How Much Can I Contribute to My FSA: Limits, Caps, and Carryover

For the 2026 plan year, FSA contribution limits are $3,400 for a health care Flexible Spending Account and $7,500 for a dependent care FSA. Both figures come from IRS rules and apply to money you set aside from your paycheck before federal income tax, state income tax, and Social Security taxes are calculated.¹

The Health Care FSA Limit

The $3,400 cap for 2026 is up from $3,300 in 2025 and $3,200 in 2024.² The IRS adjusts it for inflation each year, so small increases are normal.

The cap covers what you contribute through salary reductions. If your employer puts money into your FSA on top of that, the employer amount does not count against your $3,400. The limit applies per employee, per employer, not per household. A married couple with a health FSA at each of their jobs can each contribute up to $3,400, for $6,800 combined.³

The Dependent Care FSA Limit

The dependent care FSA follows a different section of the tax code and jumps significantly for 2026. Starting with tax years beginning after December 31, 2025, the maximum you can exclude from taxes through a dependent care FSA is $7,500 per household if you are single or married filing jointly. Married filing separately, the limit is $3,750.⁴ The previous $5,000 cap had been in place for decades before this change was enacted in mid-2025.

Unlike the health care FSA figure, this one is a fixed dollar amount set by Congress rather than an inflation-adjusted number, so it will not creep upward year to year on its own. The $7,500 is a household limit. If both you and your spouse have access to a dependent care FSA through separate employers, your combined contributions across both accounts cannot exceed $7,500.⁵

Your Employer May Set a Lower Cap

The IRS figures are legal ceilings, not required elections. Your employer can set a lower limit for its plan, and you will find the specific number in the Summary Plan Description from your benefits administrator.

Employers sometimes choose lower caps to help their plans pass IRS non-discrimination tests, which are designed to prevent tax-advantaged benefits from disproportionately favoring highly compensated workers. For 2026, the IRS defines a highly compensated employee as someone who earned more than $160,000 from the employer in the prior year.⁶ If a plan fails testing, the employer may have to refund contributions or reduce elections mid-year, so some companies keep the ceiling below the IRS maximum for everyone.

Spouses, Multiple Jobs, and Mid-Year Job Changes

The two accounts treat households differently, and it matters when you plan your elections:

Health care FSA: $3,400 per person. Each spouse with an employer-sponsored plan can contribute the full amount.³
Dependent care FSA: $7,500 per household, regardless of how many employers are involved.⁵

Changing jobs during the year adds a wrinkle on the health care side. The health care FSA limit applies separately at each employer, so in theory you could elect up to $3,400 at your first job and another $3,400 at your second. The IRS limit is intended as an annual per-person cap, though, and exceeding it across employers can create complications at tax time. Coordinate your elections if you switch jobs mid-year.

The HSA Conflict to Watch For

If you are enrolled in a high-deductible health plan and want to contribute to a Health Savings Account, a standard health care FSA gets in the way. A general-purpose health care FSA counts as “other health coverage” under IRS rules and disqualifies you from HSA contributions, even if you never spend a dollar from the FSA.²

A limited-purpose FSA, restricted to dental and vision expenses, avoids the conflict and preserves your HSA eligibility. One trap: a carryover balance from a general-purpose health FSA in a prior year is enough on its own to block HSA contributions for the entire following year. If you plan to move to an HSA-eligible plan, spend down or forfeit that general FSA balance first.

Unused Funds and the $680 Carryover

FSAs run on a use-it-or-lose-it rule: money left in the account at the end of the plan year is forfeited.² To soften the blow, the IRS lets employers offer one of two relief options for health care FSAs, but not both:

Carryover of up to $680 of unused health care FSA funds into the next plan year for 2026, up from $660 in 2025 and $640 in 2024.¹
A grace period of two and a half months after the plan year ends to spend down remaining balances on eligible expenses incurred in that window.²

Neither is required. Check your plan documents to see which, if any, your employer offers.

Dependent care FSAs do not offer a carryover. Your employer may allow a grace period running through March 15 of the following year, but anything unspent after that is lost.⁷ Because the forfeiture rule is stricter here, estimate carefully before setting your dependent care election.

Can You Change Your Election During the Year?

Once you set your election during open enrollment, you are generally locked in for the plan year. The IRS permits mid-year changes only after a qualifying life event, and your new election has to be consistent with the event. Adding a newborn justifies increasing a health care FSA election, for example, but not decreasing it.⁸ Common qualifying events include:

Marriage or divorce
Birth or adoption of a child
You, your spouse, or a dependent starting or leaving a job in a way that affects benefit eligibility
Loss of other coverage, such as a spouse’s employer dropping their plan

The federal regulations do not set a deadline for requesting a change; your employer’s plan does. Most require action within 30 to 60 days of the event. For dependent care FSAs, a significant increase in your childcare provider’s fees or a switch to a different provider also qualifies, an exception that does not apply to health care FSAs.⁹

1
Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026
2
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans
3
HealthCare.gov. Using a Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 129 – Dependent Care Assistance Programs
5
FSAFEDS. FAQs – Dependent Care FSA Household Limit
6
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
7
FSAFEDS. FAQs – Dependent Care FSA Carryover
8
Internal Revenue Service. 26 CFR Part 1 TD 8878 – Tax Treatment of Cafeteria Plans
9
FSAFEDS. FAQs – Qualifying Life Events