Social Security plans to post the 2027 cost-of-living notice in online accounts in late November, and people who set up their my Social Security account by November 18 are in line to read it there. The agency’s October 14 message to advocacy groups says online access comes up to three weeks earlier than the notice sent by mail. The raise is 3.6 percent for 76 million Americans who receive Social Security or Supplemental Security Income, so the notice is the first document to show a person’s own new amount.
For a beneficiary without an account, the question is whether to set one up before November 18 just to see the new amount early. The cutoff applies to the online notice only: Social Security’s COLA page says most beneficiaries will find the notice in the Message Center of their account if they created the account by that date. Anyone who already has an account has met the cutoff. Signing in or creating an account also lets a person choose to receive available notices online instead of by mail.
November 18 is the one date Social Security has set for getting the new amount online in late November instead of by mail in December. The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes the 2026 payment calendar, which shows when each November and December deposit lands.
What the Message Center posts in late November
The notice sits in the Message Center of the my Social Security account, where it can be saved for later, according to the agency’s COLA announcement page. That page says that in late November 2026 the agency will make COLA notices available online. It names no single day, only the back end of the month, so the account is the place to look rather than a date on a calendar. A beneficiary who misses the November 18 cutoff does not lose the raise, only the early look. The increase itself reaches nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries in January 2027 payments, and about 7.3 million SSI recipients see their larger payment starting December 31.
Nick Perrine, Social Security’s chief communications officer, signed the October 14 letter to advocates, which asks them to tell the people they serve to sign up for digital notices by November 18, 2026. The letter puts the head start at up to three weeks earlier than by mail. That wording sets a ceiling rather than a promise for each person, since mailed notices go out during December and the exact day a letter reaches a mailbox depends on the postal route.
Mailed letters in December
People who are not enrolled in paperless notices will get theirs in the mail. The agency’s blog post on the 2027 COLA says Social Security will mail notices with updated benefit amounts to recipients not enrolled in paperless notices during December. The post gives the month, not a date, and puts the average retirement increase at about $75 a month starting in January, the figure the notice turns into each person’s own dollars. That is why the three-week lead is stated as a maximum, and why the head start differs from one beneficiary to the next.
Seeing the notice earlier changes when a beneficiary learns the figure, not the January payment itself. November 18 also happens to be the third Wednesday of the month, which SSA’s 2026 payment schedule lists as the payment day for people born from the 11th through the 20th. A beneficiary paid that day has one date on the calendar that is both a deposit and the account cutoff.
What the online notice leaves for December
The COLA page draws one line between the two versions. Medicare-related 2027 benefit amounts, it says, will be available in December through the mailed COLA notice. Social Security has not said whether the late-November online notice will include those Medicare figures. The 3.6 percent increase is the number every beneficiary can expect to see early, while the amount that reflects Medicare charges is tied by the agency to the December letter.
Opening the account before November 18
A new account is created through my Social Security, where identity is confirmed through Login.gov or ID.me. Login.gov asks for an email address, a government-issued photo ID and a phone number. ID.me asks for an email address, a government-issued photo ID and a device with a camera. People who already use either service can sign in with the credential they have, which makes the November 18 cutoff easier to meet for anyone with an existing login.
Once inside, the account shows the earnings record and the Social Security Statement, and lets a person change an address or direct deposit, according to the same page. Those features sit alongside the notice, so a beneficiary who opens the account for the November 18 cutoff also gets a way to correct a mailing address before December letters go out.
The deadline is a cutoff for early online access, not for the raise itself. Every one of the nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries whom the agency says will see a 3.6 percent increase starting in January gets it whether or not an account exists. What missing November 18 costs is the up to three weeks that Social Security itself puts between the online notice and the mailed one.
November 18 or the December mailing
The real deadline is November 18, and after it the notice reaches a beneficiary by mail sometime in December. The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes the 2026 payment calendar, so each November and December deposit date sits on one page next to that cutoff.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the cited public sources.
