Treasury Direct Savings Bond Redemption Calculator

This Treasury Direct savings bond redemption calculator is a free, browser-based tool that estimates what you actually receive when you cash in a Series EE or Series I savings bond. It applies accrued interest, the three-month early-redemption penalty, the EE 20-year doubling guarantee and federal tax to return one net figure in seconds.

How EE and I-Bond redemption values are calculated

US Series EE and Series I savings bonds accrue interest monthly while held. The current redemption value at any point is the original face value plus all accrued interest minus any early-redemption penalty. The Treasury publishes the exact accrual tables on TreasuryDirect.gov; this calculator estimates the value using a compound-interest approximation that's accurate within ~1% for typical hold periods.

For an EE bond purchased after May 2005, the rate is fixed at issue (currently around 2.7% for May-Oct 2026 issues). The bond is also guaranteed to double in value after exactly 20 years — equivalent to about 3.5% APY. If the accrued interest after 20 years is less than the doubling amount, the Treasury makes a one-time adjustment to bring the value to 2× face. After year 20 the bond resumes accruing at the original fixed rate until final maturity at 30 years.

The 3-month early-redemption penalty

You cannot redeem any savings bond in its first 12 months. From month 13 through month 60 (year 5), redemption forfeits the most recent 3 months of accrued interest as a penalty. After 5 years, you can redeem any time with no penalty. After 30 years, the bond reaches final maturity and stops accruing interest — but it remains a valid claim and is redeemed at full accrued value.

Example: a $1,000 EE bond purchased in 2022 at 2.10% rate, redeemed in 2026 (4 years held). Accrued interest is roughly $87. Penalty (3 months at 2.10%) is about $5. Net redemption value is $1,082. Federal tax at 22% bracket on $87 interest is $19, leaving an after-tax net of $1,063.

Tax-free education exclusion (IRC Section 135)

If you use savings bond proceeds for qualified higher education expenses (tuition + required fees, not room/board) in the same year as redemption, all accrued interest is federal-tax-exempt. The expenses can be for the bondholder, spouse, or dependents at any accredited college, university, or vocational school. For 2026, the exclusion phases out at MAGI $96,800-$111,800 single and $145,200-$175,200 married filing jointly.

To qualify: (1) bond must be issued after 1989, (2) bondholder must have been 24+ at issuance, (3) education expenses must be paid in the same calendar year, and (4) bonds must be owned by parent (not gift to student). Use Form 8815 to claim the exclusion at tax time.

How to use this calculator

Select your bond series (EE or I), enter the face value at purchase, your current rate (find this on the TreasuryDirect.gov "value calculator" or your bond's certificate), and years held. Choose whether you'll use the proceeds for qualified education (which makes interest tax-free). Pick your federal tax bracket — the bond interest will be taxed at this ordinary-income rate.

The calculator returns: gross redemption value (face + accrued interest), the 3-month interest penalty if applicable, federal tax owed, and the final net amount you'll receive. For EE bonds held 20+ years, the doubling guarantee is applied if accrued interest hasn't reached 2× face. Use this to time redemptions, plan estimated tax payments, or decide whether to hold until the 20-year doubling milestone.

The Best Day of the Month to Redeem a Savings Bond

Timing your redemption within the month is worth real money and almost no competing calculator mentions it. Savings bonds do not accrue interest daily — interest is credited in monthly increments and posted on the first day of the month. Cash a bond on the 28th and you are paid the same amount as someone who cashed it on the 2nd; that month's interest has not been credited yet, so you simply forfeit it. Redeem early in the month, just after the new month's interest posts, and you capture a full month you would otherwise lose. Two hard rules from TreasuryDirect constrain the timing: a bond cannot be redeemed at all in its first 12 months, and redeeming before 5 years forfeits the last 3 months of interest. If you are close to either boundary, waiting the extra weeks usually beats the timing trick — crossing the 5-year mark returns three months of interest, far more than one month gained by picking a good day. Note that Series I bonds also change rate every six months from your own purchase month, not in January, so check which rate period you are in before deciding. Updated 2026-08-03.

How to Actually Cash In the Bond

Electronic bonds are redeemed inside your TreasuryDirect account: select the bond, choose full or partial redemption, and the proceeds go to your linked bank account by ACH — normally landing within one to two business days. Partial redemptions have two constraints: you must cash at least $25, and you must leave at least $25 remaining in the bond, so a bond cannot be whittled to a token balance. Paper bonds are different — most are cashed at a bank or credit union where you already hold an account, and banks may cap how much they will redeem for a non-customer or in a single visit, so call ahead for large amounts and bring government photo ID. Whichever route you use, TreasuryDirect issues IRS Form 1099-INT for the interest in the year you redeem, and the full accrued interest is taxable in that single year unless you had been reporting it annually or qualify for the education exclusion. That bunching is why splitting a large holding across two tax years is sometimes worth more than any rate consideration.

Old Paper Bonds: What This Savings Bond Redemption Calculator Cannot Estimate

This tool models a single fixed rate, which is exactly how Series EE bonds issued from May 2005 onward and all Series I bonds work. Older paper bonds do not. Series EE bonds issued between 1980 and April 2005 earned market-based variable rates that reset every six months (those issued May 1997–April 2005 earned 90% of the average 5-year Treasury yield), and many pre-1995 issues carried guaranteed minimum rates on top. For those, enter your average realised rate rather than the rate printed at issue, and treat the output as a ballpark — then confirm the exact cent figure with the official Savings Bond Calculator on TreasuryDirect. Two further cases this calculator deliberately does not model. First, bonds past final maturity: every Series E bond (the pre-1980 predecessor) matured by June 2010, and every EE bond issued before August 1996 has now passed its 30-year mark, so it has stopped earning entirely — holding it longer gains nothing and the full accrued interest became federally taxable in the year it matured, whether or not you cashed it. Second, bonds you cannot find: if you suspect a matured or forgotten bond exists, search by Social Security number with Treasury Hunt on TreasuryDirect, and use FS Form 1048 to claim a bond that was lost, stolen or destroyed. Note also that buying paper I bonds with a federal tax refund ended after the 2024 filing season, so every I bond issued from 2025 onward is electronic only. Updated 2026-08-11.

Which Rate Should You Enter? Current Savings Bond Rates

The single most common input error is entering the wrong rate, so start from the official numbers. For the issue period 1 May 2026 through 31 October 2026, TreasuryDirect lists a Series I composite rate of 4.26%, built from a 0.90% fixed rate and a 1.67% semi-annual inflation rate, while Series EE bonds issued in the same window carry a fixed 2.40%. Which of these belongs in the box above depends on your bond, not on today's date. For a Series EE bond, use the fixed rate printed for your issue month — an EE bond keeps that same rate for its whole 30-year life, so a bond bought in 2012 does not switch to 2.40%. For a Series I bond, the fixed portion is likewise locked at your purchase month, but the inflation portion resets every six months counted from your issue month rather than from January, so a bond issued in March moves to the new rate in March and September. If your I bond spans several rate periods, enter the average composite rate you have actually earned rather than the headline 4.26%, and treat the output as an estimate. Updated 2026-08-20.

Source: TreasuryDirect.gov (savings bond rates and accrual rules) and IRS Pub 550 + IRC Section 135 — updated 2026-08-20.