401k Calculator (Employer Match & Roth vs. Traditional)

Free 401k calculator with employer match. Enter your age, salary, and contribution rate to project your retirement balance and compare Traditional vs. Roth 401(k) tax treatment.

What Is a 401(k)?

A 401(k) is a tax-advantaged, employer-sponsored retirement savings plan offered by many U.S. companies. Employees contribute a portion of their salary each pay period, and many employers add an "employer match" — additional money contributed on top of what the employee saves, up to a certain limit. Contributions are invested (typically in mutual funds) and grow over time until withdrawal in retirement.

This calculator projects your 401(k) balance at retirement based on your age, salary, contribution rate, employer match terms, and expected investment return. It also compares Traditional 401(k) (pre-tax contributions, taxed on withdrawal) against Roth 401(k) (after-tax contributions, tax-free qualified withdrawals).

How to Use This Calculator

Enter your current age and target retirement age These determine how many years of contributions and growth are projected
Enter your current 401(k) balance and annual salary If you have balances from previous employers, add them together
Enter your contribution rate and employer match terms Check your plan's Summary Plan Description for the exact match formula
Choose Traditional or Roth Pick whichever matches the account type you want to compare, based on your current vs. expected retirement tax rate

Tips for getting more out of it

Many financial planners recommend contributing at least enough to capture the full employer match — skipping it is often described as leaving "free money" on the table.
Some plans offer "auto-escalation," which automatically raises your contribution rate each year (often alongside a raise), making it easier to increase savings without a big lifestyle adjustment.
The expected return in this calculator is a simplified long-term average assumption. Actual investment performance varies significantly from year to year.
If you have 401(k) balances from multiple former employers, consolidating them via an IRA rollover can make it easier to track your overall retirement savings.

Common Use Cases

Check whether you are capturing the full employer match

Raise your contribution rate up to the match limit to see how much "free money" you might otherwise leave on the table

Decide between Traditional and Roth

Compare the upfront tax savings of Traditional against the tax-free withdrawals of Roth based on your expected tax rate now vs. in retirement

Plan around a new job offer

Re-enter the new employer's match formula and salary to see how a job change affects your projected retirement balance

Glossary

Catch-Up Contribution: An additional amount that employees age 50 and older may contribute beyond the standard IRS limit. For 2026, this is $8,000 for ages 50-59 and 64+, and an even larger $11,250 "super catch-up" for ages 60-63 under the SECURE 2.0 Act.
Employer Match: Additional money an employer contributes based on how much the employee contributes, up to a limit. For example, "100% match up to 3% of salary" means the employer adds a dollar for every dollar you contribute, up to 3% of your salary.
Traditional 401(k): An account type where contributions reduce your taxable income today, but withdrawals in retirement are taxed as ordinary income.
Roth 401(k): An account type funded with after-tax dollars, offering no upfront tax break, but qualified withdrawals in retirement — including investment growth — are tax-free.
IRS Contribution Limit: The maximum amount an employee may contribute to a 401(k) each year, set annually by the IRS. Employer match contributions do not count against this limit.
Vesting: The process by which employer match contributions become fully owned by the employee, often requiring a minimum number of years of service. Your own contributions are always 100% vested.

Frequently Asked Questions

The base employee limit is $24,500. Employees age 50-59 and 64+ can contribute an additional $8,000 catch-up (total $32,500), and those age 60-63 can contribute an additional $11,250 (total $35,750), per IRS rules. Employer match contributions are separate and do not count toward this limit.

Traditional is often favored if you expect a lower tax rate in retirement than today, while Roth is often favored if you expect a similar or higher tax rate in retirement, or if you are early in your career with room for income growth. Some plans let you split contributions between both.

Not always. Many plans use a "vesting schedule," requiring a minimum number of years of service before the employer match fully belongs to you. Your own contributions are always 100% vested immediately.

You typically have several options: roll it over into your new employer's 401(k), roll it over into an IRA, leave it with your former employer's plan (if allowed), or cash it out (which usually triggers taxes and an early withdrawal penalty if you are under 59½).

Side Note — Where Does the Name "401(k)" Come From?

The name "401(k)" isn't a marketing term at all — it's simply the section number of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code that created the legal basis for the plan: Section 401, subsection (k). Added to the tax code in 1978, the provision was originally intended to let employees defer taxation on a portion of bonus compensation. It wasn't until the early 1980s that benefits consultant Ted Benna proposed applying the same rule to regular salary deferrals, effectively inventing the modern 401(k) as we know it today.

At the time, most large U.S. employers offered "defined benefit" pensions, which guaranteed a specific payout in retirement regardless of market performance. The 401(k), by contrast, is a "defined contribution" plan: the employee bears the investment risk, but gains more control over how much to save and can carry the account from job to job. This portability made it a natural fit for an increasingly mobile labor market, and 401(k) plans quickly became the dominant form of retirement benefit at U.S. companies.

Japan later adopted a similar concept in its own Defined Contribution Pension system (both a corporate and an individual version known as iDeCo), studied directly from the U.S. 401(k) model and enacted into law in 2001. While the names differ, the core idea — saving for retirement with tax advantages while choosing your own investments — is shared across both systems.

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