401(k) Calculator
Free 401(k) calculator: project your balance at retirement with employer matching, and see the 2026 IRS contribution limits.
Last reviewed: July 2026Quick Answer
A 401(k) grows from three sources: your contributions, your employer's match, and compounding returns. Example numbers: starting at $50,000, contributing 10% of an $80,000 salary with a 50%-up-to-6% match at 7% for 25 years reaches about $929,000 — and about $152,000 of that is the employer match.
What This Calculator Does
This 401(k) calculator projects what your workplace retirement account could be worth on the day you retire. It focuses on the three things that actually drive a 401(k) balance: the money you put in from each paycheck, the matching money your employer adds on top, and the compound growth those dollars earn over the years. Give it your current balance, your salary, how much of that salary you contribute, your employer's match formula, an expected annual return, and the number of years until you retire, and it returns a projected balance along with how much of it came from you, from your employer, and from growth. If you want a broader plan that also folds in inflation, a spending rule, and savings outside your 401(k), use the general retirement calculator instead. This page stays deliberately focused on the 401(k) itself and the employer match that makes it distinctive.
How to Use It
Enter your current 401(k) balance and your annual salary first, since the salary drives both your contribution and the match. Your contribution is set as a percentage of salary, the way most payroll systems handle it: at an $80,000 salary, contributing 10% sends $8,000 a year into the account. The two employer-match inputs are where 401(k) plans differ from ordinary savings. The match rate is how many cents your employer adds per dollar you contribute, and the match limit is how far up your salary that offer extends. A common formula is a "50% match up to 6% of salary." That means your employer chips in 50 cents for every dollar you contribute, but only on the first 6% of your pay. On an $80,000 salary, 6% is $4,800; a 50% match on that $4,800 is $2,400 of employer money each year. Contribute less than 6% and you leave part of that $2,400 unclaimed; contribute more than 6% and the extra is all yours, with no additional match. Finally, set an expected annual return and the number of years until you retire, and the results update as you type.
Worked Example
Take the calculator's default scenario. You start with $50,000 already in the account, earn an $80,000 salary, and contribute 10% of it, or $8,000 a year. Your employer matches 50% up to 6% of salary, which on $80,000 works out to $2,400 a year. Together that is $10,400 flowing into the account annually. Assume a 7% average annual return and 25 years until retirement. The projected balance comes to about $929,162. Of that total, the money you put in is $50,000 to start, plus $8,000 a year for 25 years ($200,000), plus the $2,400 annual match for 25 years ($60,000) — $310,000 contributed in all. The remaining $619,162 is growth: the compound return earned along the way. One honest simplification: the calculator adds each year's contributions at the end of the year rather than spreading them across every paycheck, so a real plan that invests every payday would land a little higher. It is a clean, slightly conservative approximation, not a month-by-month schedule.
Why the Match Comes First
The employer match is the single best reason to fund a 401(k) before almost any other account. Run the same default scenario with the match switched off and the projected balance falls to about $777,364. Switch it back on and it climbs to $929,162 — a difference of $151,798 over the 25 years, produced by nothing more than $2,400 a year of employer money compounding alongside your own. That is an immediate return on the portion of your pay that draws the match, before the market does anything at all. The practical rule that follows is simple: contribute at least enough to capture the full match. In the default example that means contributing at least 6% of your $80,000 salary — $4,800 — to draw the entire $2,400. Falling short of that threshold is the one move in retirement saving with no upside, because you are turning down compensation your employer has already offered you.
2026 IRS Contribution Limits
For 2026, the IRS caps how much can go into a 401(k). The employee elective deferral limit — the most you can choose to contribute from your own pay — is $24,500. If you are age 50 or older, a catch-up contribution of $8,000 is allowed on top, raising your personal limit to $32,500. Under a SECURE 2.0 provision, savers aged 60 through 63 get a higher catch-up of $11,250 instead, for a personal limit of $35,750 in those years. The combined limit on everything going into the account — your contributions plus the employer match plus any other employer additions — is $72,000 for 2026 under Internal Revenue Code section 415(c). Separately, the most compensation that can be counted for plan purposes is $360,000. One rule catches high earners by surprise: if your wages from the employer in the prior year were more than $150,000, your catch-up contributions must be made as Roth (after-tax) rather than pre-tax. These figures come from IRS Notice 2025-67.
What This Calculator Leaves Out
To stay simple and fast, this calculator leaves several real-world factors out. It does not model investment fees, which quietly reduce returns; salary growth, which would raise your contributions over time; or the timing of contributions within the year, since it assumes a single end-of-year deposit. It does not account for the taxes you will eventually owe when you withdraw from a traditional pre-tax 401(k), nor for vesting schedules that can delay when the employer match actually becomes yours if you leave the company early. And the expected return is an assumption, not a promise — markets are volatile, and no annual return is guaranteed. Treat the projection as a planning estimate that shows the shape and scale of 401(k) growth, not a prediction of the exact balance you will have.