Your money
Prices from January 2010 to September 2026, the latest month KNBS has published.
What your money is worth
KES 1,000 in January 2015 is worth, in September 2026 prices
KES 1,997
You would need KES 1,997 in September 2026 to buy what KES 1,000 bought in January 2015. Each shilling buys 49.9% less.
The other way round: KES 1,000 in September 2026 would have been KES 501 in January 2015.
- Prices rose
- 99.7%
- A year, on average
- 6.1%
- Over
- 11 years and 8 months
What KES 1,000 would have become by September 2026
- 364-day Treasury bills, rolled overeach new bill at the latest auction rate, after 15% taxKES 2,796beat prices by KES 799
- Bank fixed deposit, averagethe CBK’s average deposit rate each month, after 15% taxKES 2,117beat prices by KES 120
- Cash or M-PESAno interestKES 1,000KES 997 short of prices
Past rates, not a promise: a bill or a deposit bought today earns today’s rate. A Treasury bill needs at least KES 50,000 at once.
How it works
Official prices, one index
Prices are the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ consumer price index (CPI), the figure behind the inflation rate in the news. We divide the later month’s index by the earlier one’s: if it rose 50%, you need KES 1,500 to buy what KES 1,000 bought.
KNBS rebased the CPI in March 2020 to a new basket (330 items, weights from the 2015/16 household budget survey) with February 2019 = 100. From February 2019 we use the new index as KNBS publishes it. Before that we use the old index (February 2009 = 100), scaled so the two meet in February 2019, the one month both cover (195.78 on the old base, 100 on the new). So any change before February 2019 comes from the old basket, and any change after it from the new one.
The old index’s monthly levels before February 2018 are worked back from KNBS’s official 12-month inflation rates, as tabled by the Central Bank of Kenya. The releases we use do not print the new index for March 2019 to January 2020, so those months are worked back the same way from the 12-month rates it printed a year later. KNBS revised its first rebased figures (March 2020 went from 106.53 to 107.48); we use the revised ones, which the CBK’s table also follows. Rates are published to two decimals, so very old comparisons can be a few shillings in a thousand out.
The Treasury bill line buys a 364-day bill on the 1st of the month at the latest auction’s average rate and buys a new one each time it matures; the deposit line earns the CBK’s average bank deposit rate each month. Both are after the 15% tax on interest. Checked 2026-10-15.
Sources
Where the numbers come from
- KNBS: CPI and inflation rates (monthly releases)
- KNBS: CPI release, September 2026 (latest)
- KNBS: CPI release, February 2019 (old base)
- CBK: inflation rates (KNBS's 12-month inflation by month)
- CBK: KNBS rebases CPI and PPI (press release, 30 March 2020)
- Treasury bill auctions and bank deposit rates, from the Central Bank of Kenya
Also see
More money tools
Information, not advice. Past rates and prices do not tell you future ones.
Quick answers
Questions people ask
- What is KES 1,000 from 2015 worth today in Kenya?
- KES 1,000 in January 2015 buys what KES 1,997 buys in September 2026: prices rose 100%, about 6.1% a year, on KNBS's consumer price index.
- How much have prices risen in Kenya in the last ten years?
- 79% from September 2016 to September 2026, about 6.0% a year. A shilling buys 44% less than it did.
- Did Treasury bills beat inflation?
- KES 1,000 put in 364-day bills in January 2015 and rolled over every year would have grown to about KES 2,796 after 15% tax by September 2026, against KES 1,997 needed to keep up with prices. The calculator checks any period from 2011.