WHAT'S A MAD MEN DOLLAR WORTH TODAY?
Mad Men runs from 1960 to 1970, and money comes up all the time: salaries, raises, bonuses, account billings, the price of a suit or a round of drinks. Those numbers sound small now, because a 1960 dollar bought about 11 times what a dollar buys in 2026. This calculator turns any amount mentioned in an episode into today's money.
HOW TO USE IT
- Draw the amount on the bill with your finger or mouse. A handwriting model reads the digits.
- Tap ×1K or ×1M for thousands or millions.
- Pick the season the episode is from. The big number is that amount in 2026 dollars.
The digit recognition runs entirely in your browser; nothing you draw is uploaded.
WHY NOT A SIMPLE CALCULATOR?
"Do you know how it feels to write a check for $6,500 and not care?"
Roger Sterling, talking Don into a 1962 Cadillac Coupe de Ville
I had the idea for this page years ago, the first time I watched Mad Men. I always pictured it as a check you write the amount on by hand, read by a model trained on MNIST, the classic dataset of handwritten digits. I never got around to building it. Now that I finally have the time and the skills, I made it exactly the way I imagined it back then.
Is it a little less handy than typing a number into a box? Sure. But I like making small things that are a bit more interesting and a bit more beautiful, the kind that make you go "oh, that's nifty." The last thing I want is a project you use once and then, like Don, don't think about at all.
I wrote about how it came together in Making the Mad Men Inflation Calculator.
FAMOUS MAD MEN AMOUNTS IN TODAY'S DOLLARS
| What | Price | In 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Duck's reward to the first man who lands a meeting with a decision maker S1 | $100 | $1,117 |
| Don's take from the sale to Putnam, Powell and Lowe, a little over S2 | $500,000 | $5,475,166 |
| Bobbie's price for Jimmy's public apology to Utz, plus a story in the paper S2 | $25,000 | $273,758 |
| Bert's Rothko, which he expects to double in a year S2 | $10,000 | $109,503 |
| What Harry asks for as head of television, per week: $10 more than Ken S2 | $310 | $3,395 |
| Harry's raise as head of television, per week, before taxes S2 | $225 | $2,464 |
| Harry's new junior staff person, per week S2 | $150 | $1,643 |
| Don's DUI fine after the crash with Bobbie S2 | $150 | $1,643 |
| The cash Peggy brings Don, who only has $63 S2 | $110 | $1,205 |
| Double plus car fare, as Vicky prices it S2 | $100 | $1,095 |
| What Roger first leaves on the nightstand for Vicky S2 | $40 | $438 |
| Getting into the underground casino with Freddie: Don's $5 plus Roger's $20 S2 | $25 | $274 |
| The hi-fi repair call, or $9 if you drag it over yourself S2 | $18 | $197 |
| Prix fixe lunch at Lutèce S2 | $8.50 | $93.08 |
| One Pampers diaper, which Sal finds too expensive: for that money it should be washable S2 | $0.10 | $1.10 |
| Pete and Ken's new salary as co-heads of accounts, per year S3 | $21,000 | $226,951 |
| Four joints from Kinsey's dealer, for the creatives stuck at work all weekend S3 | $10 | $108 |
| What Sally steals from Grandpa Gene S3 | $5 | $54.04 |
| Polaroid film, apiece S3 | $3 | $32.42 |
| Don's tip in Rome S3 | $2 | $21.61 |
| The Lucky Strike account S4 | $25,000,000 | $262,460,317 |
| Pete's junior-partner collateral, paid by Don S4 | $50,000 | $524,921 |
| Honda pays each competing agency to create a pitch S4 | $3,000 | $31,495 |
| Dow Chemical's billings S5 | $20,000,000 | $204,135,802 |
| Vicks Chemical, the account Pete brings over through his father-in-law S5 | $6,000,000 | $61,240,741 |
| The Jaguar account S5 | $500,000 | $5,103,395 |
| Peggy's salary as copy chief, per year S5 | $19,000 | $193,929 |
| What Lane has to find in two days S5 | $8,000 | $81,654 |
| What Lane embezzles S5 | $7,500 | $76,551 |
| The check for a Jaguar E-Type S5 | $6,000 | $61,241 |
| Roger's cash to get Harry to swap offices with Pete S5 | $1,100 | $11,227 |
| Roger pays Peggy to work on Mohawk: "the work is ten dollars, the lie is extra" S5 | $410 | $4,185 |
| Roger pays Ginsberg to quietly work up Manischewitz ideas, $100 now and $100 later S5 | $200 | $2,041 |
HOW IT'S CALCULATED
Each season is pinned to the year most of it takes place in. The amount is then scaled by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: amount × (latest CPI ÷ CPI of that year). The latest published value, 330.7, is the January–June 2026 average.
| Season | Set in | CPI-U | $1 then |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1960 | 29.6 | $11.17 |
| 2 | 1962 | 30.2 | $10.95 |
| 3 | 1963 | 30.6 | $10.81 |
| 4 | 1965 | 31.5 | $10.50 |
| 5 | 1966 | 32.4 | $10.21 |
| 6 | 1968 | 34.8 | $9.50 |
| 7 | 1970 | 38.8 | $8.52 |
CPI follows the price of an average basket of goods, so it's a fair guide for everyday prices and salaries. Things whose prices moved very differently, like Manhattan rent or a plane ticket, won't line up exactly.