401(k) calculator
Enter your age, your salary and what you and your employer put in to see your 401(k) balance at retirement. Your contribution is held to the limits of 2026.
This answer is for the example values in the boxes above. Age 35 to 65, salary $75,000, 8% contributed, 6.5% a year. Change the boxes to see your own answer.
The balance is in the dollars of the year that you retire, not today's. The returns are guesses.
How it works
The calculator goes through the years from now until you retire. In each year your salary is the salary of the year before, raised by your yearly raise. You put in the share of it that you chose, but not more than the limit of the law for your age that year. The employer adds a match: a share of what you put in, up to a share of your salary.
The two contributions go in month by month, and the balance earns the return that you expect, with the interest added each month. The calculator then shows the balance at retirement, how much you and your employer put in, and what the returns added.
A worked example
A person of 35 has $25,000 in a 401(k) and a salary of $75,000 that rises 3 percent a year. The person puts in 8 percent, which is $6,000 in the first year. The employer matches 50 percent of the first 6 percent of the salary, which is $2,250. Returns are 6.5 percent a year.
At 65 the balance is $1,224,236.57. The person put in $285,452.49, the employer $107,044.69, and the returns added $806,739.39. The returns are more than twice what went in.
The limits of 2026
IRS Notice 2025-67 sets the limits for 2026. An employee may defer $24,500, up from $23,500. A person of 50 or older may add a catch-up of $8,000, and a person who is 60, 61, 62 or 63 may add $11,250 in its place. What goes into one account in a year is limited too: your deferral, without a catch-up, and your employer’s contributions together may not pass $72,000, or your pay if that is less. With a catch-up the most is $80,000, or $83,250 from age 60 to 63. A plan counts at most $360,000 of pay, so the percentages of the calculator apply to no more than that.
The amounts change from year to year. The calculator keeps the 2026 amounts for the years after, because the later ones are not known.
What it leaves out
Taxes on the money you take out are not in it, and neither are fees, a schedule that makes you wait before the match is yours, or a change of job. The balance is not adjusted for inflation.
Sources
Questions
What is the 401(k) contribution limit for 2026?
An employee may defer up to $24,500 in 2026, up from $23,500. A person of 50 or older may add $8,000, and a person aged 60 to 63 may add $11,250 instead. A catch-up does not count toward the overall limit: your deferral and your employer’s contributions together may reach $72,000 a year, or your pay if that is less.
How does an employer match work?
A plan may add a share of what you put in, up to a share of your salary, for example 50 cents for each dollar on the first 6% of pay. On $75,000 the first 6% is $4,500, so the match is at most $2,250 a year. Your plan states its own rule.
How does the calculator work out the balance?
Each year your salary rises by the raise, you put in your share of it up to the limit, and the employer adds its match. The total goes in month by month while the balance earns the return. The example below ends at $1,224,236.57.
What if I want to put in more than the limit?
The calculator holds your contribution at the limit for your age and says so under the result. It keeps the limits of 2026 for the years to come.
Is the balance adjusted for inflation?
No. It is the number of dollars that you would have in the year you retire, which buys less than the same number of dollars today. The inflation calculator shows by how much.
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