403(b) Calculator
Your plan, your service, and what it costs to hold
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Long-range scenario, not a guarantee. Small changes in returns, inflation, fees, taxes, and withdrawal timing can materially change the result.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter what you plan to defer this year and your age at the end of it. Age alone decides the standard catch-up: $8,000 from 50, $11,250 for ages 60 through 63, and back to $8,000 from 64.
- 02
Enter your full-time-equivalent years with this employer. Fifteen is the gate for the service catch-up, part-time years count as fractions, and separate schools in one district or separate sites in one hospital system count as one employer.
- 03
Enter every elective deferral you have ever made to this employer's plans, excluding past age-50 catch-ups. This is the field that decides the answer for most people who qualify, and the only place to get it is your plan administrator.
- 04
Add your current balance, the years until you retire, and your plan's all-in annual cost — the fund or subaccount fee plus any mortality and expense charge. It is on the fee disclosure, not the enrolment brochure.
- 05
Read the deferral ceiling, then the table showing which of the three service tests bound it, then what the fee costs against an index fund by retirement.
Formula
Service catch-up = the least of $3,000, ($15,000 − what you have already used with this employer), and ($5,000 × your years of service − every prior elective deferral to that employer) — and only if service is at least 15 years. Age catch-up = $8,000 from 50, replaced by $11,250 for ages 60-63. Ceiling = $24,500 + service catch-up + age catch-up. Balance = current balance and each year's deferral compounded at your expected return LESS your plan's annual cost.
Example
A 55-year-old with 22 years at one district who has deferred $95,000 there and never used the service catch-up: the three tests give $3,000, $15,000 and $110,000 − $95,000 = $15,000, so the least is $3,000. Her ceiling is $24,500 + $3,000 + $8,000 = $35,500. On a $180,000 balance with 12 years to go at 7%, a 2.25% annuity load leaves about $871,000 while a 0.05% index fund leaves about $1,036,000 — the fee costs about $165,000. Had she deferred $180,000 at that district instead of $95,000, the third test would be $110,000 − $180,000 = nothing, and the service catch-up would be $0.
Definitions
- Elective deferral
- Money you choose to have withheld from pay and put into the plan. Capped at $24,500 across every 403(b), 401(k), SARSEP and SIMPLE you hold — but never against a 457(b).
- 15-years-of-service catch-up
- IRC 402(g)(7). Up to $3,000 a year and $15,000 across your time with one qualified employer, on top of the age catch-up. Optional for the plan to offer.
- Qualified organization
- The employers whose plans may offer the service catch-up: educational organizations, hospitals, home health service agencies, health and welfare service agencies, churches and conventions of churches.
- Mortality and expense charge
- An insurance company's annual fee on an annuity-based 403(b), levied on top of the investment fee. The main reason a 403(b) commonly costs more than a 401(k).
- Annual additions ceiling
- $72,000 for 2026 — the cap on everything going into the account in one year, your deferrals and the employer's money together. Catch-ups sit outside it.
Good to know
The same limit, a different plan underneath
A 403(b) and a 401(k) share the elective deferral limit — $24,500 for 2026 — and almost nothing else about how they came to exist. The 403(b) predates the 401(k) by two decades and was written in 1958 for employees of tax-exempt organizations, at a time when the only investment vehicle contemplated was an annuity contract sold by an insurance company. That original form, the 403(b)(1) annuity, is still the dominant product in many K-12 districts, and it is the single biggest reason a teacher's retirement account tends to cost several times what a comparable private-sector account costs. Mutual funds only became permissible in 1974, through the 403(b)(7) custodial account, and the two forms sit side by side in the same section of the code with radically different economics. If your plan offers both, which one you are in is worth more to your eventual balance than almost any investment decision you will make inside it.
The catch-up that exists nowhere else
Section 402(g)(7) gives employees of a narrow list of employers — schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, home health service agencies, health and welfare service agencies, churches and conventions of churches — a second catch-up worth up to $3,000 a year on top of the ordinary age-50 amount. No other plan in the code has anything like it. Three things about it are consistently misunderstood. First, its dollar amounts are flat statutory figures with no inflation clause: $3,000 a year, $15,000 across your time with one employer, $5,000 per year of service in the third test. They have not moved since 2001 and they will not move without new legislation, which makes them the one corner of retirement law where nothing needs re-checking every January. Second, the $15,000 lifetime cap is measured per qualified organization rather than across a career, so someone who moves to another qualifying employer and accrues fifteen fresh years gets a new $15,000. Third, it is optional: a plan has to have adopted the provision, and many have not.
