Payslip checker: what actually lands
Put in what you earn. This works out the four things that come off it and shows you the number that reaches your bank. It sells nothing, stores nothing, and sends nothing anywhere: the arithmetic runs on your own phone and every rate it uses is printed at the bottom of this page so you can check the working.
Income tax, National Insurance, a student loan repayment and a pension contribution come out in that order. Only three of them are gone. The pension is still your money and your employer adds to it. Everything below is arithmetic, not advice.
Gross pay, the number in the job advert, before anything comes off.
Plan 5 is most people who started in England from 2023. Which plan am I on?
A postgraduate loan is repaid on top of any other plan.
Automatic from 22 if you earn £10,000 or more. Your employer adds at least 3% on top.
What each line is
Income tax. Nothing on the first £12,570 a year. 20% from there to £50,270, 40% to £125,140, then 45%. Above £100,000 the tax-free allowance itself starts shrinking, by £1 for every £2 you earn over, which is why the effective rate in that band is so strange.
National Insurance. 8% of everything above £242 a week, dropping to 2% above £967 a week. Unlike income tax it is also a record: it decides your State Pension decades from now.
Student loan. 9% of the amount above your plan's threshold, and nothing below it. A postgraduate loan is 6% above £21,000 and is charged on top of any other plan. Why the balance makes no difference to this.
Pension. Calculated on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, not on everything. This is the only line that is still your money, and your employer must add at least 3%.
Scotland has its own income tax bands. If you pay Scottish income tax, the tax line here is wrong. National Insurance, student loans and pensions are the same across the UK, so those three still hold.
Pension schemes differ on when tax is taken. Many workplace schemes deduct the pension before income tax is worked out, which makes your tax slightly lower than shown here. This is calculated on gross pay, so if you are in one of those schemes your real take-home will be a little higher.
It assumes the standard tax code. If yours ends W1, M1 or X, or reads BR or 0T, you are being taxed on a different basis and the real figure will not match. That is the trap worth checking first.
It ignores everything else on a real payslip. Salary sacrifice, benefits in kind, a company car, union dues, season ticket loans, childcare. Those all move the number.
So treat it as the shape, not the penny. If your actual payslip is close to this, it is working. If it is a long way off, that gap is worth asking about.
- Income tax 2026/27. House of Commons Library, direct taxes: personal allowance £12,570, 20% to £50,270, 40% to £125,140, 45% above, allowance tapered by £1 for every £2 of income above £100,000.
- National Insurance 2026/27. Same briefing: employee Class 1 main rate 8%, primary threshold £242 a week, upper earnings limit £967 a week, 2% above.
- Student loans 2026/27. GOV.UK terms and conditions: Plan 1 £26,900, Plan 2 £29,385, Plan 5 £25,000, all 9%; postgraduate £21,000 at 6%. Plan 4 £33,795 from GOV.UK.
- Workplace pension. GOV.UK: 8% total minimum, at least 3% from the employer, calculated on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270.
- The code. The arithmetic is plain JavaScript in this page. Right-click, view source, and read it. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
Questions people ask
Does this send my salary anywhere?
No. The sums run in your own browser. There is no server involved, nothing is saved, and nothing leaves your phone. You can turn off your internet after the page loads and it still works.
Why is my real payslip different?
The most common reasons are a non-standard tax code, Scottish income tax bands, a pension scheme that takes contributions before tax, or something extra on your payslip such as salary sacrifice or a benefit in kind. If the gap is large, start with the tax code.
Does it work for Scotland?
Partly. National Insurance, student loan repayments and pension contributions are the same everywhere in the UK, so those lines are right. Scottish income tax has different bands and rates, so that one line will be wrong.
Should I opt out of the pension to take home more?
This site does not tell anybody what to do with their money. What the tool shows is both sides: what you keep now, and what your employer stops adding. Change the pension setting and watch both numbers move, then decide with the arithmetic in front of you.
What if I am paid hourly or my hours change?
Choose "an hour" and put in your hours a week. It assumes 52 weeks. Real variable hours mean your tax comes out differently month to month and evens up across the year, so use it as an average rather than a prediction of any single payslip.
Read next
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Rates checked 26 August 2026, for the 2026 to 2027 tax year.