Roth IRA Calculator: Estimate Your Retirement Balance

What a Roth IRA savings calculator tells you

A Roth IRA is a retirement savings account funded with after-tax dollars. You get no deduction when you contribute, but your earnings compound without yearly tax bills, and qualified withdrawals come out untouched. A Roth IRA savings calculator turns that rule into numbers: how much you can put in this year, how large the account becomes by your retirement age, and how much of that balance is growth rather than your own money. Pair this with the free rmd calculator for a fuller picture before you make a decision.

The result is useful because the gap between your total principal and your total interest is usually the surprise. Over several decades, tax-free growth often does most of the work, which is why starting early matters more than contributing a perfect amount.

• Roth IRA contributions are made with money you have already paid income tax on.
• Growth stays tax-free inside the account, and there is no tax on withdrawals taken under the rules.
• Each year's contribution depends on your earned income, filing status, and age.
• Unlike a traditional IRA, a Roth account has no required minimum distribution during your lifetime.

Inputs to enter in the Roth IRA calculator

Every field in the Roth IRA calculator maps to one piece of the contribution rules or one piece of the growth formula. Use estimates if you do not have your tax return handy, then refine them once you do. If you want to see how the figures change, the free 401k calculator gives you an instant result you can adjust as you go.

Contribution year and filing status

The IRS reviews limits every year, so choose the contribution year first. Most people contribute for the current year, but a prior-year contribution is allowed until the tax filing deadline, including an extension. Your filing status (single, head of household, married filing jointly, or married filing separately) sets which income thresholds apply to you.

Annual income and modified adjusted gross income

For this field, use your modified adjusted gross income, which is your adjusted gross income with certain deductions added back. Your annual income also has to include earned income, such as wages, tips, bonuses, or self-employment income, because a contribution cannot exceed your compensation for the year.

Starting balance, annual contribution and rate of return

Your starting balance is what the account holds today. Your annual contribution is what you plan to add each year, and the maximum depends on your age, filing status, and income. The rate of return is the average yearly gain or loss on your investments; a mix of stocks and bonds has historically landed somewhere around 6% to 7% before inflation, but your own portfolio may differ.

Current age and retirement age

Your current age decides whether the catch-up amount applies, and your retirement age decides how many years the money compounds. Full retirement age for Social Security ranges from 65 to 67, depending on the year you were born, which is a common choice for this field.

Roth IRA contribution limit and income limits for 2026

The contribution limit for 2026 is $7,500, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older. Higher earners lose part or all of that room, so the income limits below matter as much as the dollar cap. If your income is above the top of your range, the calculator will show zero allowed, and a backdoor Roth or another account may be the better route. The 72t distribution impact calculator uses the same plain-English approach, so you can compare results side by side.

Phase-out of the contribution limit

When your income lands in a reduced range, the calculator applies the phase-out for you and returns a lower allowed amount. It reduces the maximum by the share of the range you have used, then rounds up to the next $10, with a floor of $200 while any room remains. Eligible savers just under the top of the range may see only a few hundred dollars of room in the result.

Catch-up contribution for age 50 and over

The catch-up contribution adds $1,100 to the 2026 limit once you turn 50, which brings the cap to $8,600. Spread across a year, a saver under 50 needs about $625 per month to reach the full $7,500. If your income is modest, the Saver's Tax Credit can also return a share of your first $2,000 of contributions as a tax credit, which the calculator does not include in its balance.

The retirement calculator formula behind your Roth IRA balance

Growth in this retirement calculator follows one compound-interest formula. With contributions made at the start of each year, the future value is:

$$FV = B \times (1+r)^{n} + C \times (1+r) \times \frac{(1+r)^{n} - 1}{r}$$

Here \(B\) is your starting balance, \(C\) is your annual contribution, \(r\) is the yearly rate of return as a decimal, and \(n\) is the number of years until you retire. The first term grows what you already have; the second grows every future deposit.

Worked example: a 34-year-old single filer retiring at 67

Say you are 34, file as single, and have a modified adjusted gross income of $118,500, well under the $153,000 threshold, so the full limit is open to you. You start with $23,400, contribute $6,200 a year (about $517 a month), expect a 7% return, and plan to retire at 67, so \(n = 33\).

The balance at retirement works out to $1,007,217. You contributed $228,000 in total (your starting balance plus 33 deposits), so $779,217 of the balance is total interest that you never pay tax on.

Run the same money through a taxable account that loses 15% of its yearly gains to tax, and the balance reaches only about $790,740. The Roth advantage in this example is roughly $216,477, and it comes entirely from not paying that annual tax drag.

