How to use the Roth IRA calculator
Enter your current Roth IRA balance, the amount you plan to add each year, the expected rate of return, your age, the age you plan to retire and your marginal tax rate. Choose Yes under Maximize contributions to add the IRS limit every year, with the catch-up from age 50. The calculator shows your Roth IRA balance at retirement next to the same savings in a regular taxable account, where the return is taxed every year, and a year-by-year schedule you can export to CSV or PDF.
What is a Roth IRA?
A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account in the United States funded with money you have already paid income tax on. In exchange, the investments grow tax-free and qualified withdrawals in retirement, after age 59½ and at least five years after the first contribution, are tax-free too. In a regular taxable account, interest, dividends and capital gains are taxed along the way, which slows the growth.
Roth IRA growth formula
With the contribution added at the end of each year, the balance after n years is FV = B × (1 + r)n + C × ((1 + r)n − 1) ÷ r, where B is the current balance, C the yearly contribution and r the rate of return. In a taxable account the same formula uses the return after tax, r × (1 − t), where t is your marginal tax rate. The calculator works year by year, so it can raise the contribution to the catch-up limit at age 50 and cap any amount above the IRS limit.
Roth IRA calculator example
With $30,000 already saved, $7,500 added every year from 30 to 65 and a 6% return, a Roth IRA grows to about $1,066,343. Of that, $292,500 is money you put in and $773,843 is tax-free growth. The same money in a taxable account, with the return taxed at 25% every year, grows to about $751,245, or $315,098 less. These are the default inputs of the calculator.
If you maximize contributions instead, at the 2026 limits of $7,500 a year and $8,600 from age 50, you put in $309,000 and the Roth IRA reaches about $1,091,947 at 65.
2026 Roth IRA contribution limits
In 2026 you can put up to $7,500 a year into all your IRAs together, traditional and Roth, or $8,600 from age 50. You can't contribute more than your earned income for the year. Contributions for a year can be made until the tax filing deadline in April of the next year.
2026 Roth IRA income limits
How much you can put into a Roth IRA depends on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). The limit shrinks inside the phase-out range and is zero above it:
| Filing status | Full contribution | Reduced | None |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single or head of household | Under $153,000 | $153,000 to $168,000 | $168,000 or more |
| