- 1
Find your tier
Your membership date and two yes/no questions (grandfathered status in 2005, five years of service in 2014) place you in one of TRS's six tiers.
Handbook pp. 24-25 - 2
Project your service
We add the time between today and your retirement date to the years of service you enter, one year per year worked.
Our assumption - 3
Figure the standard annuity
2.3% × years of service × your salary average, divided by 12. The minimum standard annuity is $150 a month.
Handbook pp. 32-33 - 4
Check eligibility
We test your age and service on the retirement date against your tier's rules for a full (normal-age) or reduced (early-age) benefit.
Handbook pp. 26-31 - 5
Apply any early-age cut
If you retire early, we apply your tier's reduction: the actuarial tables in the Texas Administrative Code, or 5% (or 2%) per year under the minimum age.
34 TAC §29.11, §29.12; handbook pp. 26-31 - 6
Show payment options
Survivor and guaranteed-period options use the handbook's factor tables, blended between the sample ages printed.
Handbook pp. 34-36
Each step has its own plain-English guide: the tiers on Which TRS tier am I?, full-benefit ages on the Rule of 80, the early cut in the early retirement reduction table, and the survivor factors on TRS payment options. To see every step applied to your own numbers, run the calculator.
What the calculator doesn't cover
- Your salary average. We use the number you enter; TRS figures it from your actual highest 3 or 5 years, with its own rules on what pay counts.
- Purchased, transferred or proportionate service (the Proportionate Retirement Program).
- Disability retirement, DROP, and returning to work after retirement.
- PLSO amounts. TRS doesn't publish the factors; see our PLSO page for a break-even tool that uses your own TRS estimate.
- Taxes, TRS-Care premiums or other deductions from your check.
- Future cost-of-living increases. Texas only grants them when the Legislature passes one.
- Payment-option factors for ages outside 55-65, and exact (not sample) ages.
Assumptions you should know
The "work longer" comparison assumes your salary average grows 2% a year. The retirement date you enter is the day your benefit starts. Ages are counted in years and whole months, the way TRS's tables are.
How we check the math
The calculator runs on a small engine that reads every rule from one data file, with a citation to the source page for each rule. Automated tests check it against the worked examples TRS prints in the Benefits Handbook and its retirement presentations, such as the standard annuity example on handbook page 32. The tests run every time the site is built, so a broken rule can't go live.
Where a source was unclear, we say so on the page. When we show an estimate (for example, a premium TRS hadn't published yet), it's labeled as one.
Sources
- TRS Benefits Handbook September 2025
- 34 Tex. Admin. Code §29.11, Actuarial Tables amended eff. Sept. 1, 2023 (48 TexReg 4520)
- 34 Tex. Admin. Code §29.12, Early Age Retirement Benefit Calculated on Law in Effect Before Sept. 1, 2005 eff. Dec. 29, 2005 (30 TexReg 8697)
- TRS: 2023 Retiree Benefit Enhancements web page, text saved Nov. 11, 2026
- TRS K-12 Ready to Retire presentation (FY27) PDF created Sept. 14, 2026
- TRS Pension Benefit Design Study December 2018
- TRS: SB 10 COLA Amounts PDF saved Nov. 11, 2026
- TRS-Care 2027 Plan Highlights revised July 17, 2026
- 2025 TRS-Care Plan Highlights revised May 1, 2025
- TRS: TRS-Care 2027 Premiums (The Pulse) July 2026
We review the rules when TRS publishes a new handbook or the Legislature changes the plan. Last reviewed Nov. 12, 2026.