FAQ
How much pension will I get in Portugal?+
The Segurança Social pays your remuneração de referência (the average of your revalued remunerations over 14, the best 40 years of a longer career) times a taxa global of 2 % per year up to 20 years, then 2 to 2.3 % per year by slice of income, at most 40 years, 14 times a year. For a full career at a constant salary below 2,148 EUR a month that is about 90 % of the remuneração de referência gross; the simulator computes it from your salary, your years and your claiming age, and compares with the Segurança Social Direta simulation if you enter it.
What is the pension gap and how do I calculate it?+
The difference between the monthly income you want in retirement and what the Segurança Social pension pays after IRS. Take your spending target in today's money, subtract the net pension the simulator shows, and the rest has to come from a PPR, a pension fund or a brokerage account. The block under the verdict shows the gap and how much of it your savings close.
What is deducted from a gross pension?+
Only IRS: pensions carry no Segurança Social contribution. Each pensioner deducts 8.54 times the IAS (4,587.09 EUR in 2026) and the rest is taxed at the escalões of 12.5 to 48 %; a pension of 14,000 EUR a year (1,000 EUR a month) pays about 500 EUR of IRS a year after the mínimo de existência and the general family expenses deduction, a pension of 28,000 EUR about 3,900 EUR. A couple pays the lower of the joint and separate returns.
Can I retire at 60, 62 or earlier?+
The pension cannot start before the idade normal (66 anos e 9 meses in 2026, rising with life expectancy) unless you have 40 years of contributions from 60: then each month before your idade pessoal costs 0.5 % for life, plus the fator de sustentabilidade (17.63 % in 2026, rising with life expectancy) when the 40 years were not complete while you were 60. With 48 years (46 if you started before 17) the carreira muito longa pays the full pension from 60, and long-term unemployment opens the pension at 62 (57 with 22 years). You can stop working earlier and live on your savings until then; the simulator shows those years as waiting years and keeps the PPR closed until 60 or the pension.
What is the idade pessoal de reforma?+
Your own access age: the idade normal of the year less 4 months per year of contributions beyond 40, never below 60. Someone with 44 years of career in 2026 has an idade pessoal of 65 anos e 5 meses instead of 66 anos e 9 meses: the pension is unreduced from there and bonified for months worked after it. The simulator reads your years from the record you enter and reports both ages.
Is a PPR worth it, and should I take it as capital or as an annuity?+
The deduction of 20 % of the contributions (400 EUR a year under 35, 350 to 50, 300 after) is modest; the real benefit is the 8 % tax on the income share at withdrawal, against 28 % on gains in a brokerage account and the IRS scale on a salary. It pays when you keep the money until retirement or 60; withdrawn earlier the deductions come back with a 10 % a year surcharge and the income is taxed at up to 21.5 %. As capital, withdraw what you need each year; as a life annuity, the insurer pays about 4.5 % of the capital for life at 66, taxed as a pension on 15 % of each payment and not indexed. The comparison block prices both on your numbers.
How are shares, funds, deposits and savings certificates taxed in retirement?+
Interest on deposits and Certificados de Aforro is withheld at 28 %. Gains on listed shares and funds are taxed at 28 % on the net gain, counted at 90 % when held more than 2 years, 80 % from 5 years and 70 % from 8 years (art. 43.º n.º 5 CIRS), or at the IRS scale by option (englobamento), which is cheaper for a small pension. The simulator tracks your cost basis, taxes only the gain share of what you sell and picks the cheaper regime each year; crypto held over a year is exempt in Portugal but is treated like securities here.
What about my spouse and the pensão de sobrevivência?+
A spouse or unido de facto joins the plan under the marital status: their pension and PPR, the joint return when it is cheaper, and their salary while they still work. The survivor scenario prices a death: the pensão de sobrevivência pays 60 % of the deceased's pension (or of the pension their career had earned) for life to a survivor aged 35 or more, 14 times a year, on top of their own pension, if the marriage is at least a year old (two years of união de facto). It ends on remarriage.
How much money do I need to retire in Portugal?+
Less than 25 times your spending, because the Segurança Social pension covers part of it for life, updated with prices. Take your monthly target, subtract the net pension and the PPR income, and the remaining gap times 12 times about 25 to 30 years of retirement is the capital you need, taxes included. For a single person wanting 1,500 EUR a month with an average career, that is typically a few tens of thousands to a hundred thousand euros in savings, not millions.