Why the people who qualify usually get nothing
The third of the three tests is the one that does the work, and it runs in the opposite direction to intuition. It allows $5,000 for each year of service and then subtracts every elective deferral you have already made to that employer's plans. A twenty-year employee therefore starts with $100,000 of allowance — and a twenty-year employee who has been deferring seriously has usually put in far more than that, so the test returns nothing and the catch-up is zero. The person the provision actually reaches is the one who deferred little or nothing in their early years and started saving late: a teacher who spent a decade on a starting salary, or someone who came into the profession from another career. That is exactly who Congress had in mind, but it means the calculator will tell a disciplined long-serving saver that a provision they were told they qualified for is worth nothing to them. It is not a bug and it is not your plan being difficult. It is the arithmetic the statute specifies.
Two catch-ups, one order, and the Roth question underneath
Both catch-ups can run in the same year, giving a 50-to-59-year-old a ceiling of $35,500 and someone in the 60-63 band $38,750. The order in which deferrals fill them is fixed by regulation rather than chosen: money above $24,500 counts first as the 15-year catch-up and only then as the age catch-up. That used to be a bookkeeping detail. From 2026 it is not, because the rule forcing catch-ups into Roth above $150,000 of prior-year wages applies to section 414(v) catch-ups, and the 15-year catch-up is not one of them. So a long-serving high earner can find that $3,000 of the same year's catch-up stays deductible while the $8,000 behind it does not. Worth knowing before assuming the whole catch-up has moved to the after-tax side of the plan.
Frequently asked questions
How much can I put in a 403(b) in 2026?
$24,500 as the basic elective deferral, the same figure a 401(k) uses. On top of that, $8,000 if you are 50 or older (or $11,250 if you are 60 to 63), and up to $3,000 more under the 15-years-of-service catch-up if your employer qualifies and your plan offers it. The three together cap out at $35,500 for a 50-to-59-year-old, or $38,750 inside the 60-63 band.
What is the 15-year rule and do I qualify?
It is a catch-up that exists in no other plan in the tax code. You need 15 full-time-equivalent years with the same eligible employer — a school, college, hospital, home health service agency, health and welfare service agency or church. The amount is the least of three tests: $3,000, what is left of a $15,000 lifetime cap with that employer, and $5,000 times your years of service minus everything you have already deferred there. That last test is the one that catches people.
Why did the calculator give me $0 for the service catch-up when I have 20 years in?
Almost certainly the third test. It allows $5,000 for each year of service and then subtracts every elective deferral you have already made to that employer. Twenty years gives you $100,000 of allowance, but a steady saver has usually put in far more than that, so the test computes to nothing. The provision was written for people who deferred little early on, and it quietly excludes the long-serving high saver who looks most entitled to it.
Can I take both catch-ups in the same year?
Yes, and the order is fixed rather than chosen. Deferrals above $24,500 count first as the 15-year catch-up and only then as the age-50 catch-up. That matters for one reason in 2026: the rule forcing catch-ups into Roth above $150,000 of prior-year wages applies to section 414(v) catch-ups, and the 15-year catch-up is not one. So part of the same year's catch-up can stay deductible while the rest cannot.
Why are 403(b) fees higher than a 401(k)'s?
History. The original form of the account under 403(b)(1) is an annuity contract sold by an insurance company, and that structure carries a mortality and expense charge stacked on top of the investment fee, often with a surrender charge for leaving in the first several years. Many plans, especially in K-12 districts, still offer mostly annuity products. A 403(b)(7) custodial account holding mutual funds has no such layer, and where a plan offers both, the difference over a career is measured in six figures.
Does a 403(b) get an employer match?
Sometimes, and it is far less standard than in a 401(k) — many public-school plans contribute nothing, because the employer's retirement money goes into a separate pension instead. Where there is a match it counts toward the $72,000 annual additions ceiling alongside your own deferrals, but never against the $24,500 elective deferral limit and never against the catch-ups.
Can I contribute to a 403(b) and a 457(b) at the same time?
Yes, and this is the most valuable thing most public-sector employees do not know. A 457(b) deferral is not an elective deferral under section 402(g), so the two limits do not share and do not offset — $24,500 into each, $49,000 in total before any catch-up. The coordination rule that once forced one to reduce the other was repealed for tax years after 2001.