Saved on this device

Keep a number from one calculator and have the next one offer it back to you. Your numbers stay on your device unless you choose to hand them to an AI assistant — otherwise, they are stored in this browser only.

What it does

Some numbers belong to more than one calculator. Your monthly essential expenses drive an emergency fund target. The price of the house you are looking at drives both a rent-versus-buy comparison and a mortgage affordability estimate. Retyping the same figure into each tool is busywork, and it is how two pages end up describing the same household differently.

Saved on this device is the small feature that removes the retyping. It works in three steps:

You save. When a calculator produces a result, its results panel shows a button labelled Save on this device. Pressing it keeps that calculator’s key figures in your browser. Nothing is stored until you press it, and a calculator you never save from stores nothing at all.
A related calculator offers the value back. Open a tool that uses the same quantity and the saved figure appears next to the matching field as a small chip: the value, the calculator it came from, and the date you saved it.
You decide. Choose Use this to place the number in the field, or Dismiss to leave the field as it is. Nothing is filled in for you. A value you accept is an ordinary input you can edit, clear, or ignore.

A saved figure is only offered where it is genuinely the same quantity as the field receiving it. Take-home pay is not an expense, and a cash savings balance is not a down payment, so the feature does not carry them into those fields even though the numbers look interchangeable. A plausible-but-wrong number quietly seeded into a financial calculator is worse than an empty field, so the list of what carries where is deliberately short.

What this device holds right now

This is the feature reading its own storage in this browser, as the page opens. It is the same list the Review and manage panel shows on a calculator, with the same controls, so what you see here is what a calculator would be offered. Nothing on this list is sent anywhere to be shown to you: the page reads it from this device and draws it here.

Where your numbers are kept

Your numbers stay on your device unless you choose to hand them to an AI assistant. Left alone, they are stored in this browser only, and nothing is sent to a server. There is no copy of your saved values on our systems, because there is no code path that sends one. The one exception is the assistant buttons some calculators offer: pressing one hands a short summary of your saved figures to Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, covered in full in our privacy policy.

Mechanically, the values live in the storage your browser sets aside for this site — its built-in database, or simpler browser storage when that database is unavailable, as in some private-browsing modes. Another browser on the same computer is a separate browser, so it does not see what this one saved. Neither does another person’s device.

One thing does reach us, and it is worth stating plainly: anonymous analytics record the name of the action and a count — for example, that a save happened on the paycheck calculator, or that three values are currently stored. The values themselves are not part of that. The code that sends those events accepts a calculator name, a field name, a small whole number, and a fixed status word, and there is no parameter through which a dollar amount could travel. Those events are only sent if you accept analytics in the cookie banner. Full detail is in our privacy policy.

What you can do with what you saved

Once at least one value is stored, calculators that use the feature show a small panel above the form with a Review and manage button. Opening it lists every stored value with the calculator it came from and the date, and gives you these controls:

Remove

Takes one value out of this browser and leaves the rest alone. The chip for it stops appearing on other calculators.

Clear all saved numbers

Removes everything the feature has stored on this device, including the browser database it uses. Because it removes everything, the button asks for a second press — it changes to Press again to clear everything — and nothing is removed until you press it again. Pause or move away and it disarms; a later press starts fresh. Once it is gone, the calculators go back to behaving as though you had never saved anything.

Download a copy

Writes your saved values to a small readable file (saved-numbers.json) that your browser downloads. The file is handed to your download manager, not uploaded. Open it in any text editor and you can see exactly what it contains.

Restore from a file

Reads a file you previously downloaded and merges it back in. This is also how you move your numbers to another browser or another computer: download the file, move the file yourself, restore it there.

Send to my phone

Hands the same saved-numbers.json file to your device’s own share sheet, so it can go straight to your phone, a notes app, or a message — with no server in between. The button only appears on browsers whose share sheet accepts files, which today means most phones and tablets and few desktops.

Ask this browser to keep it

Asks your browser not to clear this site’s storage on its own. Some browsers agree, some decline, and some do not offer the setting. The panel reports the answer it actually got rather than predicting one.

