Pension fees calculator

See what a small-looking percentage charge actually costs your pension pot once it's compounded over years or decades, compared across low, typical and high fee levels.

Figures for the 2026/27 tax year. Last reviewed 01-09-2026.

Why a percentage that looks tiny isn't

A 0.75% annual charge sounds negligible next to a 5% growth assumption. It isn't applied once, though — it's deducted every single year, on the whole balance, for as long as the money stays invested. Over 20 or 30 years, that annual bite compounds against you in exactly the same way growth compounds for you, just working in the opposite direction.

This calculator runs the same pot, contributions, growth rate and timeframe through three fee levels — low, typical and high — so the difference is visible in pounds, not just percentage points.

A worked example

Take a £20,000 starting pot, £300 a month going in, 30 years, and 5% growth before charges. At a low 0.3% charge, the pot reaches roughly £311,000. At a typical 0.75% charge, it reaches around £284,000. At a high 1.5% charge, it's about £245,000.

The gap between the cheapest and most expensive scenario here comes to roughly £66,000 — money that's identical in every respect except the fee taken along the way. Adjusted for 2.5% inflation, that gap is still worth around £32,000 in today's spending power. Nobody chooses a 1.5% fund on purpose expecting this outcome; it usually happens by not checking, or by staying in an old workplace pension's default fund for years after leaving the job.

What counts as a low, typical or high charge

Low, in this calculator, means around 0.3% — broadly what a low-cost passive tracker fund on a competitive platform tends to charge in total (platform fee plus fund charge combined). Typical, at 0.75%, reflects a fairly standard mainstream multi-asset or managed fund. High, at 1.5%, is closer to an actively managed fund on a platform with above-average charges, or an older-style pension with higher built-in costs.

These three figures are illustrative bands to show the range, not a claim about any specific product. Your own pension's actual charge is usually shown as a Total Expense Ratio, an Ongoing Charges Figure, or a combined platform-plus-fund percentage on your annual statement or provider's app — worth checking directly rather than assuming it matches one of these bands.

What the result actually means

The final nominal figure is what the pot is worth in future pounds on the day you reach the target year. The real figure strips out the effect of inflation, showing what that amount could actually buy in today's terms — useful for comparing against a cost or income target you understand now, rather than a number in future money that's harder to picture.

The 'fee cost difference' is simply the gap between the lowest-fee and highest-fee scenario at the end of the period — it isolates exactly what the charge itself is costing, holding contributions and growth assumptions constant across all three scenarios.

Watch how the gap between the three lines on the chart widens as the years go on, rather than staying a fixed width. In the early years the three scenarios track each other closely, because there's not much invested yet for the charge to act on. Later, once the pot is larger, the same percentage charge is being taken from a much bigger number every year, which is why the pounds-and-pence difference grows faster in the later years of a long projection than in the early ones.

Common mistakes people make

The most common is assuming a fund's charge doesn't matter much because it looks small on a statement. It's precisely because it's small-looking and recurring that it does so much damage over time — a one-off £100 fee is forgettable, but 0.75% a year for 30 years compounds into a genuinely large chunk of the final pot.

The second is comparing charges without also comparing what they're buying — a slightly more expensive actively managed fund can still be worth it if it consistently outperforms after fees, though most don't, which is exactly why low-cost passive tracking has become the default choice for many people.

The third is leaving an old workplace pension untouched in a default fund for years after changing jobs, without ever checking what it charges. Consolidating old pots, where it makes sense to, is often one of the simplest ways to move from a high charge to a lower one without changing anything about how the money is invested.

Frequently asked questions

What's a reasonable pension charge to be paying?

There's no single right number, but many low-cost pension platforms and passive funds now combine to well under 0.5% a year in total. Anything meaningfully above 1% is worth understanding clearly — what you're paying for it, and whether it's justified by the fund's approach — rather than assuming it's simply normal.

How do I find out what my pension actually charges?

Check your annual statement or your provider's online account — most show either a combined platform-plus-fund percentage, or separate platform and fund figures you can add together, often labelled as a Total Expense Ratio or Ongoing Charges Figure.

Does a higher-charging fund ever make sense?

It can, if it's delivering returns that consistently outpace its lower-cost alternatives by more than the extra charge, after fees. In practice this is genuinely hard to predict in advance and most actively managed funds don't consistently beat their benchmark after costs over long periods, which is why cost is one of the few things about a fund you can actually know in advance.

Do charges apply during drawdown too, not just while I'm contributing?

Yes. Charges apply to whatever's invested, whether you're still contributing or drawing an income from it. A pot in drawdown for 20-30 years is exposed to the same compounding fee effect as one still being built up — see the how long will my pension last calculator, which lets you set a charge rate for the drawdown phase too.

Is it worth consolidating old pension pots to cut charges?

Often, yes, if the old pot is on a noticeably higher charge and doesn't carry valuable guarantees (some older pensions have guaranteed annuity rates or other features worth checking for before moving them). Compare the actual charges first using your statements, since 'old' doesn't automatically mean 'expensive'.