Skip to content
The Milky Way arching over red desert rocks

Natal retrograde calculator

What was retrograde when you were born?

Mercury to Pluto, every station from 1920 to 2034, checked against your birthday. Spoiler: 90.3% of people have at least one.

By Shymea Editorial

Photo: nanessa reyes / Burst

At a glance

On a typical day about 2.3 of the eight planets are retrograde, so the calculator below will most likely find at least one in your chart.

At least one retrograde
90.3%of days, 1920-2034
Mercury retrograde
19.1%about 3.1 times a year
Most common count
2 planets26.0% of days
Retrograde at build
Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, NeptuneOct 26, 2026

See every retrograde stationThis year's stations, computed from JPL.

The short answer

Most birth charts have a retrograde planet. Here is how to find yours

The Milky Way rising over dark hills
A retrograde in your chart is a style, not a sentence.Photo: Shelby Bowers / Burst

Try this today

  • Run your own birthday, then a sibling's. Outer-planet retrogrades often match, Mercury rarely does.
  • If you know your time, add it and see if anything changes. Usually nothing does, and that is the point.

Somewhere in your birth chart there is probably a tiny "R" or "℞" next to a planet, and you have been wondering if it is a problem. It is not. It is one of the most common things a chart can have.

We sampled every day from 1920 to 2034 at noon UTC and checked all eight planets from Mercury to Pluto. On 90.3% of those days at least one was retrograde. The most common count was 2. A chart with zero retrogrades turns up on only 9.7% of days, which makes "no retrogrades" the more unusual placement.

The calculator below does the checking for you. Enter your birth date (time and place help, but are rarely needed) and it tells you which planets were moving backward, the dates of each retrograde, and the degrees it backed over. If a planet changed direction on your birthday, it flags that too, because a station is a big deal in a chart.

The sky behind it

What retrograde actually means (no planet ever reverses)

The Sun glowing over the curve of the Earth from orbit
The planet keeps going. Your view of it changes.Photo: NASA (International Space Station crew)

Retrograde is a point-of-view thing. Earth and the other planets all circle the Sun in the same direction, at different speeds. When Earth catches up with and passes a slower outer planet, that planet seems to drift backward against the stars for a while, the way a slower car seems to slide back as you overtake it on the highway.

Mercury and Venus do it differently because they are inside our orbit. They look retrograde when they swing around the near side of the Sun and pass between us and it.

Either way, the planet never actually turns around. Britannica and NASA both describe it as apparent motion. Astrologers have always known that too; the tradition reads it as a symbol of a planet's energy turning inward, not as a cosmic glitch.

The sky behind it

Stations here are the moments a planet's geocentric ecliptic longitude stops changing, found from the sign change of its daily motion (5-minute differences, refined to under a minute) with skyfield and JPL DE442. Tropical zodiac, true equinox of date, UTC. Spot-check: Mercury stationed retrograde at 27°13′ Aries on Apr 1, 2024, 22:14 UTC, matching published 2024 calendars.

Born under Mercury retrograde

Mercury: about 19% of people are born with it retrograde

Hand-coloured 1824 star-chart card of Gemini from Urania's Mirror, the constellation drawn as the twins Castor and Pollux with its stars pierced through the card
Draft, rehearse, revise. Then send.Urania's Mirror, London 1824 · Library of Congress

Try this today

  • Keep a notes app list of things you want to say before a big conversation. It is a very Mercury-retrograde move, and it works.
  • Check the Mercury retrograde table below for your birth year to see how close you came.

Mercury retrograde datesMercury retrograde dos and don'ts

Mercury is the one people search for, and the one most likely to come up. It turns retrograde about 3.1 times a year, for 22 days on average (the shortest in our window ran 20 days, the longest 24). Add that up and 19.1% of days fall inside one.

So in any room of people, a fair few were born under it. In the tradition, natal Mercury retrograde is read as a mind that loops back: you draft in your head, you rehearse the text before you send it, you notice the detail everyone else skimmed. Writers, editors, researchers and people who say "wait, go back" in meetings will recognise it.

What it is not: a promise that you will be bad at talking, or that every Mercury retrograde season will wreck your life. It is a way of noticing how you think, nothing more.

