All 2026 401(k) limits at a glance
Every figure below comes from the IRS 2026 cost-of-living adjustments (IRS Notice 2025-67, released November 2025). The same limits apply to 403(b) plans, governmental 457(b) plans, and the federal Thrift Savings Plan.
| Limit | 2026 amount | 2025 amount |
|---|---|---|
| Employee deferral (under 50) | $24,500 | $23,500 |
| Catch-up, age 50+ | $8,000 | $7,500 |
| Super catch-up, ages 60-63 | $11,250 | $11,250 |
| Employee max, age 50+ | $32,500 | $31,000 |
| Employee max, ages 60-63 | $35,750 | $34,750 |
| Total employee + employer (415c) | $72,000 | $70,000 |
| Compensation limit (401a17) | $360,000 | $350,000 |
| Roth catch-up wage trigger (prior-year wages) | $150,000 | Not in effect |
One rule ties the whole table together: the $24,500 deferral limit is per person, not per plan. If you change jobs mid-year or hold two jobs with two 401(k)s, everything you defer across both plans counts against the same cap.
The $24,500 employee deferral limit
The headline number, $24,500, is the IRC 402(g) elective deferral limit: the most you can have taken out of your own paycheck in 2026. It covers traditional (pre-tax) and Roth 401(k) contributions combined, so someone splitting 60/40 between the two is still working against one $24,500 ceiling.
Three things do NOT count against this limit:
- Employer money. Matching and profit-sharing contributions live under the separate, much larger total limit covered below.
- IRA contributions. The 2026 IRA limit is a separate $7,500. You can max both a 401(k) and an IRA in the same year.
- After-tax (non-Roth) contributions, if your plan allows them. These count only against the total 415(c) limit and are the raw material for the "mega backdoor Roth" strategy.
Hitting the cap exactly takes a deferral of $2,042 per month, or about 20% of a $120,000 salary. If your employer matches per paycheck rather than with an annual true-up, avoid front-loading so hard that you max out early and forfeit late-year match money.
Catch-up contributions: age 50, and the 60-63 super catch-up
The year you turn 50 (not the day), you unlock an extra $8,000 of deferral room, bringing your 2026 employee max to $32,500. The catch-up rose from $7,500 in 2025, per the IRS 2026 cost-of-living adjustments.
SECURE 2.0 added a second tier: in the years you are 60, 61, 62, or 63 at year-end, the catch-up jumps to $11,250 (150% of the regular amount), for a total of $35,750. At 64 you drop back to the standard $8,000 catch-up. Note that plans may offer the super catch-up but are not required to, so check with your plan administrator.
| Your age at end of 2026 | Base limit | Catch-up | Total you can defer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 50 | $24,500 | - | $24,500 |
| 50 to 59 | $24,500 | $8,000 | $32,500 |
| 60 to 63 | $24,500 | $11,250 | $35,750 |
| 64 and older | $24,500 | $8,000 | $32,500 |
Catch-ups are powerful precisely because they land in peak earning years. An extra $8,000 a year from 50 to 65 is $128,000 of contributions before any growth. Project what that does to your balance with the 401(k) calculator.
New for 2026: high earners must make catch-ups as Roth
This is the biggest rule change of the year. Starting January 1, 2026, if your FICA wages from the employer sponsoring your plan were above $150,000 in 2025 (Box 3 of your W-2), any catch-up contributions you make must be designated Roth contributions. Pre-tax catch-ups are no longer allowed for you. The SECURE 2.0 statute set the threshold at $145,000, and IRS Notice 2025-67 indexed it to $150,000 for 2026; the IRS finalized the implementing regulations in late 2025.
Practical consequences:
- You lose the deduction on the catch-up slice only. The base $24,500 can still go in pre-tax; only the $8,000 (or $11,250) catch-up must be Roth.
- The test is prior-year wages from that employer. New hires have no prior-year wages from the sponsor, so they are exempt in year one. The self-employed with no FICA wages are also outside the rule.
- If your plan offers no Roth option, affected employees cannot make catch-ups at all. Most large plans added a Roth source during 2025 for exactly this reason.
- Expect your take-home pay to dip if you were making pre-tax catch-ups: the same contribution now happens after tax. Preview the paycheck effect with the take-home pay calculator.
