How a Spanish Autónomo's State Pension Is Calculated in 2026, Step by Step
An easy question to ask and a hard one to answer: if you have spent years contributing on a base of 1,200 euros a month, how much pension will you get? The answer, assuming you have contributed enough years, is 1,028.57 euros a month across fourteen payments. And that is not an arbitrary number: it comes out of a public formula you can work through yourself with pen and paper.
The catch is that almost nobody works through it, because it is scattered across four articles of Spain’s General Social Security Act (Ley General de la Seguridad Social) and each one uses a different unit (months, years, percentages, odd divisors). Let’s put them together into four steps, with the tables you need, and solve two complete cases from start to finish.
The two numbers you multiply
Your pension is the product of two things, and it is worth keeping them apart in your head because they measure different things:
- The regulatory base (base reguladora): an average of your contribution bases over recent years. Here how much you paid does matter.
- The percentage: it depends only on how many years you have contributed in total. Here how much you paid does not matter at all, only how long.
One measures money, the other measures time. Almost every wrong intuition about pensions comes from mixing them up.
Step 1: get your contribution bases
Don’t start with the calculator, start with the data. On Spain’s Social Security Import@ss portal you can download your contribution base report (informe de bases de cotización), which gives you the base for every month of your working life, including any periods as an employee (they count the same).
Two things to check in that report before moving on:
- The blank months. Periods with no obligation to contribute are not left at zero: the law fills them in, the first 48 months with the minimum contribution base and the rest with half of that minimum. They fill the gap, but they fill it low.
- Where your window starts. Only the final stretch counts, so find out from which month onwards what you contribute actually matters. That is step 2.
Step 2: work out your regulatory base
Here is the part that surprises almost everyone: the regulatory base does not look at your whole working life, only the final stretch.
The classic formula adds up your bases over the previous 300 months (25 years) and divides by 350.1 That divisor of 350 rather than 300 is not a mistake: it converts the result into fourteen payments, which is how the pension is actually paid. That is why a constant base of 1,200 euros a month yields a regulatory base of 1,028.57 euros: it is the same amount of money per year (14,400 euros), spread across fourteen payments instead of twelve.
Since 2026 it coexists with a second formula, introduced by the 2023 reform, which looks at a longer window and in exchange lets you discard your worst months.2 Social Security calculates both and applies whichever leaves you with more pension, so you don’t have to choose. That longer window widens each year until it settles in 2037, so the exact number of months depends on the year you retire.
In practice, to know roughly where you stand this is enough: the last 25-odd years count, and if your base has been constant the new formula changes nothing for you (discarding your worst months only helps if you have had bad months). Whatever you contributed before that window has no effect on the amount.
This has an uncomfortable practical consequence: contributing on a high base in your thirties, if you retire at 67, does not raise your regulatory base by a single cent. It adds years (which count for step 3), but you would add those years just the same paying the minimum. That is why there is a whole strategy around when to raise your base, not just how much.
Step 3: check which percentage applies to you
The percentage counts only years. With fifteen years contributed (the minimum to be entitled to a pension at all) you get 50% of the regulatory base, and from there it rises with each additional month: 0.19% for each of the first 248 extra months, and 0.18% for the ones beyond that, capped at 100%.3
Doing the arithmetic, 100% is reached at 37 years contributed. Anyone retiring during 2026 is still on the earlier transitional scale, slightly more generous, which reaches 100% at 36 years and 6 months.
| Years contributed | % if you retire in 2026 | % from 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| 15 | 50.00 % | 50.00 % |
| 20 | 62.38 % | 61.40 % |
| 25 | 73.78 % | 72.80 % |
| 30 | 85.18 % | 84.20 % |
| 35 | 96.58 % | 95.60 % |
| 36 years and 6 months | 100.00 % | 98.92 % |
| 37 | 100.00 % | 100.00 % |
What this table is saying, and it is worth reading twice: a year contributing on the minimum base counts exactly the same as a year on the maximum. For the percentage, years count, not euros. And below fifteen years contributed there is no contributory retirement pension at all, however much you have paid.4
Step 4: multiply (and check the caps)
Regulatory base times percentage, and you have your monthly pension across fourteen payments. Two limits remain to be checked: there is a maximum pension (3,359.60 euros a month in 2026) that cuts off the top however high your bases were, and a minimum pension that acts as a floor.5
If you would rather skip the arithmetic and feed in your real contribution history, we have a free self-employed sick leave and pension calculator that runs these four steps against your actual contribution periods and lets you move the retirement date to see how the result changes.
What age applies to you?