The rare personal ones

Venus and Mars: the retrogrades fewer people have

Hand-coloured 1824 star-chart card of Libra from Urania's Mirror, the constellation drawn as a pair of balance scales with its stars pierced through the card
Your timing is not late. It is yours.Urania's Mirror, London 1824 · Library of Congress

Venus is retrograde on just 7.2% of days, roughly 42 days every year and a half or so. Mars is retrograde on 9.5%, about 74 days every two years or so. If either shows up in your results, you hold one of the scarcer natal placements.

Natal Venus retrograde is often read as love and taste that develop on their own timeline: you might not want what everyone around you wants, and it takes a while to name what you do. Mars retrograde is read as drive that builds privately. You may be the person who looks calm and then finishes the whole project in a weekend.

Again, framing matters. These are ways of noticing yourself, not instructions. If a reading does not fit, it does not fit.

The generational ones

Jupiter to Pluto: you share these with a lot of classmates

Johann Bayer's 1603 Uranometria plate of Capricornus: a sea-goat engraved on a deep blue sky, the stars heightened in gold
Outer-planet retrogrades are the weather of your birth year.Johann Bayer, Uranometria, 1603

Jupiter is retrograde on 30.4% of days, Saturn 36.5%, Uranus 41.0%, Neptune 43.4% and Pluto 43.5%. Each of the outer retrogrades lasts four to five months, so everyone born in that stretch has it.

That is why many astrologers give outer-planet retrogrades less personal weight. They matter most when they touch something personal in your chart, like your Sun, Moon or rising sign. A Saturn retrograde right on your Moon is a story. A Neptune retrograde floating alone is mostly the weather of your birth year.

Fun fact from the data: on 3 stretches covering 12 days between 1920 and 2034, 7 of the eight planets were retrograde at once, starting Jan 6, 1944. Nobody in our window was born with all eight.

Try it

Your retrograde planets at birth

Enter your birthday. Add a time and place if you have them. You will get every planet from Mercury to Pluto, with the dates of any retrograde you were born in. Works for births from 1920 to 2034.

Free, no account. Birth details are used only for this calculation and are not stored. Privacy.

More to read

Shorter reads. Each opens in place.

The detail that matters most

Born on a station? That one is worth a closer look

A planet at its station barely moves for a few days, and astrologers treat a stationary planet in a birth chart as unusually strong, whichever way it is turning. The calculator calls it out when your birth falls within a day of a Mercury station, two of Venus, three of Mars, five of Jupiter or Saturn, or seven of the slowest three. Those windows are our convention for "nearly motionless", not a rule from any one tradition.

Continue readingShow less

Quick note

Why your birth time rarely changes the answer

Retrograde status changes only at a station, and there are only a few stations a year per planet. Unless one happened on your birthday, any time of day gives the same result. When one did, the calculator says so and asks for your time. Houses and rising signs are different, they change every few minutes, so get those from the birth chart calculator.

Continue readingShow less

Retrogrades by the numbers

Computed from JPL DE442, sampled daily at noon UTC from Jan 1, 1920 to Dec 31, 2034 (42,004 days).

