Roth IRA Calculator: Contribution Limit & Growth

After-tax contributions can grow inside a Roth IRA with the potential for tax-free qualified withdrawals later. Two numbers matter immediately when planning contributions: how much you are allowed to contribute directly under current IRS rules and what regular contributions could grow to by retirement.

How to Use the Roth IRA Calculator

Enter your current age, retirement age, existing Roth IRA balance and planned annual contribution. Then enter the filing status, modified adjusted gross income and taxable compensation that apply to your 2026 Roth IRA contribution.

• Roth IRA MAGI: Modified adjusted gross income used for Roth IRA eligibility, which can differ from salary or the AGI shown before Roth-specific adjustments.
• Taxable compensation: Compensation eligible to support an IRA contribution. The annual contribution generally cannot exceed eligible compensation.
• Planned annual contribution: Amount you would like to contribute before the calculator applies the direct Roth IRA limit.
• Current balance: Roth IRA money already invested, separate from future contributions in the result breakdown.

Growth assumptions show expected investment return and inflation directly in the calculator. Nominal return and inflation are converted into a real return so the ending balance is expressed in today’s purchasing power rather than inflated future dollars.

2026 Roth IRA Contribution Limits

For 2026, the basic IRA contribution limit is $7,500. People age 50 or older can add a $1,100 catch-up contribution, bringing the age-based limit to $8,600. Contributions to traditional and Roth IRAs share the same annual IRA limit, so money contributed to another IRA can reduce the remaining Roth contribution room.

Eligible compensation creates another ceiling. Someone with $5,000 of eligible compensation cannot generally make a $7,500 direct IRA contribution for that year even when income is below the Roth phaseout range.

Modified adjusted gross income can reduce or eliminate the amount available for a direct Roth IRA contribution. For 2026, the phaseout range is $153,000 to $168,000 for single and head-of-household filers. Joint filers face a $242,000 to $252,000 range.

Living with a spouse while filing separately produces a much narrower $0 to $10,000 phaseout range. Filing separately after living apart from a spouse for the entire year generally uses the same Roth phaseout range as the “all other” filing-status group.

Reduced-contribution math follows the worksheet approach in IRS Publication 590-A: determine the age- and compensation-based maximum, apply the filing-status MAGI phaseout, round a reduced positive contribution up to the nearest $10 and apply the worksheet’s $200 minimum when a reduced contribution remains available.

How the Roth IRA Growth Projection Works

Investment growth is modeled in today’s dollars. Pairing a 6% nominal return with 2.5% inflation produces a real annual return of about 3.41%, not exactly 3.5%, because inflation and investment growth compound.

Future contributions are spread evenly across the year and added monthly. Each projection year uses the planned contribution or the modeled direct Roth limit, whichever is lower. Projection years at age 50 or older use the higher catch-up limit.

Current 2026 dollar limits and MAGI thresholds are held constant in real terms. Future IRS limits are unknown today, so treating today’s limits as inflation-adjusted planning amounts is more transparent than pretending to know future statutory numbers.

Income eligibility is also held constant in real terms. Someone currently inside a Roth phaseout is therefore modeled as remaining in the same relative eligibility position. Actual future MAGI, filing status and tax law can change substantially.

Reading the Results

Projected Roth IRA balance is the estimated account value at retirement in today’s dollars. Growth breakdown separates the current balance, future direct contributions and estimated investment growth.

Current-year eligibility is summarized by the 2026 direct contribution limit; it is not a recommendation to contribute that amount. Full contribution means the entered MAGI is below the relevant phaseout and compensation is sufficient for the age-based limit. Partial contribution means the MAGI phaseout reduces the available amount.

No direct contribution means the entered 2026 MAGI or compensation leaves no modeled direct Roth room. High-income savers sometimes use a backdoor Roth strategy, but conversions and the pro-rata tax rule introduce additional considerations that belong in a separate analysis.

Contribution headroom compares the planned annual contribution with the modeled 2026 direct limit. An amount above the limit is highlighted rather than silently treated as valid. Projection contributions are capped at the modeled eligible amount.

Important Roth IRA Rules the Calculator Does Not Model

Qualified Roth IRA distributions generally require both the five-year rule and a qualifying event such as reaching age 59 1/2. Roth contribution basis can usually be withdrawn before earnings without the same tax treatment, but ordering rules make withdrawal analysis a separate topic from contribution growth.

Backdoor Roth contributions are not included. Other pretax IRA balances and the pro-rata rule can affect a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution followed by a Roth conversion, so a simple high-income toggle would hide important tax consequences.

Conversions, rollovers and contributions are different transactions. Roth conversions do not use the annual IRA contribution limit, while direct contributions do. Mixing them into one contribution input would overstate what the annual limit controls.

Market returns are also uncertain. Steady real-return assumptions replace year-by-year volatility, making the projected balance a scenario rather than a forecast. Running several return assumptions is more useful than relying on a single optimistic result.