How to use the Roth IRA calculator
Fill in the growth inputs first. They decide the projected balance. The 2026 tax inputs sit alongside them but only feed the contribution estimate, so a high income never quietly shrinks your 30-year projection.
Enter the return before fees. If the fund return you're quoting already has fees taken out, set the fee field to 0 so you don't count them twice.
- Enter your current age, the age you want to project to and your current Roth IRA balance.
- Add the year you first contributed to any Roth IRA. It's only used for the five-year check at the end.
- Enter your monthly contribution, choose start or end of month, and add a yearly raise if you plan one.
- Set the expected return, annual fees and inflation.
- For the 2026 estimate, pick your filing status and enter Roth modified AGI, taxable compensation and any other IRA contributions this year.
- Add an optional target balance and press Calculate.
Roth IRA growth example: $625 a month
Here's what $625 a month does at a 7% annual return with no fees, no starting balance and no yearly raise. Time does most of the work. The last 10 years of a 40-year run add more than the first 30 years combined.
The calculator's default case is more realistic. A 35-year-old with $15,000 already saved, $625 a month rising 2% a year, a 7% return and 0.25% in fees reaches about $1,126,641 at 67. That's about $511,237 in present-day money at 2.5% inflation, and the fees cost about $61,169 by the end.
| Years saving | Total contributed | Projected balance | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $75,000 | $106,907 | $31,907 |
| 20 | $150,000 | $317,210 | $167,210 |
| 30 | $225,000 | $730,908 | $505,908 |
| 40 | $300,000 | $1,544,714 | $1,244,714 |
Roth IRA contribution limit for 2026
For 2026 you can put up to $7,500 into all your IRAs combined, or $8,600 if you're 50 or older. That's one shared limit across traditional and Roth IRAs, so $3,000 in a traditional IRA leaves $4,500 for your Roth. You also can't contribute more than your taxable compensation for the year if that's lower.
In monthly terms, $7,500 is $625 a month and $8,600 is about $716.67 a month. The calculator compares your first year of deposits with the room it estimates and tells you if you're over. It doesn't cap later years, because future limits are set each year and aren't known yet.
2026 Roth IRA income limits
Your income decides whether you can contribute directly. Below the phase-out range you get the full limit. Inside it you get a reduced amount, and at or above the top you can't make a direct contribution at all. The IRS uses modified AGI for Roth purposes, which isn't the same as your salary.
Say you're single, under 50, with $160,000 of Roth modified AGI. You're $8,000 below the $168,000 top of a $15,000-wide range, so your limit is $7,500 x 8,000 / 15,000 = $4,000. At 52 the same income gives $4,586.67, which the IRS worksheet rounds up to $4,590.
| Filing status | Full contribution below | No direct contribution at or above |
|---|---|---|
| Single or head of household | $153,000 | $168,000 |
| Married filing jointly or qualifying surviving spouse | $242,000 | $252,000 |
| Married filing separately, lived with spouse | $0 | $10,000 |
How the projection works
The calculator runs month by month. Your annual return becomes a monthly growth factor, and your annual fee becomes a separate monthly factor that takes its cut after growth. Deposits go in at the start or end of each month, and any yearly raise kicks in after each full year.
Inflation only touches the final number, to show what it would buy today. The no-fee comparison uses the same deposits and return, so the gap between the two is your total fee drag, lost compounding included.
Monthly growth factor = (1 + annual return)^(1/12)Monthly fee factor = (1 - annual fee)^(1/12)Today's-dollar balance = projected balance / (1 + inflation)^yearsPhase-out limit = full limit x (top of range - your MAGI) / width of range
Monthly contributions, timing and raises
Most people fund a Roth IRA with an automatic monthly transfer, so the calculator works in monthly amounts. Pick start of month if your money moves on payday early in the month. Each deposit then gets one more month of growth than an end-of-month deposit would.
The yearly raise lets your deposits grow with your pay. In the default case a 2% raise takes $625 a month in the first year to about $1,154.74 a month in the 32nd. Check that against each year's IRS limit when the time comes.
The one-year delay result shows what happens if you hold off on new deposits for 12 months. In the default case that costs about $76,834 by 67, far more than the $7,500 you skipped.
Fees and inflation change the picture
A 1% annual fee looks small. On $625 a month for 30 years at 7%, it drops the ending balance from about $730,908 to about $601,434. That's roughly $129,474 gone, more than half of everything you contributed.
Inflation is the other quiet cut. At 2.5% a year, $730,908 in 30 years buys about what $348,455 buys today. Read both numbers when you set a target.
Limits of this estimate
Real returns jump around. The 5% and 9% scenarios show how much the answer swings with the return you pick, but they aren't forecasts or odds.
The five-year check only looks at the usual path for a qualified withdrawal: at least 59 1/2 and five tax years after your first Roth contribution. It doesn't cover conversions, which have their own five-year periods, or exceptions like disability. Roth IRAs have no required minimum distributions for the original owner, but heirs have their own rules.
Before you contribute near a phase-out edge, work out your modified AGI with the IRS worksheet in Publication 590-A. Excess contributions are taxed at 6% for each year they stay in the account.
Sources
The 2026 limits and income ranges on this page come from the IRS. The point about fees is based on the SEC's Investor.gov guidance.