2026 Retirement Contribution Limits: 401(k) and IRA

The IRS adjusts retirement contribution limits annually for cost of living. Here is where 2026 landed, with the 2025 figures alongside for comparison.

401(k), 403(b), governmental 457 and the federal TSP

• Employee elective deferral limit: $24,500 for 2026, up from $23,500 in 2025
• Catch-up contribution, age 50 and over: $8,000, up from $7,500
• Enhanced catch-up, ages 60 to 63: $11,250, unchanged from 2025

The standard and catch-up limits stack. Someone aged 50 or over can therefore contribute up to $32,500 in 2026.

The enhanced band for ages 60 to 63 comes from the SECURE 2.0 Act. It is worth knowing about because it is easy to miss - it applies only in that four-year window, and it replaces rather than adds to the ordinary $8,000 catch-up.

Individual Retirement Accounts

• IRA contribution limit: $7,500 for 2026, up from $7,000 in 2025
• IRA catch-up, age 50 and over: $1,100, up from $1,000

The IRA catch-up amount was fixed at $1,000 for many years. SECURE 2.0 made it subject to annual cost-of-living adjustment, which is why it has begun moving.

Note that the IRA limit is the total across all your IRAs combined, not per account.

SIMPLE 401(k) plans

• Elective deferral limit: $17,000
• Catch-up, age 50 and over: $4,000
• Enhanced catch-up, ages 60 to 63: $5,250

What the limits do not tell you

Employer contributions are separate. Your employer's match does not count against your elective deferral limit. It falls under a separate, higher overall limit on total additions to the account.

Income limits are a different question. The contribution limits above are caps on what you may put in. Whether you may deduct a traditional IRA contribution, or contribute to a Roth IRA at all, depends on income thresholds that are adjusted separately each year. Check those against your own income before assuming the full amount is available to you.

Limits are per person, not per household. A married couple who both have earned income each have their own allowance.

The practical point

If your employer matches contributions, the match is the highest-return element of any of this - typically an immediate 50% or 100% on the matched portion, which no market return reliably offers. Contributing at least enough to capture the full match comes before almost every other financial decision.

Beyond that, contributing more is a question of what else the money is competing with. Clearing high-interest debt first is usually the stronger move: a 24% credit card APR paid down is a guaranteed 24% return, and a retirement account is not.

You can model what different contribution levels compound to over your remaining working life with our investment calculator.

Check before you act

These figures apply to the 2026 tax year and come from the IRS announcement. Limits change annually, and the rules on catch-up contributions have been actively amended in recent years. Verify against the IRS source below - linked directly - before making contribution decisions, and speak to a tax professional about your own position.

Turning a limit into a per-paycheck figure

Limits are annual; contributions are per pay period. The arithmetic for hitting the cap exactly:

Most plans take a percentage of pay rather than a dollar amount, so divide your target by your gross pay for the period to get the percentage to enter.

Front-loading can cost you the match

There is a trap here that catches high earners. If you contribute aggressively early in the year and hit the annual limit in, say, September, your contributions stop for the rest of the year — and so, in many plans, does the employer match, because the match is calculated per pay period on what you actually contributed that period.

Three months of missed match is a real loss, and it is entirely avoidable.

Some plans include a true-up, an end-of-year reconciliation that pays any match you would have received had you contributed evenly. Many do not. Check your plan document for the word before deciding to front-load. If there is no true-up, spreading contributions evenly across the year is usually worth more than the few extra months of market exposure that front-loading buys.

The match is not always yours yet

Your own contributions are always immediately and fully yours. Employer contributions are frequently subject to a vesting schedule, meaning you earn ownership of them over time.

This matters when changing jobs. Leaving shortly before a cliff date can forfeit the entire employer contribution balance, which is occasionally worth a few weeks of timing. Your plan's summary description states the schedule.

Changing jobs mid-year

The elective deferral limit is yours, not your plan's. It applies across every employer plan you contribute to in a calendar year combined.

Two 401(k) plans in one year does not mean two limits. If you contributed to a plan at a previous employer, tell the new plan or track it yourself, because neither employer can see the other's contributions and neither will stop you exceeding the combined cap.

If you do over-contribute, the fix is to notify the plan promptly and request a corrective distribution of the excess plus earnings before the tax filing deadline. Left uncorrected, excess deferrals can be taxed twice.

The employer contribution limit works differently and is applied per employer, which is why the total-additions cap is not simply doubled either.

The order that usually makes sense

Contribution limits describe what is permitted, not what is wise. A defensible general sequence:

1. Contribute enough to capture the full employer match. An immediate 50% or 100% on the matched portion is not available anywhere else.
2. Clear high-interest debt. Paying off a 22.99% card balance is a guaranteed return that no market reliably matches. See how credit card interest is calculated.
3. Build an emergency fund, so a bad month does not force an early withdrawal with penalties and taxes attached. See building an emergency fund.
4. Then increase retirement contributions toward the limits above.

The first step comes before the second because the match is typically a larger immediate return than even card interest, and it is available only in the year it is offered — unused match does not carry forward.

Which account type, not just how much

Once you know how much you can contribute, the remaining question is whether it goes into a traditional or Roth version. Both share the same elective deferral limit; you are choosing when to pay tax, not how much you may contribute.

That decision turns on your tax rate now against your expected rate in retirement, and it is worked through in Roth vs traditional explained.

Income limits are the other half

The figures in this article are contribution caps. Separately, there are income thresholds that determine:

• Whether a traditional IRA contribution is deductible, if you or a spouse are covered by a workplace plan
• Whether you may contribute to a Roth IRA at all, with the allowance phasing out across a band and reaching zero above it
• Eligibility for the Saver's Credit, a tax credit for lower and moderate income contributors

These thresholds are adjusted annually and separately from the contribution limits, so a limit increase does not imply the income bands moved with it. Check both against your own income for the tax year before assuming the full amount is available to you.

A note on how quickly this ages

Every figure here applies to one tax year, and the catch-up rules in particular have been actively amended by recent legislation. Treat this article as an explanation of how the limits are structured rather than as a permanent reference, and verify the current year's numbers against the IRS source linked below before you act on them.

Why the limits move at all

The figures are indexed to cost-of-living and adjusted by the IRS, which is why they rise in most years and occasionally hold flat. The adjustments are made in set increments rather than to the exact rate of inflation, so a limit can stay unchanged for a year and then step up.

Two practical consequences:

• Re-check your contribution election every January. A percentage-based election adjusts automatically with pay; a fixed dollar election does not, and will quietly under-contribute against a raised limit
• Do not assume all limits move together. The elective deferral limit, the IRA limit, the catch-up amounts and the income thresholds are each adjusted separately, and in any given year some move while others do not

Sources

• IRS: 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA limit increases to $7,500
• IRS: Retirement topics - 401(k) and profit-sharing plan contribution limits
• IRS: Retirement topics - catch-up contributions

Figures apply to the 2026 tax year, confirmed against IRS guidance in August 2026. This is general information, not tax advice.