How Much Can I Contribute to My 457(b) Plan?

The 457(b) contribution limit for 2026 is $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025.¹ That’s the base cap on your own salary deferrals plus any employer contributions combined. Catch-up provisions can push your personal maximum as high as $49,000, depending on your age and how much unused contribution room you’ve built up in prior years. Which catch-up applies to you is the part worth getting right.

The Standard Limit

For 2026, you can defer up to $24,500 into an eligible 457(b) plan. The cap is set under IRC Section 457(e)(15) and adjusted annually for inflation.² The technical rule: your total annual contributions, including anything your employer puts in, cannot exceed the lesser of $24,500 or 100% of your includible compensation.³ So if you earn less than $24,500 in a calendar year, your pay is the ceiling, not the IRS number. That mostly affects part-time workers and anyone starting mid-year.

Age 50 Catch-Up: An Extra $8,000

If you turn 50 or older at any point during 2026, your plan can let you contribute an additional $8,000 on top of the standard limit, for a combined maximum of $32,500.¹ This is the same age-50 catch-up under IRC Section 414(v) that applies to 401(k) and 403(b) plans.

One boundary to be aware of: the age-50 catch-up in a 457(b) is only available in governmental plans. If your 457(b) is offered by a tax-exempt organization such as a hospital or charity, this provision doesn’t apply to you.

Ages 60 Through 63: The Super Catch-Up

The SECURE 2.0 Act created a higher catch-up tier for participants who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the tax year. For 2026, those participants can contribute up to $11,250 in catch-up contributions instead of the standard $8,000, bringing the total annual maximum to $35,750.²

Once you turn 64, you drop back to the regular $8,000 catch-up. It’s a four-year window, and the extra $3,250 per year adds up to $13,000 in additional tax-advantaged savings across the full stretch.

The Roth Catch-Up Rule for High Earners

SECURE 2.0 also changed how catch-up contributions are taxed for higher-paid participants. If your FICA wages in the prior year were $150,000 or more, your age-based catch-up must be designated as Roth (after-tax) rather than pre-tax.² The $150,000 figure is the 2026 threshold, based on your 2025 W-2.

Most plans have until 2027 to fully implement this through final regulations, though some governmental plans are already applying it.⁴ Until your plan has a Roth catch-up option in place, pre-tax catch-up contributions can continue during the transition period. Check with your plan administrator about where yours stands. This rule changes how the catch-up is taxed, not how much you can contribute.

The 457(b) Three-Year Special Catch-Up

This one is unique to 457(b) plans and gets overlooked. During each of the last three tax years before you reach your plan’s normal retirement age, you can contribute up to the lesser of twice the annual limit ($49,000 for 2026) or the standard limit plus any amounts you were eligible to contribute in prior years but didn’t.⁵

That second calculation, the “underutilized limitation,” is where the real value sits. Say your plan’s normal retirement age is 65 and you’re turning 62 in 2026. You’ve been eligible for the plan since 2015 but only contributed $100,000 over that stretch, when the annual limits in effect would have allowed $220,000. Your unused amount is $120,000. The three-year catch-up caps you at twice the current year’s limit, which is $49,000, so that’s your ceiling for 2026. You couldn’t shovel the full $120,000 gap into one year, but you’d get three years at up to $49,000 each to close it.

There’s one hard rule: you cannot use both the age-based catch-up and the three-year special catch-up in the same year. If you qualify for both, the plan applies whichever gives you the higher contribution.³ When you have meaningful unused amounts from earlier years, the three-year catch-up almost always wins.

Your Plan’s Normal Retirement Age

The “normal retirement age” that opens the three-year window isn’t automatically 65. Under IRS rules, it’s the earlier of age 65 or the age at which you qualify for full unreduced benefits under your employer’s pension or defined benefit plan, and it can’t be set later than age 70½.⁵ Some plans let you designate it within those boundaries. If your pension pays full benefits at 60, your three-year window could open as early as age 57. You don’t actually have to retire at that age; the designation only controls when the catch-up eligibility window opens.

If you’re planning to use this catch-up, expect your plan administrator to want documentation of your contribution history since you first became eligible. Past W-2 forms (Box 12, Code G reports 457(b) deferrals) are the most reliable way to reconstruct that history when plan records are incomplete.

