Roth IRA Calculator
Project your Roth IRA’s tax-free balance at retirement — and see whether your contribution is on pace to max the 2026 IRS limit.
Example: with Current balance $10,000 · Annual contribution $7,500 · Current age 35 yrs · Retirement age 65 yrs → Balance at retirement (tax-free): $843,647.
- Total you contribute$225,000
- Total growth$608,647
- Years invested30 yrs
Computed by the calculator below using its default values. Change any input to see your own numbers.
Projected Roth IRA balance
How you compare
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Check it outTax-free growth, if you feed it
A Roth IRA grows completely tax-free and comes out tax-free in retirement, because you already paid tax on the money before it went in — unlike a traditional IRA/401(k) (tax-deferred, taxed on withdrawal) or an ordinary taxable brokerage account (taxed along the way on dividends, interest, and realized gains). That tax-free compounding makes consistent contributions powerful over decades. The single biggest lever most people control is whether they actually hit the annual limit — $7,500 in 2026 (or $8,600 at 50+). This projects your balance with monthly compounding, flags how close your contribution is to the max, and compares your result against an equivalent taxable account so you can see the tax-free advantage in dollars.
How it’s calculated
Balance compounds monthly: future value = current balance grown at the monthly return, plus monthly contributions grown over the remaining months to your retirement age. Taxable-account comparison: we model the equivalent taxable account earning the same nominal return, but with its effective monthly growth rate reduced by your assumed tax-drag rate (i.e. monthly rate × (1 − tax rate)), approximating yearly tax owed on dividends, interest, and realized gains along the way. The Roth balance pays no tax on this growth at all. The tax drag shown is the difference between what the taxable account would have earned tax-free and what it actually keeps after the assumed drag; the Roth advantage is the Roth balance minus the taxable-account balance, both starting from the same contributions.
Results update as you type and are estimates, not professional advice — verify important decisions with a qualified professional.
Year-by-year growth
Common mistakes
- Contributing below the limit and missing years you can never get back.
- Assuming a high, steady return and ignoring fees.
- Forgetting income phase-outs that can reduce the limit for high earners.
Frequently asked questions
What's the 2026 Roth IRA contribution limit?
$7,500 if you're under 50, and $8,600 if you're 50 or older (a $1,100 catch-up). High earners may face reduced limits based on income.
Is the growth really tax-free?
Qualified Roth withdrawals in retirement are federal-tax-free, because you contribute after-tax dollars. This projection shows that pre-tax-free balance; it doesn't model income phase-outs.
What return should I assume?
Be conservative and long-term. Many people model 6–7% as a long-run average; markets vary year to year and this ignores fees.
Roth or traditional IRA?
Roth contributions are taxed now and withdrawals are tax-free; traditional is the reverse. Roth generally wins if you expect a higher tax rate in retirement than today (common early in a career); traditional wins if you're in your peak earning years. Many people hold both.
What are the 2026 Roth IRA income phase-outs?
Contributions phase out from $153,000 to $168,000 of MAGI for single filers and $242,000 to $252,000 married filing jointly (IRS, 2026). Above the range, look into a backdoor Roth conversion.
How does a Roth IRA compare to a taxable brokerage account?
A Roth IRA and a taxable account can hold the same investments and earn the same underlying return, but the taxable account loses some growth every year to taxes on interest, dividends, and realized capital gains — a drag this calculator estimates using the tax rate you enter. Over decades that difference compounds, which is why the Roth balance ends up meaningfully higher for the same contributions.