Reading the annual schedule of your Roth IRA savings

Below the headline figure, most tools print an annual schedule: one row per year showing the opening balance, your deposit, and the closing balance. Scan it for the year your balance first passes your total contributions to date, because that is the moment your investment gains start out-earning your own deposits. In the 34-year-old example above, that crossover arrives in the early 40s and the gap widens every year after.

Three inputs move the schedule the most, so change them one at a time and watch the closing balance and total interest. Shift the estimated rate of return by a point in either direction to see how sensitive the projection is. Change the tax filing status or income to see whether the allowed contribution shrinks. Then lower the return and rerun it: the middle result is your base case, and the lower-return result is the one your financial plan can still survive.

The projection assumes one constant investment return every year, a simplification that matters for any financial forecast, so real balances will differ from the schedule year to year.

Testing a reduced Roth IRA limit before the year's deposit

Dana, 41, and a spouse file jointly, and a year-end bonus pushes their modified adjusted gross income to $246,300. Before moving any money, Dana opens the calculator to see what the Roth IRA contribution limit looks like at that income, because $246,300 sits inside the $242,000 to $252,000 phase-out range for joint filers.

Dana enters the values the tax software shows: 2026 as the contribution year, married filing jointly, age 41, income $246,300, a starting balance of $61,850, a 6.5% estimated rate of return, and retirement at 67. The phase-out calculation is simple. Dana is $4,300 into a $10,000 range, so 43% of the $7,500 limit is removed, leaving $4,275, and the IRS rounds that up to $4,280.

• Allowed contribution: $4,280, not the $7,500 Dana assumed.
• Projected balance at 67 with $4,280 a year for 26 years: $608,429.
• The same plan at the full $7,500 would reach $826,928, so the reduced limit costs about $218,499 by retirement.

The result gives Dana a specific decision. Depositing $7,500 would create an excess contribution, which is subject to a 6% excise tax each year until it is corrected, so the deposit is capped at $4,280. Dana then reruns the calculator with income lowered to $241,000, the level a larger pre-tax 401(k) deferral would reach, and sees the full $7,500 return. That single change in the deferral amount is now the question for the payroll department, instead of a guess at the tax deadline.

Roth vs. traditional IRA calculator: which account fits you?

A roth vs. traditional IRA calculator compares two timing choices: pay tax now and withdraw tax-free later, or deduct now and pay tax when you withdraw. The better answer depends mostly on your tax bracket today versus your expected bracket in retirement.

• Choose a Roth IRA if you expect a higher bracket in retirement, or you value tax-free withdrawals and flexibility.
• Choose a traditional IRA if a deduction now matters more and you expect the same or a lower bracket later.
• A traditional IRA has no income cap on contributions, but the deduction can be limited if you have an employer plan.
• A traditional IRA requires minimum distributions; a Roth IRA does not.
• Switching is possible through a conversion, which is taxable in the year you convert.

Roth IRA withdrawal rules and penalty exceptions

The withdrawal rules have two layers. Direct contributions come out tax-free and penalty-free at any time. Earnings are different: they are tax-free only when the account is at least five years old and you are at least 59½.

• Withdrawing earnings early can trigger income tax plus a 10% penalty.
• The penalty, but not the tax, is waived for a first-time home purchase of up to $10,000.
• Qualified education expenses and a disabled account holder also avoid the penalty.
• Payments to a beneficiary after death are exempt from the penalty as well.
• No required minimum distribution applies, so your account can keep growing.

Ways to use your IRA contribution calculator result

Treat the output as a financial planning figure, not a promise. These steps turn the projected balance and the annual schedule into decisions:

• Check the maximum contribution against your income first, and aim your deposits at that allowed amount.
• Set automatic contributions equal to the annual contribution you entered, divided by 12.
• Run a conservative and an optimistic return to bracket your balance, matching your stocks, bonds, and mutual funds mix to the portfolio risk you can tolerate.
• Add any 401(k)s or other employer plan balance, plus Social Security, and compare the total with the income you will need; this investment and financial picture shows whether your Roth IRA projection is enough.
• Lower the return a little to approximate inflation, since the projected dollars will buy less in the future.
• High earners whose allowed contribution comes back as zero can ask a tax advisor or financial planner whether a backdoor Roth fits you.

The maximum contribution shown by an IRA contribution calculator only applies when your earned income is at least that large, and your IRA contribution for the year counts across all of your IRAs, not each one separately.