Net to Gross Salary Calculator
Tell us what you want to take home, and we'll work out the gross UK salary you need in 2026/27.
This is the reverse of our Take Home Pay Calculator - enter your desired net pay and we'll solve for the gross salary.
Target Take-Home Pay
How this is calculated
This tool uses the standard 2026/27 UK PAYE calculation - Personal Allowance, Income Tax bands, and Class 1 National Insurance - and searches for the gross salary that produces your target take-home pay after any pension contribution and student loan repayment are deducted.
Because the UK tax system has several bands and thresholds (including the Personal Allowance taper above £100,000), there's no simple formula to "gross up" a net figure directly - this tool solves it numerically instead, the same way a payroll system would check its own output.
Quick Tips
- The jump from 20% to 40% tax at £50,270 of gross income widens the gross/net gap fast.
- Pension contributions reduce both Income Tax and National Insurance.
- Above £100,000 your Personal Allowance tapers away, needing extra gross income to compensate.
- Figures are annual unless you choose monthly or weekly.
Frequently Asked Questions
It runs the standard UK take-home pay calculation (Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan) over and over, adjusting the gross salary up or down until the resulting net pay matches the figure you want. This is the reverse of a normal take-home pay calculator, which goes the other way: gross to net.
It uses 2026/27 UK tax year figures: the standard £12,570 Personal Allowance (tapered away above £100,000), basic/higher/additional rate Income Tax bands, and Class 1 National Insurance. It assumes a standard tax code with no benefits-in-kind, and that pension contributions and student loan repayments are both calculated on gross pay. It does not account for Scottish Income Tax bands, which differ slightly from the rest of the UK.
Once Income Tax, National Insurance, pension contributions and (if applicable) student loan repayments are all added back, the gap between gross and net pay grows quickly - especially once you cross into the 40% higher rate band at £50,270 of gross income, or lose your Personal Allowance above £100,000.
No, this calculator assumes employment income taxed under PAYE with Class 1 National Insurance. Self-employed income is taxed differently and uses Class 2/4 National Insurance - see our Self-Assessment Tax Calculator or Self-Employment Tax Calculator instead.