There is no single ordinary retirement age: it depends on how much you have contributed. From 2027 it is 67, or 65 if you can show at least 38 years and 6 months of contributions.6 During 2026 the previous step still applies.
| Year you retire | Ordinary age | With a long contribution record |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 66 years and 10 months | 65 (with 38 years and 3 months contributed) |
| 2027 onwards | 67 years | 65 (with 38 years and 6 months contributed) |
Retiring early: the reduction coefficients
You can bring your retirement forward voluntarily by at most two years on whatever age applies to you, and only if you can show at least 35 years contributed.7 The reduction is neither symbolic nor temporary: it is a percentage knocked off your pension for life, and it depends on two things, how many months early you go and how many years you have contributed.
These are the most consulted rows of the official table (six months, one year, eighteen months and the two-year maximum). The full month-by-month grid is in article 208 of the Act.
| Months early | < 38 y. 6 m. | 38 y. 6 m. – 41 y. 6 m. | 41 y. 6 m. – 44 y. 6 m. | ≥ 44 y. 6 m. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | 4.00 % | 3.82 % | 3.64 % | 3.45 % |
| 12 | 5.50 % | 5.25 % | 5.00 % | 4.75 % |
| 18 | 8.80 % | 8.40 % | 8.00 % | 7.60 % |
| 24 | 21.00 % | 19.00 % | 17.00 % | 13.00 % |
Notice the jump in the last row: going eighteen months early costs 8.8%, and going twenty-four months early costs 21%. The final six months of anticipation are by far the most expensive. And there is one requirement that bites before all the others: the pension left after the coefficient is applied has to exceed the minimum pension you would be entitled to at 65. If it doesn’t, the law simply will not let you go early.
Example 1: constant base, retiring on time
Marta retires in 2030 with 42 years contributed. She has always contributed on a base of 1,200 euros a month.
- Regulatory base: 1,200 × 300 ÷ 350 = 1,028.57 euros.
- Percentage: with 42 years contributed she is well past the 37 required, so she gets 100%.
- Pension: 1,028.57 × 100% = 1,028.57 euros a month across fourteen payments.
That is 14,400 euros a year, exactly the figure she had been contributing on (1,200 × 12). It is the clearest way to understand the 350 divisor: with a constant base and the full 100%, you collect per year what you were contributing per year.
Example 2: what going one year early costs
Javier retires in 2030. He has contributed 36 years on a base of 1,500 euros a month, and wants to bring his retirement forward by twelve months.
- Regulatory base: 1,500 × 300 ÷ 350 = 1,285.71 euros.
- Percentage: 36 years is 432 months, 252 above the 180 qualifying months. The first 248 add 0.19% each (47.12%) and the remaining 4 add 0.18% (0.72%). Total: 50 + 47.84 = 97.84%.
- Pension without going early: 1,285.71 × 97.84% = 1,257.94 euros a month.
- Reduction coefficient: he goes 12 months early with fewer than 38 years and 6 months contributed, so the first column applies: 5.50%.
- Final pension: 1,257.94 × (1 − 0.055) = 1,188.75 euros a month.
Going one year early costs him 69.19 euros a month. Across fourteen payments that is 968.66 euros less every year, for every year he lives in retirement. He is able to do it because he reaches the 35 years of contributions required; with 34 he could not have, however well the numbers worked out.
What this calculation doesn’t tell you
The four steps give you a snapshot: what you would collect with what you have contributed so far. What they don’t tell you is the thing that actually decides the outcome, which is what lies ahead. Two questions the snapshot doesn’t answer:
- How many years am I from 100%? If you are at 30 years contributed, seven separate you from the cap. That is not an abstract percentage: it is seven tax years in which you have to stay registered, and knowing which year you get there changes when you can start thinking about stopping.
- From which month does what I contribute start counting? While you are outside the window of the last 25-odd years, raising your base does not raise your pension. Knowing the date you enter that window turns a vague intuition into a decision with a calendar attached.
These are forecasting questions, not calculation questions. And answering them takes two things: your contribution history, and a realistic idea of what you will be able to pay each month between now and then.
How Cuéntamo helps
The second part is exactly the one that gets stuck. You can know perfectly well that you should raise your base in six years’ time, and arrive at that moment without the room to do it.
In Cuéntamo, the Forecast tells you how much money you will have each month for the next five years, based on your recurring income and expenses. Applied to this: you can enter the higher contribution as a future expense and see, before committing to it, whether your balance holds or whether it puts you in the red in March. And because the self-employed module keeps your net income up to date, you know which base your bracket allows you to choose, which is the real limit at both ends (we cover it in the guide to income-based contributions and the one on contribution regularisation).
Knowing what your pension will be is useful. Knowing whether you can afford to get there is what changes the decision. You can try it free at cuentamo.com and see everything it offers for the self-employed.
Frequently asked questions
How many years do you have to contribute to get 100% of the pension?
From 2027, 37 years. Anyone retiring during 2026 reaches 100% at 36 years and 6 months, because the earlier transitional scale still applies to them. Below 15 years contributed there is no entitlement to a contributory retirement pension.
How many years count towards the regulatory base?
The classic formula takes the last 300 months (25 years) and divides by 350. Since 2026 it coexists with another that looks at a longer window and discards the worst months, and the more favourable of the two applies. Anything contributed before that window has no effect on the amount.
