The final number hasn't been determined yet. But, with the recent release of August's inflation data, experts have a pretty good idea of how much of a percentage raise Social Security recipients will be getting beginning with this coming January's payments.

But what does this percentage increase mean in practical, tangible terms for, say, a typical beneficiary collecting $2,000 per month?

Next year's COLA is coming into view

The Social Security Administration doesn't arbitrarily decide any given year's cost-of-living adjustment -- or COLA -- to the program's payments. This annual increase is legally mandated based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics' measure of consumer inflation during the third calendar quarter of the year. The annualized consumer inflation rates for July, August, and September are averaged, and become the amount of the following January's COLA.

And as was noted, with August's inflation figure of 3.4% following July's price growth of the same pace, we've now got two of the calculation's three key inputs. Assuming nothing changes this month, Social Security beneficiaries are likely to see a 3.4% cost-of-living adjustment to their current payments in 2027.

Not everyone quite agrees, however. Based on this year's inflation reports prior to July's, paired with recently rekindled gas, diesel, and food price increases, advocacy group The Senior Citizens League expects the coming year's Social Security COLA to be 3.6%, jibing with an outlook from AARP. At the very least, these numbers are in the same relatively small ballpark.

Image source: Getty Images.

So what would a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment mean for the average monthly benefit?

It depends. See, while every beneficiary may be due for a 3.6% increase in their current benefit payment, since everybody's payment is different, the dollar amount of everyone's COLA will also be unique. Bigger benefit payments will result in a bigger cost-of-living adjustment, while those receiving a smaller benefit right now will see a smaller dollar increase.

This year's average Social Security retirement benefit payment is $2,071 per month; a 3.6% increase would raise this monthly figure by about $75, to nearly $2,146.

A good-enough working figure for now

Again, it's not etched in stone. Both AARP and The Senior Citizens League are counting on reaccelerated price growth for the entire month of September. We'll probably get it, but to what degree we'll get it is still unclear. And as a reminder, the consumer inflation rate has rolled in at only 3.4% for the previous two months, which make up the three months that ultimately dictate any given year's COLA. Nobody really knows the exact adjustment that's in the cards yet.

Retirees have a reasonably good idea of what Social Security's 2027 cost-of-living is going to be, however... certainly good enough to start making mental budgets for the year ahead until they get the confirmed figure in late October, once September's inflation report is in hand and the program's administrators have had time to crunch the numbers.