401k Calculator

Enter your salary, the share of pay you defer and your employer's formula. The calculator caps your 2026 deferral at the $24,500 limit and at your pay, adds the catch-up for your age if your plan allows it, works out the match and any nonelective contribution on pay up to $360,000, and checks the limit on all contributions. It also shows how much of the match you leave unclaimed and what share of pay gets you all of it.

For the projection it raises your salary by your yearly raise, keeps the 2026 limits flat, adds contributions monthly and grows the balance at your return, then shows each year's balance in today's dollars at your inflation rate. It does not model taxes or vesting, and it treats all employer money as yours to keep.

A match pays a set rate on your deferrals, counting deferrals only up to a share of your pay that the plan document fixes. With a match of 50% of deferrals up to 6% of pay and a salary of $80,000, deferring 6% ($4,800) brings $2,400 from your employer. Deferring 3% brings $1,200: you give up $1,200 a year. Deferring more than 6% adds only your own money. Some plans also make a nonelective contribution, a share of pay paid whether or not you defer.

A second limit covers everything added to your accounts in plans kept by one employer and its related employers: your elective deferrals except catch-ups, matching contributions, nonelective contributions and forfeitures allocated to you. For 2026 it is the lesser of $72,000 and 100% of your pay. Catch-ups are not counted, so they come on top, for $80,000 from 50 and $83,250 in the years you turn 60 to 63.

The 100% of pay test matters mostly for low earners who defer a lot. Someone earning $25,000 who defers $24,500 under a match of 100% up to 6% of pay would get $1,500 of match, but only $500 fits under the $25,000 limit. The calculator cuts the employer amount in that case; your plan document sets how the plan keeps within the limit.

The limit applies to each employer's plans separately, while the $24,500 deferral limit is yours across all plans. Someone with a job and a side business can max out deferrals at work and still make employer contributions to a solo 401(k), up to that plan's own limit.

From 2026, if your 2025 wages from the employer that sponsors the plan were over $150,000, your catch-up has to go in as Roth contributions. Wages here means wages for Social Security (FICA) tax from that employer, not your total income: with no FICA wages from that employer last year, the rule does not apply to you. If the plan has at least one employee this applies to and no Roth option, it cannot allow catch-ups at all. The $150,000 threshold is the statute's $145,000 adjusted for the cost of living.

The IRS transition period generally ended on December 31, 2025. The final regulations generally apply from 2027, or later for certain governmental and collectively bargained plans, and until then plans can follow a reasonable, good faith reading of the law, so ask your plan how it handles this. For the trade-off between Roth and pre-tax deferrals in general, see the Roth 401k calculator.

Your own deferrals are always 100% vested. Employer money can be subject to a vesting schedule set by the plan, but the law sets the slowest schedules a plan can use for employer contributions to a 401(k): 100% after 3 years of service, or a graded schedule that starts at 20% after 2 years and reaches 100% after 6. A year of service is defined by the plan, generally 1,000 hours worked over 12 months.

If your plan offers loans, you can generally borrow up to half your vested balance, at most $50,000, and repay it within 5 years; the 401k loan calculator works out the maximum, the payment per paycheck and the cost to your balance. Taking money out before 59½ generally costs a 10% additional tax on the taxable part unless an exception applies: see the 401(k) early withdrawal calculator.