For 2026, you can defer up to $24,500 of your own pay into a 401(k), 403(b), most 457(b) plans or the federal Thrift Savings Plan, and contribute up to $7,500 to an IRA. Those figures are up from $23,500 and $7,000 in 2025, and they come from the IRS announcement IR-2025-111 (opens in a new tab), published 13 November 2025, with the full detail in Notice 2025-67 (opens in a new tab).
Everything below is United States federal tax law. State treatment of retirement contributions can differ, and your own plan document may impose lower limits than the IRS does.
The 2026 numbers at a glance
| Limit | 2026 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), TSP elective deferral | $24,500 | $23,500 |
| Catch-up, age 50 and over (those plans) | $8,000 | $7,500 |
| Deferral plus age-50 catch-up, combined | $32,500 | — |
| Catch-up, ages 60–63 (those plans) | $11,250 | $11,250 |
| IRA contribution | $7,500 | $7,000 |
| IRA catch-up, age 50 and over | $1,100 | $1,000 |
| SIMPLE plan deferral, general | $17,000 | $16,500 |
| SIMPLE deferral, certain SECURE 2.0 applicable plans | $18,100 | $17,600 |
| SIMPLE catch-up, age 50 and over, general | $4,000 | $3,500 |
| SIMPLE catch-up, ages 60–63 | $5,250 | $5,250 |
What changed from 2025
Three things moved that most people will notice.
The workplace deferral limit rose by $1,000, from $23,500 to $24,500. The IRA limit rose by $500, from $7,000 to $7,500. And the IRA catch-up for savers aged 50 and over, long a flat $1,000, ticked up to $1,100.
The age 50 catch-up for workplace plans also rose, from $7,500 to $8,000. The catch-up for participants aged 60 through 63 did not move: it stays at $11,250.
The three catch-up tiers, and who qualifies for each
Catch-up contributions are extra room granted on top of the standard limit once you reach a certain age. There are now three distinct tiers, and the middle one is new enough that plenty of eligible savers have not used it.
Age 50 and over
If you reach age 50 at any point during 2026, you can add $8,000 to your workplace plan deferral, bringing your combined personal limit to $32,500. In an IRA, the age 50 catch-up adds $1,100.
The trigger is your age at any point in the calendar year, not your age on the day you contribute. Someone whose fiftieth birthday falls on 28 December 2026 has the same catch-up room in January 2026 as someone who turned 50 years earlier.
Ages 60 through 63
SECURE 2.0 created a larger catch-up for a narrow age band. If you are 60, 61, 62 or 63 during 2026, your workplace plan catch-up is $11,250 rather than $8,000 — provided your plan has chosen to offer it. This is a substitution, not an addition: you take the higher figure instead of the standard one, not on top of it.
At 64, you drop back to the standard age 50 catch-up. The window closes as cleanly as it opens.
SIMPLE plans
SIMPLE IRA and SIMPLE 401(k) plans run on their own schedule. The general 2026 deferral limit is $17,000, up from $16,500. Certain plans that SECURE 2.0 treats as "applicable" get a higher figure of $18,100, up from $17,600. The general SIMPLE catch-up at age 50 is $4,000 for 2026, up from $3,500, and the ages 60–63 SIMPLE catch-up holds at $5,250.
If you are not sure which SIMPLE figure applies to your plan, your employer's plan administrator can tell you — the distinction depends on the plan's own structure, not on anything you elect.
Your employer's match does not use up the $24,500
This is the single most common misreading of the limit. The $24,500 figure is an elective deferral limit: it caps money that comes out of your own paycheck by your own election. Employer contributions — matching, profit-sharing, non-elective — are not elective deferrals and do not count against it.
There is a separate and considerably higher ceiling on everything that lands in your account in a year from all sources combined, and a small number of high earners with generous plans do reach it. But for the great majority of savers, the practical implication runs the other way: if you max out at $24,500 and your employer adds a match, your account receives more than $24,500 that year, and nothing is over-contributed.
One planning consequence is worth flagging. Many plans calculate the match as a percentage of pay per pay period. If you front-load your deferrals and hit $24,500 in September, you may stop receiving match contributions for the rest of the year unless your plan has a true-up provision. Spreading deferrals across all twelve months, or checking whether your plan trues up, avoids leaving money behind.
