less per year for a Scottish taxpayer
What Salary Do I Need for a Take-Home of £X?
Budgets run on take-home, but job adverts speak gross, so the question people actually have is backwards: “I need £2,500 a month after deductions; what salary is that?” The reverse mode answers it directly.
Add a student loan or pension, and the required salary rises; the calculator solves it for your exact settings, which makes it a practical target to take into salary negotiations.
Once you know your monthly figure, put it to work: if you share your home, our household bills splitter shows the fairest way to divide the bills on your combined take-home, and if the goal you're budgeting for is a trip, our travel budget calculator turns the same monthly number into a holiday savings plan.
For 2026/27 (no student loan or pension):
Take-home a month
£2,500
Salary needed
about £36,800
Take-home a month
£3,000
Salary needed
about £45,100
How to Increase Your Take-Home Pay
- 01
Check your tax code first.
Tax codes are often wrong, especially after changing jobs, receiving benefits in kind, or having two employers. It takes two minutes with HMRC, and a correction can be backdated.
- 02
Use salary sacrifice where offered.
Pension via salary sacrifice avoids income tax, NI, and student loans on the sacrificed amount; it's the most efficient pound you can move. Tick ‘Pension is salary sacrifice’ in the calculator above to see the effect on your own payslip.
- 03
Claim marriage allowance if eligible.
If your partner earns below £12,570 and you're a basic-rate taxpayer, they can transfer £1,260 of allowance to you, worth £252 a year, backdatable for four years.
- 04
Mind the thresholds.
Just over £50,270, £60,000 (child benefit), or £100,000 (allowance taper)? A modest pension contribution can move you back below the line and return more than it costs.
- 05
Working part-time or comparing hours?
Take-home doesn't scale linearly with hours, because the personal allowance doesn't shrink, and part-time pay is taxed proportionally less. Our pro rata salary calculator shows take-home for any working pattern.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the take-home pay on £30,000?
£25,120 a year, or £2,093 a month, in 2026/27 for England, Wales, and NI with a standard tax code, no student loan, and no pension. With a Plan 2 student loan, it drops by about £4 a month at this salary (repayments only apply above £29,385).
Is take-home pay before or after pension?
After. Take-home pay is what reaches your bank account, so pension contributions have already been deducted. Remember, pension money isn't lost; it's deferred pay, which is why two people with identical salaries can have very different take-home pay but similar total compensation.
What percentage of my salary is take-home pay?
Typically 73–86% for most earners: around 86% at £25,000, 84% at £30,000, 79% at £50,000, and 73% at £70,000 (before student loans or pensions). The percentage falls as you earn more because higher slices are taxed at higher rates.
Why did my take-home pay go down this month?
Common causes: crossing a student loan or NI threshold in a high-earning month, a tax code change (check your HMRC app), pension auto-enrolment or re-enrolment kicking in, or a previous month's underpaid tax being collected. Compare the calculator's payslip view with your actual payslip line by line to find the difference.
Does this calculator work for hourly wages?
Yes, enter your hourly rate and weekly hours, and it converts to an annual figure before applying deductions. Weekly and four-weekly pay frequencies are handled the same way.
Is take-home pay the same as net pay?
Yes, take-home pay, net pay, and net salary all mean your pay after all deductions. Gross pay is the figure before deductions, which is what job adverts quote.
Work Out Your Take-Home Pay Now
Whether you're checking a job offer, planning a budget, or trying to make your payslip make sense, this take-home pay calculator gives you the real monthly figure for 2026/27, itemised, assumption-transparent, and reversible when you need to know the salary behind a target take-home. Scroll up, enter your salary or your target, and see what you'll actually keep.
Results are estimates, not financial advice. See our Disclaimer. Questions or corrections: [contact email].