Does it work for civil servants, the self-employed or the NHR regime?+
The simulator models employees of the private sector under the regime geral. Civil servants under the Caixa Geral de Aposentações (an older formula for service before 2006) and trabalhadores independentes (21.4 % on 70 % of their relevant income, the same pension formula) have their own rules and are not modelled, though the confidence field and the remuneração de referência input can approximate them. The former non-habitual resident regime and the IFICI, pension unification with other systems, working on a pension (cumulação) and the Complemento Solidário para Idosos are not modelled either.
All amounts are in today's purchasing power: nominal returns are deflated by the inflation assumption and contributions are held constant in real terms. Segurança Social pension (Decreto-Lei n.º 187/2007, Guia Prático Pensão de Velhice 2026): the remuneração de referência is the average over 14 of a salary path in today's money (today's gross salary grown by the entered real rate until work stops, the same growth backwards for the years so far), the whole career or the best 40 years, or the figure entered; the years of career are entered or estimated from age 22, one civil year per year of work; the taxa global is 2 % per year up to 20 years, then 2.3, 2.25, 2.2, 2.1 and 2 % on the slices of the remuneração de referência up to 1.1, 2, 4 and 8 IAS (537.13 EUR in 2026) and beyond, times at most 40 years; careers started before 2002 blend P1 (the best 10 of the last 15 years over 140 at 2 % a year) and P2 by the years before and from 2002, P1 capped at 12 x IAS or at P2 when P2 is higher (art. 101.º); no pension under 15 years. Remunerations are revalued at prices, and those from 2002 entering the full-career formula also by 20 % of real earnings growth, at most 0.5 point a year to the claim (art. 27.º), the entered real salary growth standing for the economy's. The idade normal de acesso is the published table (66 anos e 9 meses in 2026, 66 anos e 11 meses in 2027) plus the entered drift per year after it (1 month a year by default, the 2014 to 2027 trend of the statutory formula, two thirds of the gain in life expectancy at 65); the idade pessoal is the idade normal less 4 months per year of career beyond 40, at least 60. Early claims: flexibilização from 60 with 40 years, 0.5 % per month before the idade pessoal when the 40 years were complete while aged 60, else the pre-2019 rules (0.5 % per month before the idade normal, 12 months waived per three years beyond 40, plus the fator de sustentabilidade: 17.63 % in 2026, then life expectancy at 65 in 2000 over that of the year before the claim, projected with the same trend as the idade normal), no pensão mínima; carreiras muito longas (48 years, or 46 when the career started before 17) from 60 with no reduction; long-term unemployment from 62 (unemployed from 57) without age reduction or from 57 (unemployed from 52 with 22 years) at 0.5 % per month before 62, both with the fator de sustentabilidade; the reduction by agreement of 0.25 % a month is not modelled. Bonificação per month with a salary after the idade pessoal (or normal) to 70: 0.33 % with 15 to 24 years, 0.5 % to 34, 0.65 % to 39, 1 % from 40, the pension capped at 92 % of the best remuneração de referência. Pensões mínimas 2026 by career (341.08, 357.80, 394.82, 493.52 EUR a month) at the idade normal, the carreiras muito longas and the unemployment routes. The pension is paid 14 times a year and follows prices (indexation 'real'). The Segurança Social Direta simulation at today's prices calibrates the remuneração de referência at the idade normal with the salary held flat. IRS (Código do IRS as amended by the Lei do Orçamento do Estado para 2026): pensions after the dedução específica of 8.54 x IAS per titular, a PPR annuity at 15 % (art. 54.º), the partner's salary after the higher of 8.54 x IAS and the 11 % contributions, an employer fund capital in full after one third exempt up to 11,704.70 EUR; the mínimo de existência of art. 70.