When will Social Security checks arrive in 2026? See the complete calendar.

With the new year underway, the roughly 70 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits may be wondering when they’ll receive their monthly checks in 2026.

The answer is a bit complicated, as when recipients receive their monthly benefits varies based on their birthdate.

For those with a birthdate between the first and the tenth, benefits are issued on the second Wednesday of each month.

Those with birthdates between the 11th and the 20th receive their checks on the third Wednesday of the month, and those born between the 21st and 31st get theirs on the fourth Wednesday.

However, there are a few exceptions.

Those who have received Social Security benefits since before May 1997 and those who receive both Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) will see their checks come in earlier in the month.

For members of those groups, SSI benefits will be issued on the 1st of each month, with Social Security benefits following a few days later on the 3rd of the month.

The Social Security Administration provides a comprehensive schedule of benefit payments for 2026, which is publicly available on the SSA website.

In 2025, an average of roughly 69 million Americans per month were collecting Social Security benefits, totaling over $1.6 trillion dollars in benefits paid during the year, according to the SSA.

Social Security benefits represent about 31% of income for Americans ages 65 and older, the administration said.

Higher benefits on the way

Each year, Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income payments are subject to an annual cost-of-living adjustment based on inflation rates to ensure that monthly payments keep pace with rising costs.

In October, the Social Security Administration announced that beneficiaries will see a 2.8% increase for 2026.

Those who receive Social Security benefits will start seeing higher payments in January, while those receiving Supplemental Security Income saw them starting Dec. 31.

Cost-of-living adjustments are determined using third-quarter data – July, August and September – from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers.

Inflation for those three months is added together, averaged and then compared to the previous year’s third-quarter average, with the percentage difference between the current year and the previous year serving as the COLA rate for the upcoming year.