How much annuity income will your pension pot buy?

Annuity income depends on your pot, age, health and the shape you choose, so no table fits everyone. Here is how to find the figure for your own pension.

If you want to know how much annuity income your pension pot would buy, no chart can tell you: one pot can buy quite different incomes for two people. Below is what moves the number and how to get your own. For guidance first, there is Pension Wise, MoneyHelper’s service on taking a defined contribution pension, which is free, impartial and government-backed. Would you sooner talk your own figures through? An FCA-authorised adviser, introduced via the form on this page, can go through your pension, health and other income with you; there is no charge, and it takes a minute or two.

Why one pot does not give one answer

An annuity swaps part of your pension for a promised income, and the insurer decides how much by estimating how long it will have to pay. GOV.UK says the amount can vary for exactly that reason, and names what goes into the sum: your age, how big the pension pot is, interest rates and, in some cases, your health. What an annuity is, and the main types, are in what a pension annuity is.

The sum itself is simple. Under its heading "How are annuity rates calculated?", MoneyHelper gives a worked example (in the copy archived on 13 September 2026): "if you converted a £100,000 pension pot, an annuity rate of: 5% would give you £5,000 a year 6% would give you £6,000 a year." Those are round numbers chosen to show the multiplication. They are not rates any insurer is offering, and not a guide to what £100,000 buys today. The annuity rate, meaning each year’s income as a proportion of what you convert, is the personal part, and it moves; that is why MoneyHelper points readers to live quotes, and why a table of rates in an article dates fast.

Searches that name a pot size and an age run into the same wall. Aviva, an insurer, puts the pot first on its own rates page: “The size of your pension pot determines your annuity income more than anything else.” Even so, the same page says the rate it would actually offer “is tailored to your circumstances and choices.”

What moves the income you are offered

MoneyHelper's list of what the income depends on mixes the market with your own choices: how much you convert, how long the annuity is to pay, whether the income rises, and the rate a provider offers, which turns on your age, your health and where you intend to live as well as on interest rates and wider market conditions. In practice that comes down to six levers.

• The money you put in. A bigger purchase buys a bigger income, and any tax-free cash comes off first (see below).
• Your age. It feeds the insurer’s estimate of how many years it will pay (more in the questions below).
• Your health and lifestyle. Medical questions let the insurer estimate your life expectancy. MoneyHelper names conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure or cancer, smoking, being overweight, some manual work and living somewhere with low life expectancy as things that might bring a higher offer; enhanced annuity rates explains how.
• Level or rising. A level income usually starts higher than one that increases, so a yearly rise is paid for with a smaller first payment; see inflation-linked annuity rates.
• One life or two. Payments usually end at death unless the annuity is joint-life, passing part of the income on to a dependant; see joint life annuities.
• Protections. Value protection (a lump sum if the annuity has paid out less than it cost) and a guarantee period (payments to beneficiaries for a set time) each usually trim the income, because the insurer is likely to pay for longer. See what happens to an annuity when you die.

The rate on the day sits on top of all of these and moves with interest rates; whether annuity rates are going up looks at that. Because the levers combine, a quote that looks higher may simply be buying less: no partner’s income, no protection, no yearly rise. Quotes only compare when they are for the same thing.

How to find your own annuity income figure

There are three ways to see a real figure, and MoneyHelper names all of them: its own comparison tool, quotes you ask insurers for directly, and a regulated adviser, paid to recommend a provider and product. You can use more than one.

MoneyHelper’s comparison tool. By its own description, the tool shows what different providers would pay you and "compares rates from all providers", and takes no commission for providing it, though in some cases a product may need a broker or adviser to reach it.

Quotes from your own provider and others. GOV.UK confirms the annuity need not come from your pension provider, so compare every provider, your current one included, since a different one may pay a higher income. Ask each for the same pot, income shape and protections, with the same health answers, or the figures will not line up. An older policy may carry a guaranteed annuity rate, worth checking for before you move.

The FCA’s comparison rule. Under COBS 19.9, a firm that hands you a guaranteed quote must first generate a "market-leading pension annuity quote" from across the market, and if that pays more, the firm has to tell you so. A guaranteed quote from your own provider should therefore arrive with that comparison; best annuity rates in the UK explains how to read it.

Quotes gathered close together compare best, since rates move. Pension Wise and free annuity advice cost nothing, and none of these routes is compulsory. Where those quotes need weighing against your State Pension, other pots and family, a firm of FCA-authorised advisers can ring you after you send the enquiry form on this page.

Tax-free cash, tax and the income you actually keep

MoneyHelper says you usually have the option, before buying, to take up to 25% of your pension tax-free, provided the tax-free cash from all your pensions stays within the lump sum allowance; GOV.UK states the same 25% rule. You can take less, or none, and the choice bears directly on this page’s question: whatever you take comes out of the money left to buy income, a trade-off. Whether to take it is covered in the tax-free lump sum guide.

Annuity income is taxable. It counts towards Income Tax, and the provider normally takes the tax off, using your tax code, before you are paid. A quoted income is therefore a before-tax figure, sitting on top of the State Pension and anything else you receive; GOV.UK’s income tax rates page has the current rates. MoneyHelper also warns that extra income which raises your overall earnings or savings might affect benefits you claim.

Not all of a pot has to go at once. A pot can be used all at once, or you can take tax-free cash and either buy an annuity with the rest straight away or leave it invested to buy with later; with several pensions, each can go a different way. Money left invested stays exposed to markets: it can lose value as well as gain it, and may end up worth less than went in. The wider choices sit in your defined contribution options at retirement.

Before you accept a quote

An annuity is hard to reverse. MoneyHelper says most come with a 30-day cooling-off period, and that once it has passed an annuity cannot be cancelled. Whether swapping the pot for a fixed income suits you is weighed up in is an annuity worth it?

Being hurried is a warning sign. An unexpected call, visit, email or text urging you to buy an annuity is probably a scam, and the FCA’s pension scams page has more.

Annuity income questions people ask

Is there an average annuity amount?

Averages describe a group, not you. Aviva, for one, publishes a graph of its own average rates for 65-year-olds across a range of pot sizes: one insurer’s average, not an offer. Its terms are in Aviva pension annuity rates.

Does annuity income keep rising the older you buy?

Generally the direction is upward, since GOV.UK ties the amount to how many years the insurer expects to pay. A later purchase also meets a different market, though, and health and features still count, so how much more is a quote question. The best age to buy an annuity covers timing.

Is there an annuity estimator or calculator?

MoneyHelper’s annuities guide has a calculator built in for a very quick estimate, and its comparison tool shows what different providers would pay. Both stop short of a guaranteed quote, which the FCA’s rules describe as one based on enough information to underwrite the annuity.

How do I buy an annuity?

MoneyHelper sets out the steps in order: find out whether your provider offers guaranteed annuity rates, compare providers, choose one and any optional features, then make sure the right tax came off the first payment, which may be taxed on a temporary or emergency code.

Your next step

Your annuity income comes down to the pot left after any tax-free cash, your age and health, and the features you pick, so the number worth having is a like-for-like quote on your own details. Pension Wise and MoneyHelper’s comparison tool cost nothing. When you would like that income set beside the rest of your retirement money, a few details in the callback form on this page bring a call from a firm whose advisers are FCA-authorised, and you are under no obligation.

Sources (accessed 18 October 2026): MoneyHelper’s guides to annuities and to comparing annuities, read in archived copies; GOV.UK, How you can take your pension; the FCA Handbook at COBS 19.9; Aviva, An overview of annuity rates; the FCA’s pension scams page.