401(k) calculator — balance at retirement with employer match and 2026 limits

How to use the 401(k) calculator

1. Enter your Current age, the Retirement age you are planning for, and your Annual salary.
2. Enter the Expected pay rise each year and Your contribution as a percentage of pay.
3. Add your Current 401(k) balance and an Expected annual return.
4. Describe your employer’s match in two tiers. For example, Employer match, tier 1 100% on the first 3% of pay, then tier 2 50% on the next 2%. Set tier 2 to 0 if your plan has a single tier.
5. Set Inflation to see the final balance in today’s dollars.
6. Read the balance at retirement, your total contributions, the employer total and the investment growth. Then scroll the year-by-year table.

What it does and when to use it

The calculator projects a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 or Thrift Savings Plan account from today to retirement. Each year it works out your contribution from your salary, caps it at the IRS limit for your age, adds the employer match, and grows the balance month by month.

Use it to answer practical questions. Am I getting the whole match? What happens if I save 10% instead of 6%? How much does an extra percentage point of return matter over 30 years? How big a part of the final balance is my own money, and how much is growth? Because the limits change with age, it also shows the effect of the catch-up contributions in your fifties and early sixties.

How it works

For each year until retirement:

• Salary = starting salary × (1 + pay rise)^years.
• Your contribution = salary × your percentage, capped at the 2026 limit for your age that year. That is $24,500 under 50, $32,500 from 50 to 59 and from 64, and $35,750 from 60 to 63.
• Employer match = pay (up to $360,000) × (tier 1 rate × the part of your contribution % within tier 1 + tier 2 rate × the part within tier 2). It is then trimmed so that your regular deferral plus the match stays within the $72,000 annual additions limit. Catch-up contributions are outside that limit.
• Growth: the year’s contributions are added in 12 equal monthly deposits at the end of each month. The balance grows at the monthly rate (1 + annual return)^(1/12) − 1, so a 6% annual return really is 6% over a year.
• Today’s dollars = final balance ÷ (1 + inflation)^years.

The 2026 limits are kept for every future year. The IRS raises them with inflation, so in practice you will be allowed to contribute more later. That only matters if your contributions are near the limit.

Worked examples

All of these come from the calculator.

The default saver. Age 35, $75,000 salary, 3% raises, 6% contribution, $30,000 already saved and a 6% return. The employer pays 100% on the first 3% and 50% on the next 2%. This year you put in $4,500 and the employer adds $3,000. At 65 the balance is $1,023,921.13, about $488,147 in today’s dollars at 2.5% inflation. Of that, $214,089 is your money, $142,726 is the employer’s and $637,106 is investment growth.

Missing part of the match. The same person contributing 3% gets a $2,250 match instead of $3,000. The calculator warns that contributing 5% would earn $750.00 more than at 3% each year. Over the 30 years, the 3% saver ends with $683,275 instead of $1,023,921.

A check you can do by hand. Age 30 to 60, $50,000 salary, no raises, 10% contribution, a 50% match on the first 6%, and a 0% return. Each year you add $5,000 and the employer adds $1,500. After 30 years that is $150,000 + $45,000 = $195,000.00, which is exactly what the calculator shows.

A high earner using the catch-up. Age 55 on $400,000, contributing 10%. Ten percent would be $40,000, but the limit at 55 is $24,500 + $8,000, so your contribution this year is $32,500.00. The 100% match on 4% is worked out on the $360,000 cap, giving $14,400. From 60 to 63 the limit rises to $35,750, and at 64 it drops back to $32,500.

Limits and tips

• Returns are an assumption. Real returns vary from year to year, and a bad decade near retirement can matter more than the average. Try a few rates.
• Fees are not included. An annual fund fee of, say, 0.5% lowers the return you should enter by about that much.
• Vesting is not modelled. If you leave before your employer’s contributions vest, you may lose part of them.
• Pay rises are smooth. Real careers have jumps and gaps. Re-run the calculator when your pay changes.
• Taxes at withdrawal are not shown. Traditional 401(k) money is taxed as income when you take it out; Roth money generally is not.
• Some plans match differently, for example per paycheck with no true-up, or with a dollar cap. Check your plan’s summary plan description.

Related tools

To see how a contribution changes your take-home pay this year, use the US paycheck calculator: pre-tax 401(k) money costs you less than it saves. To check whether your total savings will cover the income you want, use the retirement savings calculator. The compound interest calculator shows the same growth effect for any savings account, and the inflation calculator shows what a future sum is worth today.