Treasury Bond Calculator
Enter a T-bill, T-note, or T-bond's face value, coupon, price, and maturity to get its yield to maturity, the yield you keep after federal tax (Treasury interest is state-exempt), your real yield once inflation is stripped out, and how it compares to a HYSA or CD. Switch to a callable bond for yield to call and yield to worst.
Treasury Bond Calculator
Enter a bond's face value, coupon, price, and maturity to get its current yield and yield to maturity — plus its after-tax yield, real yield after inflation, and how it stacks up against a HYSA or CD. Switch to a callable bond to add yield to call and yield to worst.
Amount repaid at maturity — Treasuries are sold in $100 increments.
Pays $21.25 every six months ($42.50/yr).
Quoted about 97-04 per $100 of face value.
Notes run 2–10 years; bonds run 20 or 30.
Treasury interest is exempt from it. Enter 0 if your state has no income tax.
Your marginal federal bracket — this is the only tax on Treasury interest.
Used for the real yield. US inflation has averaged about 3% long term.
A high-yield savings or CD rate — fully taxable, for a fair after-tax matchup.
Current Yield
4.38%
$42.50 ÷ $971.25
Yield to Maturity
4.74%
held to maturity in 7 years
Taxable-Equivalent Yield
5.04%
what a state-taxed bond must pay
After-Tax Yield
3.60%
4.74% YTM after 24.0% federal tax
Real Yield (After Inflation)
0.58%
after-tax yield less 3.0% inflation
vs. HYSA / CD After Tax
3.15%
Treasury keeps more after tax
You're buying at a discount ($971.25 < $1,000.00 par), so the 4.74% YTM sits above the 4.38% current yield — you also collect the climb back to par at maturity.
Because Treasury interest is exempt from state and local income tax, a fully taxable bond or CD would have to yield 5.04% to leave you the same money after a 6.0%state tax. This bond can't be called, so its yield to maturity is also its yield to worst. Side by side, this Treasury keeps 3.60% after federal tax against 3.15% from a 4.50% HYSA or CD taxed both ways — and 0.58% in real terms once 3.0% inflation is stripped out.
How to Calculate Current Yield
Current yield is the simplest of the three numbers above: the cash a bond throws off in a year, measured against what you paid for it today.
Current yield = Annual coupon payment ÷ Current market price
A $1,000 note with a 4.25% coupon pays $42.50 a year. Pay $971.25 for it and the current yield is 4.38% — above the coupon rate, because you bought below par. The denominator is your price, not the face value, which is the whole reason the two numbers differ.
What current yield ignores is the $28.75 you also collect when the note matures at par. Yield to maturity folds that gain in, along with every coupon in between, which is why the YTM on a discount bond always lands above its current yield. Working the other direction — from coupons and price to a total return — is the same present-value machinery behind the compound interest formula, run in reverse.
Yield to Call vs. Yield to Maturity
Both yields answer the same question — what annual return does today's price imply? — and both solve it the same way, by finding the discount rate that makes the bond's future cash flows worth exactly what you paid. The difference is where the cash flows stop:
- Yield to maturity — coupons run to the maturity date, and the issuer repays face value.
- Yield to call — coupons stop at the first call date, and the issuer repays the call price instead.
- Yield to worst — the lower of the two. The issuer chooses whether to call, so you should assume they pick the outcome that favors them.
An issuer calls a bond when refinancing is cheap for them, which is precisely when the bond was working well for you. That's why a callable bond trading at a premium usually carries a yield to call below its yield to maturity, and why the premium is the warning sign to look for.
None of this applies to a Treasury note or bond issued today. The Treasury stopped issuing callable bonds after 1984, so there's no call date to model and yield to maturity is the yield to worst. Call risk lives in the rest of the bond market — agency, municipal, and corporate issues — which is what the calculator's callable-bond mode is for. For a general bond of any type, the bond yield calculator covers the same three yields with a coupon-frequency option.
The State Tax Break Is Part of the Yield
Treasury interest is exempt from state and local income tax (though not federal). A 4.7% Treasury and a 4.7% CD do not pay the same after-tax income if your state taxes interest — the Treasury quietly wins. To compare them honestly, gross the Treasury's yield up to what a taxable bond would need to pay:
Taxable-equivalent yield = Treasury yield ÷ (1 − state tax rate)
In a 6% state bracket, a 4.7% Treasury is worth a 5.0% taxable yield. In a no-income-tax state, the exemption buys nothing and the two compare head to head. Municipal bonds run the same arithmetic against the federal rate — that comparison lives in the tax-equivalent yield calculator. And if you're deciding where safe money should sit in the first place, weigh Treasuries against the alternatives in HYSA vs CD vs index fund.
After-Tax and Real Yield: What You Actually Keep
The headline yield to maturity is a pre-tax, pre-inflation number. Two adjustments turn it into what actually lands in your pocket, and the calculator makes both. First, tax: a Treasury is taxed only at the federal level, so your after-tax yield is simply the YTM times (1 − federal rate) — no state line to subtract.
