When to Start CPP: Taking It Early vs Late

You can start your Canada Pension Plan any month between 60 and 70, and nobody sends you a recommendation. Every month you're early costs you 0.6% of the payment for the rest of your life. Every month you hold off past 65 adds 0.7%, also for life. So if you start at 60, you'll collect 64% of what age 65 would have paid you, and if you wait until 70, you'll collect 142%. The cheque at 70 is more than double the one at 60. Which date suits you depends on whether you need the money now, what your health is like, and what else you'll be living on.

Key takeaways

• The adjustment is permanent. Whatever month you start, that percentage is locked to your payment for life. It doesn't step back up when you turn 65.¹
• Starting at 60 pays you 64% of the age-65 amount. Waiting to 70 pays you 142%.¹
• On the average new pension, that's roughly $561 a month at 60, $877 at 65, and $1,245 at 70.¹²
• If you'll be getting the Guaranteed Income Supplement, the arithmetic reverses. CPP counts as income for it, so an early pension can cost you a tax-free top-up.⁶
• You don't have to stop working to collect. Working doesn't reduce your pension, and it can add to it.³

How much less do you get if you start at 60?

You get 64% of what age 65 would have paid you. The reduction runs at 0.6% for every month you're early, which is 7.2% a year, and sixty months of it adds up to 36% off.¹ On the average pension for people starting at 65, currently $877.01 a month, that leaves you about $561. If you qualified for the maximum of $1,507.65, you'd get about $965.²

That reduction isn't a discount for the first five years. Your payment is set by the month you start it, and you keep that percentage every year you receive it. At 75 you're still on the 60-year-old's percentage.¹

Stopping work in your late fifties costs you twice. Those percentages apply to whatever your own contribution record would have earned you at 65, and if you stop working in your late fifties, you stop adding to that record. You get some of that back, because your lowest-earning years are dropped before the average is taken.⁴ But a run of low years at the end still pulls the starting number down before any percentage touches it.

If you've already stopped working and you're living on this money until 65, none of that makes taking it early a mistake. You can't spend a bigger payment that doesn't start for four years, and plenty of people take the smaller one because it pays this month's bills.

Every month you wait past 65 adds 0.7%

Hold off and you gain instead of losing, slightly faster. You gain 0.7% a month, 8.4% a year, and by 70 you're up 42%.¹ On the same average that's about $1,245 a month, and on the maximum about $2,141.²

The increase stops at 70, so applying later than that adds nothing to your payment.¹

Whichever date you pick, the payment rises every January when the cost of living goes up, and it never falls when the cost of living drops.¹⁰ So if you wait, every later increase is calculated on a bigger starting cheque.

Set the earliest start against the latest and the spread is large. On the same contribution record you're paid roughly 2.2 times as much a month at 70 as you are at 60.

At what age does waiting pay off?

Taking it early puts money in your hands sooner, so if you start later you spend years catching up. Against a start at 65, a start at 60 stays ahead until you're about 74. Against a start at 70, a start at 65 stays ahead until you're about 82.

Those two ages hold whatever your own pension is worth, because they're set by the percentages rather than by the dollars. Someone on the maximum and someone on half of it cross over at the same age.

Two things the lines don't count. They don't count tax, and they don't count what the earlier money does for you in the meantime, whether you keep it invested or leave a registered account growing untouched. They also assume you have something else to live on while you wait, and for most people waiting is paid for out of savings or out of wages.

How long people are living after 65

A crossover age is only useful to you next to how long people actually live. Someone reaching 65 in Canada today can expect about 20.9 more years, which takes them to roughly 86. For men it's 19.4 years and for women 22.2.⁹

Set that against the two crossovers. Of every 100 people who reach 65, about 88 are still here at 74 and about 68 are still here at 82.⁹

An average isn't you, though, and no table knows your file or your family. If you're managing a serious health condition, or the people in your family have tended not to reach their eighties, your own situation should count for more here than the national average does.

The other money arriving in your sixties

Everyone gets the same percentages. Your own mix of income is not the same as anyone else's, and for some people a low-income supplement, a job, a spouse or a large pension outweighs the whole calculation.