Employer Contributions Share Your Limit

A 457(b) works differently from a 401(k) here. In a 401(k), the employer match sits in a separate bucket under a much higher overall cap. In a 457(b), employer contributions and your own deferrals share the same $24,500 ceiling.⁶ If your employer contributes $2,000, your own deferrals are capped at $22,500 for the year.

Employer contributions are uncommon in 457(b) plans; most governmental 457(b) plans are entirely employee-funded. If yours does offer a match, build it into your contribution planning so you don’t go over.

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

The 457(b) deferral limit is completely separate from the limit on 401(k) and 403(b) contributions.⁶ If your government employer offers both a 403(b) and a 457(b), you can fill both up. For 2026, that’s $24,500 into each plan, or $49,000 in combined pre-tax deferrals before any catch-up amounts. A participant 50 or older could push that to $65,000, with $32,500 in each plan. Private-sector workers with just a 401(k) top out at $32,500 with the age-50 catch-up, so having access to a 457(b) alongside another plan roughly doubles your tax-advantaged capacity.

One downstream effect: contributing to a 457(b) makes you an active participant in a workplace retirement plan for IRS purposes, which can limit your traditional IRA deduction if your income is high enough. For 2026, the deduction phases out between $81,000 and $91,000 for single filers, and between $129,000 and $149,000 for married couples filing jointly when the contributing spouse is covered by a workplace plan.¹ You can still contribute to a traditional IRA above those income levels; you just won’t get the tax deduction.

Roth Versus Pre-Tax: Same Limit Either Way

Governmental 457(b) plans can offer a Roth contribution option, and many do.⁷ Roth contributions don’t reduce your current taxable income, but qualified withdrawals later come out tax-free. The annual limit is the same either way: $24,500 for 2026, plus any applicable catch-up. You can split contributions between pre-tax and Roth as long as the combined total stays within the cap.

If You Contribute Too Much

Excess deferrals have to be corrected, and how depends on your plan type. For governmental 457(b) plans, the excess and any earnings on it must be distributed as soon as administratively practicable after the plan identifies the overage. If the plan fails to correct it, the entire plan risks becoming ineligible under Section 457(f), which would make all deferred benefits taxable.⁸

For tax-exempt organization plans, there’s a hard deadline: excess deferrals must be distributed by April 15 of the year following the excess. Miss it and the plan loses its eligible status, again triggering taxation under 457(f).⁸ When the excess comes from violating the individual limit rather than a plan-wide limit, say you contributed to two 457(b) plans and the combined total exceeded $24,500, the plan keeps its eligible status but you’ll owe income tax on the excess. Tracking contributions carefully matters most when you’re participating in more than one plan.

Changing Your Contribution Amount

Federal regulations require that any salary reduction agreement be signed before the first day of the month in which the deferral takes effect. To have a change start in August, the paperwork has to be in by July 31. New employees get a small break: you can set up your initial deferral on or before your first day of work and have it apply to that first month’s pay.⁹

Most employers process changes through an online benefits portal or a paper salary reduction agreement filed with HR. After a change goes through, verify it on the first paycheck under the new amount by checking the pre-tax deductions section for the 457(b) line. Payroll errors on deferral amounts happen, and catching one in the first pay cycle is far easier than unwinding months of wrong contributions later.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. Notice 2025-67 – 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
3
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics 457b Contribution Limits
4
Internal Revenue Service. Treasury, IRS Issue Final Regulations on New Roth Catch-Up Rule, Other SECURE 2.0 Act Provisions
5
Internal Revenue Service. Issue Snapshot – Section 457(b) Plan of Governmental and Tax-Exempt Employers – Catch-Up Contributions
6
Internal Revenue Service. How Much Salary Can You Defer if You’re Eligible for More Than One Retirement Plan
7
Internal Revenue Service. IRC 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plans
8
Internal Revenue Service. Issue Snapshot – 457(b) Plans – Correction of Excess Deferrals
9
eCFR. 26 CFR 1.457-4 – Annual Deferrals, Deferral Limitations, and Deferral Agreements Under Eligible Plans