How much should I raise my prices for 2027?
What the latest federal inflation numbers say, why the October 2026 CPI report has no yearly figure, and how a $1M to $5M business can set a price increase without guessing.
Enough to cover what your own costs rose, and inflation is only the floor for that. The last full federal reading, for September 2026, put consumer prices up 3.7 percent over the year, so a business that held its prices flat since last fall has taken a real cut of about that size. The October report, released November 10, carries no yearly figure at all, so anyone quoting a fresher annual number is estimating.
## What the federal numbers say
The Bureau of Labor Statistics September 2026 Consumer Price Index release, published October 14, reported that the all items index increased 3.7 percent before seasonal adjustment over the prior twelve months. Prices for everything except food and energy rose 2.6 percent over the year. Services less energy services, the closest match for a firm that sells time and expertise, rose 3.1 percent. Food rose 2.5 percent.
The October 2026 release adds one month. On a seasonally adjusted basis, all items rose 0.4 percent in October and the index excluding food and energy rose 0.3 percent.
## Why October has no yearly number
BLS did not collect survey data for October 2025 because of a lapse in appropriations. Without an October 2025 index, the agency says it cannot publish 12-month percent changes for October 2026 for most series. The next release, for November, is scheduled for December 10, 2026. Until then, the September figure is the most recent official year-over-year reading.
That gap matters for anyone writing a price letter this month. A competitor or vendor who cites "October inflation" as a single annual percentage is working from their own arithmetic, and you are entitled to ask how they got it.
## How to set the number for your own business
National CPI measures what households pay. Your costs are a different basket. A useful way to set a 2027 increase:
1. Pull your own cost lines for the last twelve months: payroll, software, rent, insurance, contractors and materials. Compare each with the same months a year earlier. 2. Weight them by share of spend. If payroll is 60 percent of your costs and it rose 5 percent, that line alone adds 3 points to your cost base. 3. Use the 3.7 percent all items figure as the minimum that keeps your price flat in real terms, and your own weighted cost increase as the number that keeps your margin flat. 4. Decide whether you want margin to grow. A business moving from $1M toward $5M usually needs margin to fund the hires that growth takes, so the gap between cost growth and price growth is the budget for that.
As an example only, a firm whose weighted costs rose an estimated 4.5 percent and that wants one point of margin back would land near 5.5 percent. The figure is illustrative. Your own ledger sets the real one.
## When price is the bottleneck
Many owners at this stage find that the increase they need is larger than the one they are willing to send. That is a sign the offer, more than inflation, is the constraint. If you have not raised prices in two years and customers renew without asking about cost, the price is likely low for the value delivered.
The six-question bottleneck check on this site tells you whether price and offer are the stage holding growth back, or whether demand, conversion, delivery or your own time is the tighter limit. Run it before the letter goes out, so the increase you choose fixes the right problem.