CD calculator: how much a certificate of deposit earns

• It grows your deposit at the APY for the term you choose. An APY already includes compounding, so a 1-year CD at 4.0% APY pays exactly 4.0% over the year.
• It runs the same calculation at a comparison savings rate so you can see in dollars, not just percentage points, whether the CD's rate premium is worth losing access to the money.
• If you simulate an early withdrawal, it calculates the interest actually earned up to that month, then subtracts a penalty equal to the smaller of that interest or a set number of months of interest at the CD's rate.
• A CD ladder splits your deposit across several terms (for example 1 through 5 years) so a portion matures every year instead of the whole amount being locked up at once.

A $10,000 deposit in a 1-year CD at 4.0% APY grows to $10,400, or $400 in interest. The same $10,000 in a high-yield savings account at 3.8% APY over the same year grows to $10,380, or $380 in interest. The CD earns $20 more for giving up access to the money for the full year. Pull it out early instead, say at month 3 of a 6-month CD paying 4.0% APY with a 3-month penalty, and you'd have earned $98.53 in interest, and the 3-month penalty of $100.00 is larger than that, so it takes all of it and you get back only the $10,000 you put in.

• The specific APYs shown for each term in this tool are illustrative sample rates as of October 2026, not live rates from any actual bank (the FDIC national average 12-month CD was 1.73% on September 21, 2026); check a current rate table before assuming these numbers reflect what's available today.
• Every rate here is treated as an APY, so the stated yield is what the deposit earns over a full year no matter how often the bank compounds.
• The early withdrawal penalty is modeled as a simplified months-of-interest calculation. Real bank penalty terms vary and are stated in the CD's actual disclosure.
• It assumes the deposit stays under FDIC coverage limits and within one insured institution.

Finance Quest is educational. It is not financial advice, and no calculator here knows your full situation.

A CD's rate advantage over a savings account is usually a matter of tens or low hundreds of dollars on a typical deposit, and an early withdrawal penalty can erase most or all of it, as the example above shows. Before choosing a CD over a high-yield savings account, be honest about whether you could need that money in the next several months. Money you might need on short notice belongs in something liquid, even at a slightly lower rate.

• High-yield savingsCompare a high-yield rate against a big-bank rate on the same balance.
• Emergency fundSize and timeline a reserve from monthly burn.
• BondYield-to-maturity and rate sensitivity.