Link a backup file

Pick a file on this device once, and from then on the page writes your saved numbers to that file whenever they change — a backup that keeps itself current. If the browser later wants a fresh permission, a Reconnect backup file button appears instead of anything failing silently. The control appears on browsers with the file picker this needs (Chrome and Edge today). Unlinking forgets which file was chosen; the file itself is never changed or deleted by unlinking or by Clear all saved numbers, so your last backup stays yours.

The keep-it control deserves an honest caveat. Browsers manage their own storage, and they clear it for their own reasons — to reclaim space, or because a privacy setting removes site storage after a period without a visit. Clearing your browsing data removes these values too, exactly as it removes anything else a site keeps on your device. We can make a claim about privacy because the code decides that; we cannot make one about how long a browser holds on to data, because the browser decides that. If a set of numbers matters to you, Download a copy is the dependable backup on every browser, and a linked backup file keeps itself current on the browsers that offer it.

Which calculators carry it today

Eight tools use the feature right now. Each card lists what that tool can save, and what it will offer you if a matching value is already stored.

Paycheck Calculator

Saves: filing status, pay frequency, annual gross pay, monthly take-home pay.

Offers: your own inputs back when you return — saved filing status and pay frequency appear beside those fields, and the saved annual gross figure is offered only while the pay-frequency selector reads annual, because in every other mode the pay field means gross per paycheck rather than per year. The saved take-home figure is offered by the Money Flow Visualizer’s income field, not here: on this page take-home is the result, not an input.

Money Flow Visualizer

Saves: monthly take-home pay and monthly essential expenses, totaled from the income and spending lines you enter. Income lines count as take-home by convention, and the save panel states that before you press the button.

Offers: monthly take-home pay, into its own quickstart income field — so a figure saved from a paycheck run starts your next money map without retyping.

Emergency Fund Calculator

Saves: monthly essential expenses, monthly savings, cash savings balance, dependents.

Offers: the same four, into monthly expenses, current emergency fund, monthly savings capacity, and dependents.

Savings Calculator

Saves: cash savings balance, monthly savings.

Offers: starting balance and monthly contribution. A saved monthly figure is only offered while this calculator is set to monthly contributions.

Rent vs Buy Calculator

Saves: home price, down payment.

Offers: nothing — it only saves. Its monthly rent figure is deliberately not saved either: rent is one housing cost, not the household expense total the other tools mean.

Mortgage Affordability Calculator

Saves: home price, down payment.

Offers: home price and down payment — so the house you priced in the rent-versus-buy comparison arrives here without retyping.

Social Security Calculator

Saves: birth year.

Offers: your birth year back when you return, and to the RMD calculator. A birth year is the one saved value that cannot go out of date, which is why it is stored as a year rather than as an age. Your salary is deliberately not saved: this page asks for a current or final salary to approximate a career average, which is not the same figure as the annual gross pay on a paycheck.

RMD Calculator

Saves: birth year.

Offers: birth year — so a year given to the Social Security calculator arrives here already filled. Your retirement account balance is not saved: the only balance this feature stores means cash savings, and putting an emergency fund into a required-distribution calculation would be a different number entirely.

Every other calculator on the site works exactly as it did before, with no saved values and no panel. Using this feature is optional on the calculators that have it, and absent everywhere else.

What this is not

Not an account. There is no sign-up, no email address, no password, and nothing to log in to.
Not a sync service. Your saved values do not travel between devices or browsers on their own. Moving them is a file you download and restore yourself.
Not a tracker of your figures. Analytics receive event names and counts, never the amounts you typed.
Not a profile we can see. The values are in your browser’s storage. We have no copy to look at, hand over, or lose.
Not required. Every calculator is fully usable without saving anything, and that is the default for everyone who does not press the button.

Everything this site keeps in this browser

Saved on this device is one of several things this site keeps on your device, so here is the whole list — generated from the same inventory the code uses, and the same list the button at the end of it clears. The same inventory appears in our privacy policy, alongside what leaves your device and when.