The Guaranteed Income Supplement, or GIS, can reverse the answer. It's a monthly tax-free payment you can get once you're 65, receiving Old Age Security and living on a low income, worth up to $1,123.17 a month if you're single, and you stop qualifying once your income passes $22,800.⁶⁷ Your CPP counts toward that income. So if you're heading for a modest retirement, taking CPP early can raise your taxable pension and shrink your tax-free supplement at the same time, leaving you barely better off than if you had waited.

Working doesn't reduce your pension. You don't have to leave your job to collect it.³ Between 60 and 65 you keep paying into the plan, and each year you contribute buys you a further payment for life, worth up to $54.69 a month.²³ From 65 to 70 you can choose to stop contributing if you'd rather have that money now, and contributions end at 70 either way.³

A spouse gives you two more moves. You can share your pension with a spouse or common-law partner, which can lower your household tax bill by moving taxable income to the lower earner. If you've separated or divorced, the contributions you both made during the relationship can be split evenly between you.⁴

If you worked in Quebec, this is a different plan. Quebec runs its own pension, and if you worked only there, or worked there and now live there, Retraite Québec is who you deal with.³

At the other end, a large income has its own catch. If your net income in 2026 goes over $95,323, you pay back 15 cents of every dollar past that line out of your Old Age Security, or OAS.⁸¹¹ A bigger CPP pushes you toward that line, so someone with a good workplace pension has a reason to look at the two together rather than one at a time.

Nobody can tell you your own number from the outside, because it's worked out from a contribution record only you can see. Service Canada will show you an estimate inside your My Service Canada Account. Your Statement of Contributions lists every year you paid in.⁴ Get that number first, and then you have something real to apply the percentages to.

Run your own numbers once you have your estimate in front of you.

A rough way to place yourself

Start from 65, the standard age, and move from there. Each of these tends to pull the sensible date earlier:

• You've stopped working and have nothing else to live on until 65.
• You're managing a health condition that changes your own horizon.
• You're carrying debt at a rate the increase can't match.

Each of these tends to push it later:

• You're still earning and don't need it yet.
• Your savings or a workplace pension can cover the years in between.
• The people in your family have tended to live well into their eighties.

One thing outweighs the whole list. If you expect the GIS, an early pension mostly replaces a tax-free payment rather than adding to it, so starting before 65 leaves most people with less in total.

The same rules, three different answers

Joanne is 61 and teaches at a community college. She's single, she has savings, and she plans to stop at 63. Starting then would cost her 14.4% for life,¹ so her real question is whether her own savings can carry her the two years to 65, or the seven to 70. She can price those years before she picks anything. "The Cheque That Grows If You Wait," where she runs these numbers.

Someone heading for a modest retirement has the opposite problem. If a small CPP plus Old Age Security is most of what's coming in, the GIS is likely in play, and taking CPP early can shrink that tax-free supplement at the same time. Finding out whether you qualify comes before filing the CPP application, not after. "The Help She Didn't Know to Ask About," on how income affects that supplement.

Some people are still working full time at 65 and don't need the money yet. Waiting from 65 to 70 raises the payment by 42%, and the contributions you make along the way add a little more on top.¹² If that's you, the thing to check first is whether your workplace pension or your registered withdrawals would push you toward the Old Age Security repayment line anyway.

Where we land on each of these

Most people who've stopped working before 65 and have no other income start it early, because they can use a smaller payment now and they can't reach a larger one yet. Most people still earning at 65 wait, because they aren't giving anything up by waiting and the increase is large. Most people expecting the GIS wait until 65 at least, because an early pension mostly displaces a tax-free payment rather than adding to it.

The split is genuinely wide, and your health moves it more than the arithmetic does. Two people the same age, with the same contribution record and different health, can both be reading their situation correctly and land on different dates.

Nothing here decides your date for you. It's what tends to make sense once people have their own estimate and their own dates in front of them.

Before you send the application

Apply ahead of the date you want. Your payments aren't backdated to when you turned 60. If you're past 65 when you apply, you can ask for a start date up to 11 months earlier, plus the month your application arrives, but never before the month after your 65th birthday. Before 65 there's no backdating at all.¹²

Nobody takes the tax off for you. CPP is taxable income and there's no tax withheld automatically. You can ask for deductions from your monthly payment, and if you don't, you settle it when you file.⁵

An unclaimed retirement pension isn't inherited. If you haven't applied and you pass away in the month of your 70th birthday or before it, the retirement pension can't be paid to anyone else. Past 70, your estate has a year to claim the month you passed away plus the 11 before it.³ The death benefit and the survivor's pension are separate benefits and this doesn't touch either of them.

