Maximum pension: This is how high the maximum pension is in Germany

As of July 1, 2025, statutory pensions will increase by 3.74 percent. What that amounts to in euros and cents varies greatly from person to person. Because: The range of what pensioners receive per month is large. On average, the old-age pension is currently around 1,100 euros, according to the federal government’s pension insurance report. But it can also be significantly less or significantly more.

What matters most is how much you have earned in your life and how much you have paid into the statutory pension insurance. Anyone who pays the maximum amount into statutory pension insurance throughout their entire working life will end up with a retirement pension that is around three times as high as the average amount mentioned.

How does this maximum pension come about and can it even be achieved?

In order to determine the theoretically possible maximum pension, you must first know how the amount of the statutory pension is calculated. The official pension formula for this is:

Pay points X access factor X pension type factor X current pension value = monthly pension

This is what lies behind the individual points of the formula.

Pay points: This value, usually also referred to as pension points, is central to the calculation. It depends on what you have earned in your working life year after year. The rule is: Anyone who has earned exactly as much in a year as the average of all insured people receives one pension point. The average salary is currently 50,493 euros; in previous years it was significantly lower. You can also earn more (or less) than one salary point per year, but the entire amount is capped by the contribution assessment limit. This limit indicates the income up to which pension insurance contributions must be paid. In 2025 that will be 8,050 euros per month. Since the assessment limit shifts year after year, the maximum possible salary points in a year also change. In the past decades the value has always been slightly above or below 2.

Access factor: Anyone who retires when they reach the standard retirement age has an access factor of 1. Anyone who retires earlier must expect deductions. But the opposite case is also possible: Anyone who works beyond the standard retirement age without claiming their pension can earn supplements. Namely: 0.5 percent for every month that you do not yet receive your pension. However, the higher pension is bought through a shorter benefit period.

Pension type factor: You don’t have to do a lot of math here. The pension type factor for old-age pensions is simply 1 (in contrast to disability pensions and widows’ and orphans’ pensions, which have a factor below 1).

Current pension value: This is the value that the federal government sets on July 1st of each year so that pensions keep pace with the development of wages and salaries. As of July 1, 2025, it will increase by 3.74 percent – from 39.32 euros to 40.79 euros.

Anyone who wants to collect the maximum pension when they reach the standard retirement age must have earned at least the respective contribution assessment limit in each insurance year. Since the maximum possible salary points fluctuate slightly per year, it depends on the specific period in which you have paid in. In the past 45 years (1980 to 2024), a total of up to 87.56 earning points could be collected. Multiplied by the pension value of 40.79 euros valid from July 1, 2025, this results in a maximum pension of 3,572 euros.

The monthly pension could even be a little higher if you retire later than the standard retirement age. On the one hand, the additional contributions increase the pension. On the other hand, the access factor is increased. Anyone who retires twelve months late will increase their acquired pension entitlement by 6 percent (12 x 0.5 percent).

Ultimately, the maximum pension is a mathematical value that hardly anyone achieves. After all, you would have to earn above the contribution assessment limit when you start your career and keep it up for decades until you retire. In fact, according to figures from the German Pension Insurance, there are only a few thousand people who actually receive a statutory pension of more than 3,000 euros. The proportion corresponds to around 0.1 percent of all insured people.

The so-called standard pension is more realistic. This is the pension that a statistical “corner pensioner” receives who has earned exactly the average of all insured people for 45 years and has accordingly earned 45 earnings points. This results in a gross standard pension of around 1,800 euros. Since not everyone makes it to the age of 45, the actual average pension is even lower, at around 1,100 euros. Contributions for health and nursing care insurance are still deducted from gross pensions and, for several years now, taxes have also been deducted.