VerveSheetsby APIVerve
Formulas for

Purchasing Power

Finance2 credits/cellSheets · ExcelSince 1947
=VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalAmount")
What this pulls

An inflation calculator in a cell: give it an amount and a year, and it returns what that amount is worth in today's dollars (or in any other year you name), using official US CPI figures. Point it at a column of historical prices and every row is converted at once — no CPI table to maintain.

It's one of 250+ live sources you reach with a single =VERVE() function — served from APIVerve's production data engine, billed at 2 credits per resolved cell, and refreshed on whatever cadence you set. No API keys to wrangle, no scripts, no exports.

See it in a cell

A real example — the input you type, and the values you can pull from it. Click any cell to see the formula behind it.

purchasingpower.xlsxsample data
C2fx=VERVE("purchasingpower", A2, B2, "field", "originalAmount")
A
B
C
D
E
1
Amount
From
Original Amount
Original Period
Adjusted Amount
2
100
1990
100
1990-01
242.31
3
4
click any cell to see its formula2 credits / cell
Ways to use it

Today's value of old prices

A column of historical prices, wages or rents becomes a column of today's dollars in one drag — the comparison people actually mean when they say "adjusted for inflation".

Salary and raise history

Line up past salaries next to their inflation-adjusted value to see whether a raise kept pace or quietly lost ground.

Long-run financial models

Restate decades of revenue or cost data in constant dollars so a chart shows real growth, not just price rises.

Use it in your sheet

The same function works in both apps — install once, sign in with your key, and type it into any cell.

Google SheetsAdd-on

Install from the Workspace Marketplace, then drop the formula into a cell. Autocomplete suggests the source and its fields.

=VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalAmount")
Microsoft ExcelAdd-in

Same source, same arguments, same key — in Excel on desktop, the web, or mobile. Excel namespaces it as VERVE.CALL. Drag to fill a whole column.

=VERVE.CALL("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalAmount")
Optional inputs

Tune the result by adding name=value before the field argument — in any order. Leave one out and its default applies.

  • to

    Ending year (YYYY format). Omit for current.

    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "to", "2024")
Fields you can pull

Add a field name as the last argument to land just that value in the cell.

  • Original Amount
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalAmount")
  • Original Period
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalPeriod")
  • Adjusted Amount
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "adjustedAmount")
  • Adjusted Period
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "adjustedPeriod")
  • Cumulative InflationPremium
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "cumulativeInflation")
  • MultiplierPremium
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "multiplier")
  • Explanation
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "explanation")
  • From CPIPremium
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "fromCPI")
  • To CPIPremium
    =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "toCPI")

Premium marks data included on paid plans. On the Free plan a marked field is withheld and a marked input is ignored — either way the cell reads #PREMIUM(name) instead of a value, so a gated answer can never be mistaken for a real one. Everything unmarked works on every plan. Compare plans

Purchasing Power, answered

Everything you need to wire it into a sheet.

How do I build an inflation calculator in Excel?
Put the amount in A2 and the year it's from in B2, then type =VERVE.CALL("purchasingpower", A2, B2, "field", "adjustedAmount"). The cell shows what that amount is worth today. In Google Sheets it's =VERVE("purchasingpower", A2, B2, "field", "adjustedAmount").
Can I convert to a year other than today?
Yes — add a "to" pair: =VERVE("purchasingpower", A2, B2, "to", "2010", "field", "adjustedAmount") gives the value in 2010 dollars.
Can it give me a sentence I can put in a report?
Ask for the "explanation" field and the cell reads like "$100 in 1990-01 has the same purchasing power as $242.31 in 2024-01" — ready to drop into a summary row.
How do I pull Purchasing Power into Google Sheets?
Install the VerveSheets add-on, sign in once with your key, and type =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "field", "originalAmount") into any cell. The "field" argument names the value you want back, so the cell resolves to a single number or string you can chart, sort, or feed into another formula.
What data can I pull from Purchasing Power?
Purchasing Power returns originalAmount, originalPeriod, adjustedAmount, adjustedPeriod and explanation — name any one of them as the "field" argument and that value lands in the cell. Leave the field out and the whole record spills into a two-column table instead.
Can I narrow what Purchasing Power returns?
Yes — Purchasing Power takes "to" as optional inputs. They go in as "name", value pairs after the required ones, in any order, so =VERVE("purchasingpower", 100, "1990", "to", "2024") shapes the result without changing anything else.
Which Purchasing Power fields need a paid plan?
cumulativeInflation, multiplier, fromCPI and toCPI are included from the Starter plan up. On the Free plan the cell returns #PREMIUM(field) rather than a wrong or empty value, so it's always obvious which one to upgrade for. Every other field works on Free.
Can I fill a whole column of Purchasing Power at once?
Yes. Put your amount values down a column and point the formula at the range — A2:A50 instead of A2 — and one call returns a value for every row. Dragging the formula down works too, but the range form is a single billed call per column rather than one per cell.
How many credits does each Purchasing Power cell cost?
Each resolved cell costs 2 credits. A cell only re-bills when it actually refreshes, so a sheet you aren't touching doesn't keep charging.
Does Purchasing Power work in Excel as well as Google Sheets?
Yes — same arguments, same key, same fields. Excel namespaces custom functions, so the call is =VERVE.CALL() there and =VERVE() in Google Sheets; nothing else about it changes.
How current is Purchasing Power?
It draws on Since 1947, served live from APIVerve's production data engine, and a cell looks up again whenever its inputs change.
Combine it with
Balance Sheet
=VERVE("balancesheet", "AAPL", "field", "company")
Benchmark Rates
=VERVE("benchmarkrate", "SOFR", "field", "name")
BIN Lookup
=VERVE("binlookup", "448590", "field", "brand")
Calculate Income Tax
=VERVE("incometaxcalculator", 85000, 22, "field", "year")
Calculate Loan Payments
=VERVE("loanpaymentcalculator", 32000, 8.5, 6, "field", "downpayment")
Calculate Mortgage Payments
=VERVE("mortgagecalculator", 570000, 6.8, 30, "field", "downpayment")
Browse all sources

Put Purchasing Power in your next spreadsheet. Add the extension, paste the formula, and the cell keeps itself current.

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