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Common questions

Can I change my mind after CPP starts?+

There's a short window. If you've been receiving it for less than 12 months you can ask to cancel, in writing, and you have to pay back everything you've received. After that your start date is fixed and so is your percentage.

Does taking CPP early reduce my OAS?+

Not directly, because they're separate programs with separate ages. It can matter indirectly at higher incomes. Once your net income passes $95,323 in 2026, you pay back 15 cents of every dollar past that point out of your OAS, and a larger CPP moves you closer to it.

Do I have to stop working to collect CPP?+

No. Working doesn't reduce your pension. If you're under 70 and still contributing, each year of contributions adds a small extra payment for life, worth up to $54.69 a month.

Is $877 a month what I will actually get?+

That's the average for people starting at 65, not a promise. Your own amount comes from how much and how long you contributed. Your Statement of Contributions and My Service Canada Account will give you your own estimate.

What if I worked in Quebec?+

Quebec runs its own plan with its own rules, so the percentages here may not be yours. Contact Retraite Québec if you worked only in Quebec, or worked there and now live there.

Is waiting until 70 worth it if I am not sure I will live that long?+

That's the honest question, and it depends on your own health rather than an average. For scale, of every 100 people who reach 65 in Canada, about 68 are still living at 82, which is where waiting to 70 catches up with starting at 65.

Further reading

• Retirement Income for Lifeby Frederick Vettese🍁 Canadian

  A Canadian actuary working through CPP and OAS timing and how to draw savings down around them.

Sources

1. Service CanadaCPP retirement pension: When to start your pension. The 60 to 70 window, 0.6% a month before 65 to a maximum 36%, 0.7% a month after 65 to a maximum 42%, and the retroactive start rules. Accessed 2026-09-02.
2. Service CanadaCanada Pension Plan: Pensions and benefits monthly amounts. Maximum retirement pension at 65 of $1,507.65 (2026), average for new beneficiaries of $877.01 (April 2026), the post-retirement benefit maximum of $54.69, and the retroactive-payment limit of 12 months after 65 with none before 65. Accessed 2026-09-02.
3. Service CanadaCanada Pension Plan retirement pension: Do you qualify. Working while receiving the pension, the post-retirement benefit, the Quebec Pension Plan, and what happens if you have not applied. Accessed 2026-09-02.
4. Service CanadaCanada Pension Plan: How much you could receive. Pension sharing, credit splitting, the low-earnings drop-out, and the Statement of Contributions. Accessed 2026-09-02.
5. Service CanadaPublic pensions: Managing your taxes. Income tax is not deducted automatically from CPP payments. Accessed 2026-09-02.
6. Service CanadaGuaranteed Income Supplement: Do you qualify. Income thresholds for 2026, including $22,800 for a single person. Accessed 2026-09-02.
7. Service CanadaGuaranteed Income Supplement: Overview. Maximum monthly amounts, including up to $1,123.17 for a single person. Accessed 2026-09-02.
8. CRAIndexation adjustment for personal income tax and benefit amounts: the old age security repayment threshold by income year, $95,323 for 2026, $93,454 for 2025, $90,997 for 2024 and $86,912 for 2023. Accessed 2026-09-06.
9. Statistics CanadaTable 13-10-0114-01, life expectancy and other elements of the complete life table, three-year estimates, reference period 2022/2024. Life expectancy at 65 and the survivor counts the survival shares are derived from. Accessed 2026-09-02.
10. Service CanadaCanada Pension Plan: Receive your benefits. The annual cost-of-living increase, and cancelling the pension within 12 months of starting it. Accessed 2026-09-02.
11. Service CanadaRepayment of Old Age Security pension: for someone who lives in Canada, net income before adjustments at line 23400 above $93,454 for 2025 brings a repayment of 15% of the excess, entered on lines 23500 and 42200 and collected as a monthly recovery tax from July 2026 to June 2027. Accessed 2026-09-06.

Educational, not financial advice. Figures verified against primary sources on the date shown.

See it in a story: Joanne works out how much of her Old Age Security she gets to keep. For what comes next, see when you can actually afford to stop working, how a registered retirement income fund, or RRIF, starts paying you on a schedule, or browse the whole retirement hub.