Saved on this device (browser database) Your figures household_profile
The values you saved with Save on this device: take-home pay, essential expenses, a savings balance, a house price and similar figures, each with the calculator it came from and the date. This is the main copy.

Where: Browser database
digitalcalculator_household_profile How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Clear all saved numbers in a calculator's Review and manage panel, Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser. Any of these deletes the database itself, not just its contents.
Linked backup file backup_file_handle
A pointer to the file you chose with Link a backup file, so the page can keep writing your saved numbers to it. It is a permission handle, not a copy of your numbers.

Where: Browser database
digitalcalculator_household_profile How long: Until you unlink the file or clear it How to clear it: Unlink the backup file in Review and manage, use Clear everything stored on this device, or clear site data in your browser. None of these changes or deletes the backup file itself, which stays yours.
Saved calculator results Your figures dc_saves_…
Results you saved yourself by pressing Save on a calculator, with the date you saved them. One entry per calculator (for example dc_saves_mortgage-calculator), holding that calculator's key figures, newest 20 kept.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Open Review and manage on a calculator that shows the panel and choose Clear all saved numbers, use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Saved on this device (fallback copy) Your figures household_profile
The same values as the browser database below. Used only when the database is unavailable, as in some private-browsing modes.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Clear all saved numbers in a calculator's Review and manage panel, Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Money Flow budget Your figures money-flow-visualizer-state-v1
The budget you built in the Money Flow Visualizer: your income and spending lines and their amounts.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Clear the budget on the Money Flow Visualizer, use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Money Flow comparison budget Your figures money-flow-scenario-b-v1
The second budget you can compare against on the Money Flow Visualizer, in the same shape as the first.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Delete the comparison scenario on the Money Flow Visualizer, use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Money Flow import rules Your figures money-flow-import-rules-v1
Categorization rules you created while importing a bank CSV: the description text a rule matches on and the category you chose for it. Up to 200 rules. No amounts and no transaction list.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Open Import transactions on the Money Flow Visualizer and choose Forget my import rules, use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Saved on this device (presence marker) household_profile_present
A single 1, meaning something has been saved. It exists so the site does not have to open (and therefore create) the browser database just to find out that nothing is stored.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Removed with the saved values by any of the clear controls, or by clearing site data.
Money Flow active scenario money-flow-active-scenario-v1
Which of the two Money Flow budgets is currently on screen. A letter, not an amount.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Removed with the budgets by Clear everything stored on this device, or by clearing site data.
Cookie consent choice cookie-consent
Which cookie categories you accepted or declined, the version of the consent notice you saw, the region model applied, and the date you chose.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: 12 months, then you are asked again How to clear it: Manage Cookies in the footer of any page, or clear site data in your browser.
Light or dark mode theme-preference
Whether you chose light, dark, or the system setting.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Set the theme back to System, or clear site data in your browser.
Recent searches dc_recent_searches
The five most recent terms you typed into site search, so the search box can offer them back to you.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it; only the five most recent are kept How to clear it: Clear recent searches in the search panel, use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Last backup date dc-profile-last-export-at
The date you last downloaded a copy of your saved numbers. A date only, used to decide when to remind you to take a fresh backup.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Removed by Clear all saved numbers, by Clear everything stored on this device, or by clearing site data.
Backup reminder dismissed dc-profile-backup-nudge-dismissed-at
The date you dismissed the backup reminder, so it does not come straight back. A date only.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Removed by Clear all saved numbers, by Clear everything stored on this device, or by clearing site data.
Install prompt dismissed dc-pwa-install-dismissed-at
The date you dismissed the card offering to install this site as an app, so it is not shown again for a while. A date only.

Where: Browser storage (this browser) How long: Until you clear it How to clear it: Use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Privacy notice dismissed notice-dismissed
That you closed the privacy notice bar, so it does not reappear on every page in this tab.

