Value of $100 in 1993, adjusted to 2026

What happened to prices between 1993 and 2026

Between 1993 and 2026, the Consumer Price Index went from 144.5 to 332.243. Cumulatively, prices increased 129.9%, which works out to an average of 2.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1993 bought what $0.43 buys in 2026: the 1993 dollar lost 56.5% of its purchasing power over these 33 years.

By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement, that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.

More about inflation in 1993 →

The destination year: 2026

In 2026, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1993 had the buying power of $230; the year's average CPI of 332.243 is the level behind every 2026 figure on this page.