Retirement Contribution Limits: 401(k), IRA, and Catch-Ups

For 2026, the retirement contribution limits let you defer up to $24,500 of your salary into a 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) plan and put up to $7,500 into a Traditional or Roth IRA. Those two ceilings work independently, so contributing the maximum to both in the same year is allowed. Workers 50 and older, high earners, and self-employed people each face separate rules that expand or narrow those caps.

401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) Deferrals

The baseline salary deferral limit for 2026 is $24,500.¹ The federal Thrift Savings Plan uses the same figure. This is the portion coming out of your paycheck, whether pre-tax or Roth.

The cap is per person, not per plan. If you work two jobs and each has its own 401(k), your combined deferrals across both still cannot exceed $24,500. Neither employer sees what you contributed at the other one, so tracking the total is on you.²

Total Contributions From All Sources

A separate, higher ceiling covers everything flowing into your defined contribution account: your deferrals plus employer matching plus profit-sharing. For 2026, that total cannot exceed $72,000.³ Catch-up contributions sit on top of this figure rather than counting against it.

Only the first $360,000 of your compensation counts when the employer calculates percentage-based contributions.³

IRA Contribution Limit

You can contribute up to $7,500 across all your Traditional and Roth IRAs combined for 2026, or your taxable compensation for the year if that is smaller.⁴ The $7,500 is a shared ceiling. Split it between account types however you like, but the total cannot exceed the cap.

The earned income rule catches people. If you made $4,000 in wages, your IRA limit is $4,000. Investment income, rental income, and Social Security benefits do not count as compensation.⁵ Contributing more than you earned triggers a 6% excise tax on the excess every year it stays in the account.⁶

When a Traditional IRA Contribution Is Deductible

You can always contribute to a Traditional IRA up to the $7,500 limit regardless of income. Whether the contribution is deductible depends on whether you or your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan and how much you earn. If neither of you participates in an employer plan, the full contribution is deductible at any income level.

When you are covered by a workplace plan, the deduction phases out at these 2026 income levels:³

Single or head of household: full deduction if modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) is $81,000 or less, partial between $81,000 and $91,000, none at $91,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, contributor covered by a workplace plan: full deduction up to $129,000, partial between $129,000 and $149,000, none at $149,000 or above.
Married filing jointly, only the spouse is covered: full deduction up to $242,000, partial between $242,000 and $252,000, none at $252,000 or above.
Married filing separately with a covered spouse: partial deduction under $10,000, none at $10,000 or above.

Losing the deduction does not mean losing the ability to contribute. A nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution still grows tax-deferred, and only the earnings portion is taxed at withdrawal.

Roth IRA Income Limits

Roth IRAs have hard income cutoffs. For 2026, eligibility phases out based on MAGI:¹

Single or head of household: full contribution below $153,000, reduced between $153,000 and $168,000, none at $168,000 or above.
Married filing jointly: full contribution below $242,000, reduced between $242,000 and $252,000, none at $252,000 or above.
Married filing separately: reduced between $0 and $10,000, none above $10,000.

If a year-end bonus or capital gain pushes your income past the top of the phase-out after you already contributed, the excess must be corrected to avoid the 6% annual excise tax.

The Backdoor Option for High Earners

Earners above the Roth cutoffs can still fund a Roth in two steps: make a nondeductible contribution to a Traditional IRA, then convert that balance to a Roth. Because the contribution was already taxed, the conversion itself generates little or no additional tax. The complication is the pro-rata rule. If you hold any pre-tax money in Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs, the IRS treats all your Traditional IRA balances as a single pool when calculating the taxable share of any conversion. The strategy works cleanly only when you have little or no existing pre-tax IRA money. Rolling those balances into an employer 401(k) before converting can solve the problem if the plan accepts incoming rollovers.

Catch-Up Contributions for Workers 50 and Older

If you turn 50 or older by December 31 of the tax year, you can contribute above the standard limits. For 2026:³

401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans: an additional $8,000, for a total employee deferral of $32,500.
Traditional and Roth IRAs: an additional $1,100, for a total of $8,600.⁴
SIMPLE IRAs: an additional $4,000, for a total of $21,000.

The IRA catch-up was fixed at $1,000 for years and is now indexed to inflation, which is why it rose to $1,100 for 2026.

Larger Catch-Up at Ages 60 Through 63

Starting in 2026, participants who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the tax year get a higher catch-up limit under the SECURE 2.0 Act:¹

401(k), 403(b), and 457(b) plans: $11,250 catch-up, for a total employee deferral of $35,750.
SIMPLE IRAs: $5,250 catch-up, for a total of $22,250.

Once you turn 64, you drop back to the standard age-50 catch-up amount.

Mandatory Roth Treatment for High-Earning Catch-Up Contributors

Beginning January 1, 2026, if your FICA-taxable wages from a single employer exceeded $150,000 in the prior calendar year, any catch-up contributions you make to that employer’s 401(k) or 403(b) must go into a Roth (after-tax) account. Pre-tax catch-up is not an option. If the employer’s plan does not offer a Roth account, you cannot make catch-up contributions there at all until the plan adds one.

Workers who earned less than $150,000 in the prior year are unaffected and can still choose pre-tax or Roth. The threshold uses prior-year W-2 wages reported for Social Security, not total income, so investment earnings do not count toward it.

SEP IRA and SIMPLE IRA Limits

Self-employed people and small business owners use different plan types with their own contribution structures.

SEP IRAs

A Simplified Employee Pension IRA allows contributions of up to the lesser of 25% of the employee’s compensation or $72,000 for 2026. SEP contributions are treated as employer contributions, even when you are self-employed, which is why the cap matches the Section 415(c) total additions figure. Only the first $360,000 of compensation counts when calculating the 25%.³ For sole proprietors and single-member LLCs, the 25% is applied to net self-employment income after the deductible portion of self-employment tax and the SEP contribution itself, so the effective rate is closer to 20% of net profit.

SIMPLE IRAs

SIMPLE IRAs are built for businesses with 100 or fewer employees. For 2026, the employee salary deferral limit is $17,000. Catch-up is $4,000 at age 50, and $5,250 for ages 60 through 63.³ Employers must either match employee contributions dollar for dollar up to 3% of compensation, or make a flat 2% nonelective contribution for every eligible employee. Those employer contributions are on top of the employee deferral limit.

Fixing an Excess Contribution

Going over the limit happens more than you would expect, particularly for people who change jobs mid-year or contribute to both an IRA and a workplace plan.

For 401(k) excesses, notify one or more of your plans and request a return of the excess. The plan must distribute it by April 15 of the following year.² Earnings on the excess come out with it and are taxed in the year of withdrawal. Miss the deadline and the excess is taxed twice: once in the contribution year and again when the plan distributes it.⁷

For IRA excesses, the 6% excise tax applies each year the excess remains in the account.⁶ To avoid the penalty, withdraw the excess and any earnings on it by the due date of your return, including extensions. If you already filed on time and later spot the mistake, you have up to six months after the original due date (not counting extensions) to pull the money and file an amended return.⁸ The 6% tax is reported on IRS Form 5329, and it recurs every year until the excess is removed or absorbed by future contribution room.

1
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
2
Internal Revenue Service. What Happens When an Employee Has Elective Deferrals in Excess of the Limits
3
Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs, as Adjusted for Changes in Cost-of-Living (Notice 2025-67)
4
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – IRA Contribution Limits
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 219 – Retirement Savings
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts and Annuities
7
Internal Revenue Service. Consequences to a Participant Who Makes Excess Deferrals to a 401(k) Plan
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329