Second, inflation. A 4.7% yield while prices rise 3% is not a 4.7% gain in what your money buys. The real yield uses the Fisher relationship on the after-tax figure, so it reflects growth in purchasing power, not just dollars. In stretches where inflation runs above your after-tax yield, that real number goes negative — the same erosion the inflation calculator traces out over time.
Those two adjustments are also what make a Treasury/HYSA comparison fair. A high-yield savings account or CD is taxed at both the federal and state level, while the Treasury dodges the state bite — so a lower Treasury yield can still keep more money than a higher savings rate. The calculator runs both through the same tax and inflation wringer and tells you which wins. When the decision is specifically cash-vs-CD, the CD vs savings account calculator weighs the locked rate against the liquid one directly.
Related Tools & Articles
Bond Yield Calculator
The same three yields for any bond, with annual or semi-annual coupons
Tax-Equivalent Yield Calculator
Put a tax-free municipal yield on a taxable footing
Inflation Calculator
What rising prices do to a fixed yield over the years
CD vs Savings Account
A locked rate against a liquid one, after tax
HYSA vs CD vs Index Fund
Where to park cash — yield, access, and risk compared
TIPS Calculator
The inflation-indexed Treasury, and the break-even rate that decides between them
Compound Interest Formula
The present-value math that yield to maturity solves in reverse
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you calculate current yield?
Divide the bond's annual coupon payment by its current market price: current yield = annual coupon ÷ price. A $1,000 Treasury note with a 4.25% coupon pays $42.50 a year; bought at $971.25, its current yield is $42.50 ÷ $971.25 = 4.38%. Note that the denominator is what you pay today, not the face value — that's why a bond bought at a discount shows a current yield above its coupon rate, and one bought at a premium shows a current yield below it.
What is the difference between yield to call and yield to maturity?
Both are the discount rate that makes a bond's future cash flows equal its price today — they differ in where the cash flows stop. Yield to maturity runs every coupon out to the maturity date and repays face value. Yield to call stops at the first call date and repays the call price instead. Since the issuer decides whether to call, you get whichever outcome is worse for you, so the lower of the two — the yield to worst — is the number to plan around. Callable bonds trading at a premium usually have a yield to call below their yield to maturity.
Can Treasury bonds be called?
No. The Treasury issued callable long bonds until 1984, but every note and bond issued since is non-callable, and the last callable issue is long gone. So for a Treasury, yield to maturity is the yield to worst — there is no call scenario to model. Yield to call still matters for the rest of the bond market: agency bonds, municipal bonds, and many corporate bonds carry call provisions, which is why this calculator lets you switch bond types.
How is a Treasury bond's yield different from its coupon rate?
The coupon rate is fixed at issue and never changes — it sets the dollar interest you receive each year. The yield floats with the price you pay. Buy below par and your yield exceeds the coupon; buy above par and it falls short. Because prices move constantly in the secondary market while coupons don't, two Treasuries with the same coupon can carry very different yields depending on when you bought them.
Why is Treasury interest exempt from state tax?
Federal law exempts interest on U.S. Treasury securities from state and local income tax, though it remains subject to federal income tax. That exemption raises a Treasury's effective return relative to a fully taxable bond or CD paying the same headline yield. The calculator's taxable-equivalent yield grosses the Treasury's yield up by your state rate to show what a taxable alternative would have to pay to match it. It's a close estimate, not a tax filing — it doesn't model how a federal deduction for state taxes might narrow the gap.
Why are Treasury prices quoted with a dash, like 97-04?
Treasury notes and bonds are quoted per $100 of face value in thirty-seconds of a point. A quote of 97-04 means 97 and 4/32 of a point, or $97.125 per $100 of face — $971.25 on a $1,000 bond. The convention predates decimal pricing and persists in the government bond market. Enter the dollar price in the calculator and it shows the equivalent quote.
What is the difference between T-bills, T-notes, and T-bonds?
They are the same borrower — the U.S. Treasury — split by term. Treasury bills mature in a year or less (from a few weeks up to 52 weeks), pay no coupon, and are sold at a discount, so the return is the gap between the discounted purchase price and face value at maturity. Treasury notes run 2 to 10 years and Treasury bonds run 20 or 30 years; both pay a fixed coupon every six months and repay face value at the end. This calculator's current yield and yield to maturity apply to the coupon-paying notes and bonds; for a bill, the return is simply the discount you buy it at, annualized.
Does this work as an I bond return calculator?
Not directly — Series I savings bonds work differently from the marketable Treasuries modeled here. An I bond earns a composite rate that combines a fixed rate, set at purchase and held for the life of the bond, with an inflation rate that resets every six months from the CPI-U. There is no market price, coupon, or yield to maturity to enter — interest accrues to the bond's value instead. I bonds do share the Treasury state-tax exemption, and federal tax can be deferred until you redeem. Use this page for the after-tax and real-yield math on T-bills, notes, and bonds; treat I bonds as a separate, inflation-linked instrument.
Do Treasury notes and bonds pay interest monthly?
No — they pay a coupon every six months until maturity, then return the face value. Treasury bills work differently: they carry no coupon at all and are sold at a discount to face value, so their return comes entirely from the price gain at maturity rather than from interest payments. Current yield and yield to maturity as calculated here apply to coupon-paying notes and bonds.