Basic income cost calculator
What would a basic income cost? The calculator
Pick a country, who gets it and how much a month. Everything is calculated on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.
Total cost per year
4.17 trillion US dollars
347 million people × $1,000 a month × 12 months
Compared with
- GDP (nominal) (2025)13.5%
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Real-world trials are in Basic income experiments: a timeline; the debates are in Essays.
Sources for the figures
- Population
- Japan: Statistics Bureau of Japan, Population Estimates, October 2026 report (released 20 Oct 2026). Final estimates as of 1 May 2026: total 122,812,000; adults = sum of the five-year age groups 20 and over (104,069,000); children = population under 15 (13,263,000)
- United States, China, India, Spain, Germany, Egypt: UN DESA, World Population Prospects 2024: population by single age, 1 July 2025 (medium variant). Adults = 18 and over; children = under 18