º per titular (12,880 EUR reference, the 2.60 and 1.35 formula, no abatement when the household's gross income exceeds 2.2 x 14 x IAS per sujeito passivo); the 2026 escalões (12.5, 15.7, 21.2, 24.1, 31.1, 34.9, 43.1, 44.6 and 48 % at 8,342, 12,587, 17,838, 23,089, 29,397, 43,090, 46,566 and 86,634 EUR, the taxa média method of art. 68.º n.º 2) and the taxa adicional de solidariedade; the despesas gerais familiares deduction at its cap of 250 EUR per sujeito passivo; a couple pays the lower of the joint return (half the income at the scale, doubled) and two separate returns. Pensioners pay no contribution. PPR: a pot drawn first, each withdrawal taxed at 8 % of its gain share (20 % on two fifths) from retirement or 60, five years after the first contribution; with early access before that 8.6 % (a contract over 8 years) and the IRS deductions of the contributions from now on are repaid with 10 % a year in the opening year (EBF art. 21.º); the cost basis is today's value less the entered gain plus the contributions; as an annuity, the balance times the entered conversion rate, fixed in nominal terms, 15 % taxable. Pension fund: as a pension, the balance times the conversion rate, fixed in nominal terms, taxed as a pension; as capital, category A income of the retirement year with one third exempt up to 11,704.70 EUR, the net joining the brokerage account. Brokerage account: 28 % on the taxable share of each gain (100, 90, 80 or 70 % by the entered holding band, art. 43.º n.º 5) or the extra IRS of aggregating it when lower; the cost basis is today's value less the entered gain plus the savings from now on; bases are nominal, so inflation gains are taxed as in law; interest and dividends inside the account are treated as price gains. The headline income is the highest level monthly spending, in today's money, that the year-by-year run can finance to the plan age without a shortfall in any year; the run at your actual target reports the age at which the capital runs out. A partner is simulated on the first person's age scale with their own record, salary, claiming age and PPR; their gross salary counts while they still work, taxed in the household return with the 11 % contribution as a cost. Survivor scenario: from the death the deceased's pension stops and the pensão de sobrevivência pays 60 % of the pension in payment (of the unreduced pension the career had earned, with the pensão mínima, when the death comes before the claim) to the survivor for life (five years when under 35), their unpaid PPR is paid out, the return is a single person's and spending steps down to the entered share. Not modelled: the Caixa Geral de Aposentações and pension unification, the regime dos trabalhadores independentes, the non-habitual resident and IFICI regimes, working on a pension, the Complemento Solidário para Idosos and the pensão social, the 2026 one-off supplement, the 35 % front-loading test of the PPR, the mandatory aggregation of short-term gains in the top escalão, the 50 % counting of micro-company gains, the crypto exemption after a year, health and education deductions, remarriage. Estimates only, not financial or tax advice. Signed-in users are prefilled from their profile, pension accounts and portfolio snapshot; until confirmed on the profile, the gross salary is estimated as the monthly net income times 12 divided by 0.78.
Sources: Segurança Social, Guia Prático Pensão de Velhice (v4.78, May 2026), Guia Prático Pensão de Sobrevivência, Guia Prático Simulador de Pensões · Decreto-Lei n.º 187/2007, de 10 de maio, art. 20.º, 26.º to 37.º · Decreto-Lei n.º 167-E/2013, de 31 de dezembro · Decreto-Lei n.º 126-B/2017, de 6 de outubro · Decreto-Lei n.º 119/2018, de 27 de dezembro · Decreto-Lei n.º 220/2006, de 3 de novembro, art. 57.º · Decreto-Lei n.º 322/90, de 18 de outubro · Portaria n.º 358/2024/1 and Portaria n.º 476/2025/1 (idade normal 2026 and 2027, fator de sustentabilidade) · Portaria n.º 480-A/2025/1 (IAS 2026) · Portaria n.º 480-B/2025/1 (pensões mínimas 2026) · Lei n.º 73-A/2025, de 30 de dezembro (Orçamento do Estado para 2026), art. 71.º · Código do IRS art. 25.º, 43.º, 53.º, 54.º, 59.º, 68.º, 68.º-A, 69.º, 70.º, 71.º, 72.º, 78.º-A, 78.º-B · Estatuto dos Benefícios Fiscais art. 18.º, 21.º · Decreto-Lei n.º 158/2002, de 2 de julho, art. 4.º · Lei n.º 31/2024, de 28 de junho · Código dos Regimes Contributivos, art. 53.º