What are the 2026 catch-up 401(k) and IRA limits?

Why does the government suddenly let you save more right before you retire? Because the years closest to your retirement date are when you have the most income and the least time, so the catch-up rules hand you a bigger tax-advantaged bucket on purpose. The trick is knowing how big the bucket is and which years it grows.

The 2026 numbers

Here’s what you can put away for 2026:

• 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b): $24,500 base elective deferral.
• Age-50 catch-up on top of that: $8,000.
• The SECURE 2.0 “super catch-up” for ages 60 to 63: $11,250 instead of the $8,000.
• IRA: $7,500 base, plus a $1,100 catch-up at 50 and older.

So at 55 you can defer $32,500 into a workplace plan. At 61 you can defer $35,750. That super catch-up is a four-year window, and then it drops back down. If you turn 64 in a given year, you’re back to the regular $8,000 catch-up. Use the window while you’re in it.

The Roth catch-up twist for high earners

New for 2026: if your wages from your employer last year topped the indexed threshold (the base is $145,000), your age-50 catch-up has to go in as Roth, meaning after-tax. You lose the upfront deduction on that slice. That isn’t a penalty. You’re prepaying tax on money that would have been taxed at withdrawal anyway, and for most high earners facing large balances later, paying now at a known rate beats paying later at an unknown one. It rhymes with a Roth conversion: trade a deduction today for tax-free growth and no RMD drag tomorrow.

The part most people miss

Most people see the catch-up as a nice perk and max it on autopilot. The second-order point is what filling those buckets does to your tax picture two decades out. Every dollar you stuff into a traditional 401(k) is a dollar that grows, gets divided by a shrinking factor at 73 or 75, and lands on your return as ordinary income, possibly dragging your Medicare premiums up through IRMAA. Saving more is almost always right. Saving more without asking which bucket is how a good habit turns into a future tax bill.

If your accounts are already large

When you’re staring at seven figures in tax-deferred money, the catch-up question flips. Another $24,500 of deductions in your top earning year is worth a lot now, but it deepens the RMD problem you’ll spend your 60s trying to drain. I’d run the catch-up alongside a tax bracket plan: fill the traditional bucket while you’re in the highest brackets, then pivot hard to Roth and conversions the moment your income drops. The limit tells you the most you can save. It doesn’t tell you where. That part is yours.