Two income phase-outs people confuse
These are genuinely different rules that happen to use similar-looking numbers, and conflating them causes real errors.
The traditional IRA deduction phase-out
Anyone with earned income can contribute to a traditional IRA. What income limits is whether that contribution is deductible, and the limit only bites if you or your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan.
For 2026:
- Single, covered by a workplace plan: the deduction phases out between $81,000 and $91,000 of modified adjusted gross income.
- Married filing jointly, and the contributing spouse is covered: $129,000 to $149,000.
- Married filing jointly, contributor not covered but spouse is: $242,000 to $252,000.
Above the top of the range, you can still put $7,500 into a traditional IRA. You just get no deduction for it.
The Roth IRA contribution phase-out
The Roth phase-out limits whether you can contribute at all, and it applies regardless of workplace plan coverage.
For 2026, the ability to contribute to a Roth IRA phases out between $153,000 and $168,000 for single filers and heads of household, and between $242,000 and $252,000 for married couples filing jointly.
The Saver's Credit
The Retirement Savings Contributions Credit is a tax credit for lower- and middle-income savers who contribute to a retirement account, and it sits on top of any deduction or Roth treatment you already get. For 2026, income must fall at or below $80,500 for married couples filing jointly, $60,375 for heads of household, and $40,250 for single filers.
The credit is not automatic — it has to be claimed on your return — and it is one of the more frequently missed items for people in exactly the income band it was designed for.
After the 401(k) and the IRA
Once both limits are used, tax-advantaged room is not necessarily exhausted. If you are covered by a qualifying high-deductible health plan, a health savings account offers a distinct set of tax benefits and its own separate contribution limit — worth understanding alongside your retirement accounts rather than as an afterthought. Our guide to HSA contribution limits for 2026 covers the eligibility rules and what changed this year.
Social Security figures worth knowing alongside these
Two 2026 Social Security numbers interact with retirement planning closely enough to note here. The Social Security taxable maximum — the wage base above which earnings are no longer subject to Social Security tax — is $184,500 for 2026. And the cost-of-living adjustment for 2026 is 2.8%, first payable in January 2026 to nearly 71 million beneficiaries, with SSI increases beginning 31 December 2025 for about 7.5 million recipients. Both are set out in the SSA 2026 COLA fact sheet (opens in a new tab).
If you are claiming benefits before full retirement age while still working, the 2026 retirement earnings test withholds $1 of benefits for every $2 earned above $24,480. In the year you reach full retirement age, the threshold rises to $65,160. Because Medicare premiums are income-related and are commonly deducted directly from Social Security payments, the interaction is worth mapping out in advance — see our breakdown of Medicare costs for 2026.
Common mistakes
Assuming the catch-up starts on your birthday. It starts on 1 January of the year you turn 50. Waiting until your birthday means under-contributing for part of the year.
Treating the IRA deduction range as the Roth range. They are separate tests with separate purposes, as set out above.
Over-contributing across two employers. The $24,500 limit follows you, not your job. If you switch employers mid-year, or work two jobs with two plans, neither payroll system knows what the other withheld. Both will happily let you defer up to $24,500. Tracking the combined total yourself is the only reliable check, and excess deferrals must be corrected promptly to avoid being taxed twice.
Assuming your plan offers every tier. The ages 60–63 catch-up is a plan option, not a mandate. Confirm with your administrator before budgeting around it.
Forgetting the IRA limit is shared. Contributing $7,500 to a traditional IRA and another $7,500 to a Roth in the same year is an excess contribution, not a doubling.
Sources
- IRS: 401(k) limit increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA limit increases to $7,500 (IR-2025-111) (opens in a new tab)
- IRS Notice 2025-67 (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
- SSA: 2026 Social Security Changes — COLA fact sheet (opens in a new tab)
- SSA press release, 24 October 2025 (opens in a new tab)
This article is general information for a United States audience and is not financial, tax or legal advice. Contribution limits, phase-out ranges and benefit figures change, usually every year — verify current numbers against the IRS or SSA before acting. Last reviewed 28 August 2026.