The $72,000 total limit and the $360,000 compensation cap
Beyond your own deferrals sits the IRC 415(c) "annual additions" limit: $72,000 in 2026 (up from $70,000 in 2025), or 100% of your compensation if that is less. It counts everything landing in your account in a year: your deferrals, employer match, profit sharing, and any after-tax contributions. Catch-ups sit on top, so a 50-year-old's true ceiling is $80,000, and $83,250 at ages 60-63.
The gap between $24,500 and $72,000 is why the mega backdoor Roth exists: a plan that permits after-tax contributions and in-plan conversions lets a high saver fill the remaining space with after-tax dollars and convert them to Roth.
Separately, IRC 401(a)(17) caps the compensation a plan may consider at $360,000 for 2026. If you earn $500,000 and your employer matches 5% of pay, the match is computed on $360,000, not on your full salary, so it tops out at $18,000.
How much does the limit actually matter?
Honestly: for most people, not much. Maxing a 401(k) means deferring $24,500 a year, which is roughly 35% of a $70,000 salary. Plan-industry data consistently shows only somewhere around one in seven or eight participants hits the cap, and they skew heavily toward six-figure incomes. A typical saver putting away 8% of a $70,000 salary contributes about $5,600 a year, nowhere near the ceiling.
If you are not maxing out, the priority order that actually moves retirement outcomes is:
- 1. Capture the full employer match. A 50% match is an immediate 50% return no market can promise. Leaving match money unclaimed is the single most expensive 401(k) mistake.
- 2. Raise your rate one point at a time. Going from 6% to 7% of pay is barely visible in a paycheck but compounds for decades. Auto-escalation does this for you.
- 3. Then chase the limit, once higher-interest debt is handled and an emergency fund exists.
The limit is a ceiling, not a target. What determines whether you retire comfortably is your savings rate and your years in the market, which you can sanity-check against your goals with the retirement calculator.
Traditional vs Roth 401(k): same limit, different tax deal
Both contribution types share the one $24,500 deferral limit. The difference is when the IRS takes its cut.
| Feature | Traditional 401(k) | Roth 401(k) |
|---|---|---|
| Tax on contributions | Excluded from federal income tax now | Taxed now |
| Tax on withdrawals | Taxed as ordinary income | Tax-free if qualified |
| Effect on 2026 paycheck | Smaller tax bite, higher take-home per dollar saved | Full tax bite now |
| Income limits to contribute | None | None (unlike a Roth IRA) |
| Employer match lands as | Pre-tax (unless plan elects Roth match) | Pre-tax (unless plan elects Roth match) |
The standard rule of thumb: traditional wins if your tax rate today is higher than it will be in retirement; Roth wins if it is lower (early career, or years you expect rates to rise). A Roth dollar is also effectively "bigger" than a traditional dollar at the same limit, since it is post-tax. Many savers split contributions rather than betting entirely on one future.
And remember FICA: neither type escapes Social Security and Medicare tax. Both traditional and Roth 401(k) contributions come out of wages after FICA is applied, which is one reason HSA payroll contributions (which do skip FICA) are so tax-efficient.
Worked example: the tax saved by maxing out
Take a single filer earning $120,000 in 2026 who takes the $16,100 standard deduction. With no 401(k) contribution, taxable income is $103,900 and federal income tax comes to about $17,570. Maxing a traditional 401(k) at $24,500 cuts taxable income to $79,400 and the tax to about $12,180.
| Scenario | Taxable income | Federal income tax |
|---|---|---|
| No 401(k) contribution | $103,900 | $17,570 |
| Max traditional 401(k) ($24,500) | $79,400 | $12,180 |
| Federal tax saved | - | $5,390 |
That is $5,390 of federal tax saved in a single year. Every deferred dollar here lands in the 22% bracket, so the $24,500 contribution only costs about $19,110 of after-tax money. Add state income tax and the real out-of-pocket cost falls further. The deferral is a postponement, not forgiveness: withdrawals are taxed later, but usually at a lower effective rate spread across retirement brackets.
The same math scales with your bracket: at 24% the max-out saves $5,880, at 32% it saves $7,840. Run your own salary and contribution rate through the 401(k) calculator to see both the paycheck cost and the projected balance side by side.