Why divide by 350 and not by 300?
Because the pension is paid in fourteen instalments and contribution bases are monthly. Dividing 300 bases by 350 converts the result into fourteen payments: with a constant base and the full 100%, you collect per year what you were contributing per year.
How much do I lose by retiring two years early?
Between 13% and 21% of the pension, for life, depending on how many years you have contributed (the more years, the smaller the penalty). You also need at least 35 years contributed to qualify at all, and the already-reduced pension has to exceed the minimum you would be entitled to at 65.
Will contributing on the minimum base for years leave me without a pension?
Not without one, but with a low one. The percentage for years contributed is identical whether you pay the minimum or the maximum; what drops is the regulatory base, because it is the average of your final bases. That is why contributing high only moves the needle inside the final window.
Cuéntamo is an accounting app for the self-employed and for households that tells you how much money you will have in the months ahead. You can try it free at cuentamo.com.
Figures for 2026. The retirement age and the fifteen-year minimum are in article 205 of the General Social Security Act; the regulatory base, in article 209, as amended by Royal Decree-Law 2/2023; the percentage scale, in article 210; the voluntary early-retirement coefficients, in article 208. Maximum and minimum pensions are revised each year.
This article is checked against official sources and reviewed periodically. If you spot anything out of date, email us at [email protected].
Earlier wording of art. 209.1 LGSS, which still applies as the alternative calculation during the transition: «La base reguladora de la pensión de jubilación será el cociente que resulte de dividir por trescientos cincuenta, las bases de cotización del interesado durante los trescientos meses inmediatamente anteriores al mes previo al del hecho causante» (the regulatory base is the result of dividing by three hundred and fifty the contribution bases of the last three hundred months before the month prior to the triggering event). Article 209 LGSS. ↩︎
Art. 209.1 LGSS as in force since 1 January 2026: «La base reguladora de la pensión de jubilación será el cociente que resulte de dividir entre 378, la suma de las bases de cotización del interesado durante 324 meses anteriores al del mes previo al del hecho causante», selecting «de oficio las 324 bases de cotización de mayor importe» from among the 348 in the period. Its entry into force and transition calendar are set by Royal Decree-Law 2/2023. ↩︎
Art. 210.1 LGSS: «a) Por los primeros quince años cotizados, el 50 por ciento. b) A partir del año decimosexto, por cada mes adicional de cotización, comprendido entre los meses uno y doscientos cuarenta y ocho, se añadirá el 0,19 por ciento, y por cada uno de los que rebasen el mes doscientos cuarenta y ocho, se añadirá el 0,18 por ciento, sin que el porcentaje aplicable a la base reguladora supere el 100 por cien» (50% for the first fifteen years; 0.19% per additional month up to month 248 and 0.18% beyond, capped at 100%). Article 210 LGSS. ↩︎
Art. 205.1.b) LGSS: «Tener cubierto un período mínimo de cotización de quince años, de los cuales al menos dos deberán estar comprendidos dentro de los quince años inmediatamente anteriores al momento de causar el derecho» (a minimum of fifteen years contributed, at least two of them within the fifteen years immediately before the claim). Article 205 LGSS. ↩︎
Maximum and minimum pension amounts for 2026, set by Royal Decree 241/2026. The cap on the initial amount of pensions is provided for in article 57 LGSS. ↩︎
Art. 205.1.a) LGSS: «Haber cumplido sesenta y siete años de edad, o sesenta y cinco años cuando se acrediten treinta y ocho años y seis meses de cotización, sin que se tenga en cuenta la parte proporcional correspondiente a las pagas extraordinarias» (sixty-seven years of age, or sixty-five where thirty-eight years and six months of contributions are evidenced, excluding the proportional part of extra payments). Article 205 LGSS. The phase-in calendar is in transitional provision seven, which for 2026 sets «38 years and 3 months or more → 65» and «less than 38 years and 3 months → 66 years and 10 months», and from 2027 «38 years and 6 months or more → 65» and «less than 38 years and 6 months → 67»: LGSS transitional provision seven. ↩︎
Art. 208.1 LGSS: the age must be «inferior en dos años, como máximo, a la edad que en cada caso resulte de aplicación según lo establecido en el artículo 205.1.a)» (at most two years below the applicable age); you must «acreditar un período mínimo de cotización efectiva de treinta y cinco años» (evidence a minimum of thirty-five years of effective contributions); and «el importe de la pensión a percibir ha de resultar superior a la cuantía de la pensión mínima que correspondería al interesado por su situación familiar al cumplimiento de los sesenta y cinco años de edad. En caso contrario, no se podrá acceder a esta fórmula de jubilación anticipada» (the resulting pension must exceed the minimum pension the claimant would be entitled to at sixty-five; otherwise this form of early retirement is not available). Article 208 LGSS. ↩︎