401(k) Employer Match Calculator

An employer match is money your employer adds to your 401(k) when you contribute your own dollars, up to whatever formula your plan sets. It is the closest thing to a guaranteed return anywhere in personal finance: a 50% match is an instant 50% return on the matched dollars, before any market performance at all, and no diversified portfolio can compete with that on a risk-adjusted basis. That is why the common advice is to contribute at least enough to capture the full match before adding money to an IRA, a taxable brokerage account, or extra debt payoff, unless a high-interest debt makes a stronger claim on that same dollar.

Read each tier as its own band of pay. The first tier, 100% of the first 3%, means every dollar you contribute up to 3% of your pay is matched dollar for dollar. The second tier, 50% of the next 2%, stacks on top: your contributions from 3% up to 5% of pay are matched at half the rate. Above 5% of pay in this example, you have captured the full match and further contributions of your own earn no more employer money, though they can still be worth making for the tax treatment and the higher IRS deferral limit. The minimum rate that captures every tier is simply the sum of the tiers' limits, 5% here.

Most plans calculate the match on each paycheck's own pay and deferral, not on your full year at once. A true-up is a separate employer deposit, usually made early in the following year, that recalculates the match using your actual annual pay and deferrals and tops up anything the per-paycheck calculation missed. Not every plan offers one. Your plan's summary plan description (SPD) states whether a true-up applies, or you can ask your plan administrator or HR contact directly; if you cannot find the answer, this calculator's front-loading section shows you what is at stake either way.

If you elect a high contribution percent, you can reach the annual IRS deferral limit, and therefore stop contributing, well before your last paycheck of the year. In a plan without a true-up, every remaining paycheck after that point pays no employer match at all, because there is no deferral for the match formula to apply to. The fix is the level rate: the contribution percent that spreads the deferral limit evenly across every paycheck of the year, so you keep contributing, and keep earning match, all the way to December. This calculator's advanced section computes that level rate for your own pay frequency.

For 2026, the elective deferral limit is $24,500. Savers aged 50 and over can add a $8,000 catch-up, for $32,500 total, except savers who turn 60, 61, 62, or 63 during the year, whose catch-up is $11,250 instead, for $35,750 total. The overall annual additions limit under section 415(c), your non-catch-up deferrals plus your employer's contributions combined, is $72,000. Compensation above $360,000 is not matchable under the 401(a)(17) cap, though it still counts toward your own deferral limit. All five figures come from IRS Notice 2025-67 and move with the annual cost-of-living adjustment.

Vesting schedules are not modeled: even a match you have already earned by this calculator's math can still be forfeited if you leave your employer before it vests, so check your plan's vesting schedule separately. Dollar-cap match formulas, such as a flat "50% up to $3,000" regardless of pay, and non-elective or safe harbor employer contributions that are not tied to your own deferral, are both out of scope; this calculator only models percent-of-pay tiered formulas. Pay is assumed level across every pay period, so a mid-year raise, bonus, or unpaid leave shifts the real per-paycheck numbers away from what is shown here. State taxes and plan-specific eligibility rules, such as a waiting period before you can enroll, are not modeled either.