PlanetShare of days retrogradeAverage retrograde lengthRetrogrades per year
Mercury19.1%22 days3.15
Venus7.2%42 days0.63
Mars9.5%74 days0.47
Jupiter30.4%121 days0.92
Saturn36.5%138 days0.97
Uranus41.0%152 days0.99
Neptune43.4%159 days1.00
Pluto43.5%160 days1.00
How often each planet is retrograde
Retrograde planetsShare of days
09.7%
120.7%
226.0%
323.4%
414.1%
54.9%
61.1%
70.0%
How many planets are retrograde on a given day
Stations retrogradeAtStations directAt
Jan 26, 199521°15′ AquariusFeb 16, 19955°37′ Aquarius
May 24, 199518°21′ GeminiJun 17, 19959°48′ Gemini
Sep 22, 199520°10′ LibraOct 14, 19955°00′ Libra
Jan 9, 19965°10′ AquariusJan 30, 199619°06′ Capricorn
May 3, 199628°38′ TaurusMay 27, 199619°38′ Taurus
Sep 4, 19963°29′ LibraSep 26, 199619°00′ Virgo
Dec 23, 199619°13′ CapricornJan 12, 19972°58′ Capricorn
Apr 15, 19979°39′ TaurusMay 8, 199729°28′ Aries
Aug 17, 199716°13′ VirgoSep 10, 19972°42′ Virgo
Dec 7, 19973°22′ CapricornDec 27, 199717°03′ Sagittarius
Mar 27, 199821°29′ AriesApr 20, 19989°47′ Aries
Jul 31, 199828°16′ LeoAug 23, 199815°57′ Leo
Nov 21, 199817°33′ SagittariusDec 11, 19981°17′ Sagittarius
Mar 10, 19994°03′ AriesApr 2, 199920°52′ Pisces
Jul 12, 19999°29′ LeoAug 6, 199928°34′ Cancer
Nov 5, 19991°43′ SagittariusNov 25, 199915°37′ Scorpio
Feb 21, 200017°10′ PiscesMar 14, 20002°46′ Pisces
Jun 23, 200019°57′ CancerJul 17, 200010°23′ Cancer
Oct 18, 200015°47′ ScorpioNov 8, 200029°56′ Libra
Feb 4, 20010°41′ PiscesFeb 25, 200115°24′ Aquarius
Jun 4, 200129°57′ GeminiJun 28, 200121°16′ Gemini
Oct 1, 200129°41′ LibraOct 23, 200114°12′ Libra
Jan 18, 200214°28′ AquariusFeb 8, 200228°37′ Capricorn
May 15, 20029°59′ GeminiJun 8, 20021°21′ Gemini
Sep 14, 200213°14′ LibraOct 6, 200228°19′ Virgo
Jan 2, 200328°27′ CapricornJan 23, 200312°17′ Capricorn
Apr 26, 200320°33′ TaurusMay 20, 200311°07′ Taurus
Aug 28, 200326°19′ VirgoSep 20, 200312°12′ Virgo
Dec 17, 200312°33′ CapricornJan 6, 200426°16′ Sagittarius
Apr 6, 20041°55′ TaurusApr 30, 200421°07′ Aries
Aug 10, 20048°46′ VirgoSep 2, 200425°44′ Leo
Nov 30, 200426°44′ SagittariusDec 20, 200410°27′ Sagittarius
Mar 20, 200514°06′ AriesApr 12, 20051°45′ Aries
Jul 23, 200520°28′ LeoAug 16, 20058°45′ Leo
Nov 14, 200510°56′ SagittariusDec 4, 200524°44′ Scorpio
Mar 2, 200626°55′ PiscesMar 25, 200613°10′ Pisces
Jul 4, 20061°22′ LeoJul 29, 200621°03′ Cancer
Oct 28, 200625°04′ ScorpioNov 18, 20069°03′ Scorpio
Feb 14, 200710°13′ PiscesMar 8, 200725°24′ Aquarius
Jun 15, 200711°36′ CancerJul 10, 20072°28′ Cancer
Oct 12, 20079°04′ ScorpioNov 1, 200723°21′ Libra
Jan 28, 200823°52′ AquariusFeb 19, 20088°19′ Aquarius
May 26, 200821°32′ GeminiJun 19, 200812°58′ Gemini
Sep 24, 200822°50′ LibraOct 15, 20087°34′ Libra
Jan 11, 20097°45′ AquariusFeb 1, 200921°45′ Capricorn
May 7, 20091°44′ GeminiMay 31, 200922°52′ Taurus
Sep 7, 20096°13′ LibraSep 29, 200921°36′ Virgo
Dec 26, 200921°47′ CapricornJan 15, 20105°32′ Capricorn
Apr 18, 201012°37′ TaurusMay 11, 20102°39′ Taurus
Aug 20, 201019°03′ VirgoSep 12, 20105°22′ Virgo
Dec 10, 20105°56′ CapricornDec 30, 201019°37′ Sagittarius
Mar 30, 201124°21′ AriesApr 23, 201112°53′ Aries
Aug 3, 20111°11′ VirgoAug 26, 201118°41′ Leo
Nov 24, 201120°07′ SagittariusDec 14, 20113°51′ Sagittarius
Mar 12, 20126°49′ AriesApr 4, 201223°51′ Pisces
Jul 15, 201212°32′ LeoAug 8, 20121°25′ Leo
Nov 6, 20124°17′ SagittariusNov 26, 201218°10′ Scorpio
Mercury retrograde periods, 1995-2012 (UTC)
Stations retrogradeAtStations directAt
May 24, 19802°35′ CancerJul 6, 198016°03′ Gemini
Dec 31, 19818°53′ AquariusFeb 10, 198223°21′ Capricorn
Aug 3, 19839°30′ VirgoSep 15, 198323°11′ Leo
Mar 13, 198522°18′ AriesApr 25, 19856°00′ Aries
Oct 15, 198620°23′ ScorpioNov 26, 19864°53′ Scorpio
May 22, 19880°26′ CancerJul 4, 198813°55′ Gemini
Dec 29, 19896°25′ AquariusFeb 8, 199020°55′ Capricorn
Aug 1, 19917°19′ VirgoSep 13, 199121°00′ Leo
Mar 11, 199320°01′ AriesApr 22, 19933°44′ Aries
Oct 13, 199418°00′ ScorpioNov 23, 19942°28′ Scorpio
May 20, 199628°18′ GeminiJul 2, 199611°46′ Gemini
Dec 26, 19973°56′ AquariusFeb 5, 199818°28′ Capricorn
Jul 30, 19995°07′ VirgoSep 11, 199918°47′ Leo
Mar 9, 200117°43′ AriesApr 20, 20011°27′ Aries
Oct 10, 200215°36′ ScorpioNov 21, 20020°02′ Scorpio
May 17, 200426°08′ GeminiJun 29, 20049°37′ Gemini
Dec 24, 20051°28′ AquariusFeb 3, 200616°01′ Capricorn
Jul 27, 20072°57′ VirgoSep 8, 200716°35′ Leo
Mar 6, 200915°27′ AriesApr 17, 200929°12′ Pisces
Oct 8, 201013°13′ ScorpioNov 18, 201027°39′ Libra
May 15, 201223°59′ GeminiJun 27, 20127°29′ Gemini
Dec 21, 201328°58′ CapricornJan 31, 201413°33′ Capricorn
Jul 25, 20150°46′ VirgoSep 6, 201514°23′ Leo
Mar 4, 201713°08′ AriesApr 15, 201726°54′ Pisces
Oct 5, 201810°50′ ScorpioNov 16, 201825°14′ Libra
May 13, 202021°50′ GeminiJun 25, 20205°20′ Gemini
Dec 19, 202126°29′ CapricornJan 29, 202211°04′ Capricorn
Jul 23, 202328°36′ LeoSep 4, 202312°11′ Leo
Mar 2, 202510°50′ AriesApr 13, 202524°37′ Pisces
Oct 3, 20268°29′ ScorpioNov 14, 202622°51′ Libra
May 10, 202819°41′ GeminiJun 22, 20283°10′ Gemini
Dec 16, 202924°01′ CapricornJan 26, 20308°37′ Capricorn
Venus retrograde periods, 1980-2030 (UTC)
Stations retrogradeStations direct
LatestOct 24, 2026, 07:12 UTC at 20°58′ ScorpioNov 13, 2026, 15:53 UTC at 5°01′ Scorpio
NextFeb 9, 2027, 17:36 UTC at 5°58′ PiscesMar 3, 2027, 12:32 UTC at 20°55′ Aquarius
The latest and next Mercury retrograde (from build date)