Where: Browser storage (this tab only) How long: Until you close the tab How to clear it: Close the tab, or clear site data in your browser.
Install card already shown dc-pwa-card-shown
That the card offering to install this site as an app has already appeared in this tab.

Where: Browser storage (this tab only) How long: Until you close the tab How to clear it: Close the tab, or clear site data in your browser.
Automated-test marker dc_traffic_type
The word internal, written only when a page is opened by our own testing tools (with ?dc_qa=1 in the address, or by a recognised automation browser), so the run is excluded from analytics.

Where: Browser storage (this tab only) How long: Until you close the tab How to clear it: Close the tab, or clear site data in your browser.
Offline fallback page dc-precache-…
The small page shown if you open the site with no connection. Named with the build version, so a deploy replaces it.

Where: Offline cache How long: Until the site is next updated How to clear it: Use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Pages you have visited dc-pages-v1
Copies of pages you opened, so they still work offline. What is cached is the page as our server delivered it: the calculator itself, not the figures you then typed into it.

Where: Offline cache How long: Until you clear it; the newest 150 pages are kept How to clear it: Use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Site files dc-assets-v1
Stylesheets, scripts, images and fonts, so a repeat visit loads quickly.

Where: Offline cache How long: Until you clear it; the newest 300 files are kept How to clear it: Use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Reference data dc-data-v1
Data files the calculators read, such as state tax tables and the search index. Published reference data, not anything about you.

Where: Offline cache How long: Until you clear it; the newest 80 files are kept How to clear it: Use Clear everything stored on this device on the Saved on this device page, or clear site data in your browser.
Country code _geo
A two-letter country code such as US or DE, set by our content delivery network and used to show the consent choices your region requires. No IP address and nothing identifying.

Where: Cookie How long: 24 hours How to clear it: Clear cookies for this site in your browser. It is set again on your next visit.
Analytics visit identifier _ga
A randomly generated identifier Google Analytics uses to count returning visits. Set by Google's script, and only if you accept analytics. Its value is that identifier and a timestamp, not anything you typed into a calculator.

Where: Cookie How long: Up to 2 years (Google's default) How to clear it: Decline or withdraw analytics with Manage Cookies in the footer, then clear cookies for this site in your browser.
Analytics session state _ga_…
Google Analytics session state for this site's measurement property (for example _ga_VSQ21QEPMY). Set by Google's script, and only if you accept analytics.

Where: Cookie How long: Up to 2 years (Google's default) How to clear it: Decline or withdraw analytics with Manage Cookies in the footer, then clear cookies for this site in your browser.

Questions

Do I need an account to use this?

No. There is no account, no login, and no password. Your browser holds the values on this device, and the site behaves the same whether you save anything or not.

What happens if I clear my browser data?

The saved values go with it, in the same way as anything else this site keeps on your device. Browsers can also clear site storage on their own to reclaim space, and some privacy settings clear it after a stretch without a visit. If you want a copy you control, use Download a copy and keep the file.

Can I move my saved numbers to another device?

Yes, by hand. Use Download a copy to get a small file, move that file yourself, then use Restore from a file in the other browser. There is no sync: the file is the transfer, which is what keeps the numbers off our servers.

Does a saved value change a calculator’s result on its own?

No. A saved value is offered as a chip beside the field, with its source and date. Nothing enters the form until you choose Use this, and a value you accept behaves like any other input you can edit.

What does the site record when I save something?

With your consent to analytics, an event name and a count — for instance that a save happened on the emergency fund calculator and how many values are now stored. The amounts are not included. Decline analytics in the cookie banner and even that is not sent.

How do I delete everything?

Open Review and manage on any calculator showing the panel and choose Clear all saved numbers, then press it again when it asks you to confirm. That removes the stored values from this browser, including the browser database behind them. It does not touch a file you downloaded yourself — that copy is yours to delete.

Try it

The quickest way to see it work: run the emergency fund calculator, press Save on this device on the results, then open the savings calculator and look for the chip beside the starting balance. If you would rather not keep it, Clear all saved numbers in the panel — pressed twice, since it asks you to confirm — puts everything back.