401(k) Retirement Calculator With Employer Match

This model starts with a full 2026 calendar year, using the age you attain by December 31, 2026. It is not a remaining-year contribution allowance. It models one full year per age before retirement age, with no contributions in the retirement-age year. Existing balance is treated as the opening balance, not a dated transaction.

Annual investment return applies to the opening balance. The percentage fee is then deducted from that post-return balance. Employee and employer contributions arrive at year-end and earn returns starting the next year. Salary changes between years. Fixed annual contributions stay constant; percentage contributions track full eligible salary.

Ending balance = starting balance + gross investment growth - modeled fees + employee contributions + employer contributions. Net growth is gross growth less fees. All money is rounded half-up to cents, including negative returns; totals sum the displayed yearly amounts. No monthly compounding or payroll-date matching is implied.

Compounding allows investment returns to earn further returns over time. For a simple explanation, read how compound interest works.

For a regular eligible 401(k), the 2026 employee elective-deferral limit is $24,500. Catch-up contributions, if permitted, are up to $8,000 at ages 50 and older, except $11,250 at ages 60 through 63. At age 64, the standard age-50 catch-up limit applies again. Employee deferrals including catch-up cannot exceed salary.

Annual additions excluding catch-up are limited to the lesser of $72,000 or 100% of compensation. Employer matching uses compensation capped at $360,000 for 2026. Eligible employee deferrals can be classified as catch-up when either the deferral limit or the annual-additions limit is reached; catch-up is a subset of employee contributions, not additional money counted twice.

All later years use the explicit future-limit growth assumption, not verified future IRS limits. The default 0% holds 2026 dollar amounts constant only for illustration. A positive assumption grows each dollar limit annually with whole-dollar half-up rounding. This is not the IRS cost-of-living indexing process or a prediction of law.

2026 401(k) Limits Used by This Calculator

Source: IRS Notice 2025-67. Later-year limits in this calculator are projection assumptions, not verified future IRS limits.

A match of 50% up to 6% of salary matches half the employee dollars contributed within the first 6% of capped salary. The match uses actual capped employee contributions, including catch-up, with an annual true-up and full vesting assumed. Available catch-up classification is used before the annual-additions cap reduces employer contributions. Employee deferrals take priority if both amounts cannot fit.

Salary is assumed to be eligible compensation under both applicable compensation definitions. This is one regular calendar-year plan, not a SIMPLE 401(k), solo/self-employed tax calculation, multiple-plan aggregation, or compliance test. Other employer additions, forfeitures, plan-imposed limits, eligibility and nondiscrimination restrictions are not modeled. Match tiers, payroll timing, true-up and vesting may differ in your plan.

A common formula is a 50% match on contributions up to 6% of salary. On a $60,000 salary, contributing 6% ($3,600) earns the full $1,800 match. Contributing less than 6% leaves part of the match unclaimed, while contributing more than 6% does not increase the match.

Enter your plan's match rate and the maximum matched salary percentage to see the effect on your projection.

Traditional and Roth are informational designations here and produce identical gross account projections. The calculator does not estimate deductions, payroll withholding, withdrawal taxes, tax-free distribution eligibility or employer-contribution tax treatment.

In 2026, affected catch-up participants whose prior-year wages from the plan sponsor exceeded $150,000 generally must make catch-up contributions on a Roth basis. Current salary alone does not determine that test. The model assumes the plan supports applicable contributions and Roth requirements are satisfied separately. A Traditional label is not permission to make pre-tax catch-up contributions when Roth is required.

With a $10,000 opening balance, $60,000 salary, a 10% employee contribution and a 50% employer match up to 6% of salary, employee contributions are $6,000 and employer contributions are $1,800. At 5% annual return, gross growth is $500. A 1% fee on the $10,500 post-return opening assets is $105. Net growth is $395, producing an $18,195 year-end balance. New contributions do not earn a return in their deposit year under this annual timing convention.