All times are UTC. In the Americas the local date can be a day earlier; in Asia and Australia a day later.

Quick answers

What planets were retrograde when I was born?

Put your birth date in the calculator above. It checks the moment against every retrograde of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto from 1920 to 2034. On an average day about 2.3 of those eight are retrograde, so most people have at least one.

Is it rare to have retrograde planets in your birth chart?

No. Across 42,004 days sampled from 1920 to 2034, 90.3% had at least one planet retrograde. A chart with none is the less common one, at 9.7%. Having 7 at once is the real rarity: 0.0% of days.

Was Mercury retrograde when I was born?

There is about a 19% chance. Mercury turns retrograde about 3.1 times a year for roughly 22 days each time. The calculator gives you a yes or no and the exact dates of that retrograde.

What does it mean if you were born during Mercury retrograde?

In traditional astrology it is read as a mind that works inward first: you might think things through privately, revise a lot, or notice what others skip. It is a style, not a defect, and plenty of clear communicators have it. Treat it as reflection, not a forecast.

Do I need my birth time to know my retrograde planets?

Usually not. A planet only changes direction on a handful of days each year, so the date alone settles it almost every time. If a planet stationed on your birth day, the calculator tells you, and then your birth time decides.

Why are Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto retrograde so often?

Retrograde is an illusion of Earth overtaking a slower planet. The farther out the planet, the longer each overtaking lasts, so the outer planets spend 36% or more of the time retrograde. Plenty of people born in the same months share them, which is why astrologers read them as generational.

What planets are retrograde right now in 2026?

When this page was last built (Oct 26, 2026), Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune were retrograde. For live stations see the retrograde stations tool, and the 2027 calendar for next year.