457(b) Contribution Limits: 2026 Amounts and Catch-Up Rules

For 2026, the standard 457(b) contribution limit is $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025.¹ Depending on your age and how close you are to your plan’s normal retirement age, catch-up rules can push your ceiling as high as $35,750 or even $49,000. And because a 457(b) sits in its own contribution bucket, the limit is separate from what you can defer into a 401(k) or 403(b) at the same time.

The Standard 2026 Limit

The basic deferral cap for 2026 is the lesser of $24,500 or 100 percent of your includible compensation for the year. This single ceiling covers the combined total of your salary deferrals and any nonelective employer contributions.² That is different from a 401(k), where employer matches sit under a separate, higher overall limit. In a 457(b), everything counts against the same $24,500.

The same annual dollar cap applies whether you contribute on a pre-tax basis, a Roth basis (if your plan offers one), or some combination of the two.³

Catch-Up Contributions at Age 50 and Older

If you turn 50 or older at any point during the calendar year, you can add $8,000 on top of the standard limit, bringing your 2026 total to $32,500.¹ Eligibility hinges only on your age during the tax year. Years of service and prior contributions do not factor in.

There is one important restriction. You cannot use the age-based catch-up in the same year you use the special three-year pre-retirement catch-up described further down. Your plan applies whichever option produces the higher limit for you that year.²

Enhanced Catch-Up at Ages 60 Through 63

Under the SECURE 2.0 Act, participants who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the tax year get a higher catch-up amount. For 2026, that enhanced figure is $11,250, and it replaces (rather than adds to) the standard $8,000 catch-up while you are in that age band.⁴ The maximum deferral for someone in that age range is therefore $35,750: the $24,500 standard limit plus the $11,250 catch-up.

The enhanced catch-up applies to governmental 457(b) plans.⁵ It generally does not apply to plans offered by tax-exempt organizations. The same either-or rule holds: you cannot combine any age-based catch-up with the pre-retirement catch-up in the same year.

The Special Pre-Retirement Catch-Up

The 457(b) offers a catch-up provision no other retirement plan has. During the three consecutive tax years before you reach your plan’s normal retirement age, you may be able to defer up to double the standard limit, or $49,000 in 2026.⁶ Normal retirement age is set in your plan document and usually falls between 65 and 70.

What you can actually contribute under this provision is the lesser of two numbers: twice the standard annual limit, or the current year’s limit plus the unused portion of your contribution room from prior eligible years.⁶ Say you contributed $5,000 below the annual limit in each of the past ten years. That would leave $50,000 in unused room, but the $49,000 double-limit ceiling still governs. Calculating unused room requires a look back at every year you were eligible for the plan, so your plan administrator generally needs to run the numbers.

Remember the tradeoff. In a year you use this pre-retirement catch-up, you cannot also use the age-50 or age-60-through-63 catch-up. The plan applies whichever gives you the larger allowance.

Stacking a 457(b) With a 401(k) or 403(b)

The 457(b) contribution limit is fully independent from the limit that governs 401(k) and 403(b) plans. Those two share a single combined deferral cap; the 457(b) sits in a separate bucket.⁷ If your employer offers both a 403(b) and a governmental 457(b), you can defer up to $24,500 into each for 2026, a combined $49,000 before any catch-up amounts.¹

The same holds if you change jobs mid-year. Contributing to a 401(k) at one employer does not eat into what you can defer into a 457(b) at another employer, because the two limits are tracked separately.

Roth Catch-Up Requirement for Higher Earners

Starting in 2026, SECURE 2.0 requires certain higher-paid participants to make their catch-up contributions on a Roth basis. If your wages from the plan sponsor in the prior calendar year were more than $145,000 (indexed for inflation), any catch-up you make must go into a Roth account.⁸ If your plan does not offer a Roth option and your wages exceed the threshold, you cannot make catch-up contributions at all.

Governmental 457(b) plans get more time to implement the rule. Final regulations give them until January 1, 2027, or the close of their first regular legislative session after 2025, whichever is later.

What Happens If You Contribute Too Much

Going over the annual limit can jeopardize your plan’s tax-qualified status, and the correction path depends on plan type.⁹

In a governmental 457(b), the excess amount plus any earnings must be distributed as soon as administratively practicable after the plan identifies the overage. If the excess is not corrected, the plan can lose its eligible status.
In a tax-exempt organization 457(b), the excess and its earnings must be distributed by April 15 of the year after the excess year. Missing that deadline reclassifies the plan as ineligible under section 457(f), which triggers immediate taxation of all deferred amounts.

Either way, the excess is taxable in the year it was deferred, and the earnings on the excess are taxable in the year they are distributed. Payroll systems will not automatically coordinate across multiple employers or across a 457(b) and a 401(k) at the same employer, so keeping your own running tally through the year is the surest way to stay under the ceiling that applies to you.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living
2
Internal Revenue Service. Issue Snapshot – Section 457(b) Plan of Governmental and Tax-Exempt Employers – Catch-Up Contributions
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Designated Roth Account
4
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
5
Federal Register. Catch-Up Contributions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 457 – Deferred Compensation Plans of State and Local Governments and Tax-Exempt Organizations
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 402 – Taxability of Beneficiary of Employees Trust
8
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.414(v)-2 – Catch-Up Contributions
9
Internal Revenue Service. Issue Snapshot – 457(b) Plans – Correction of Excess Deferrals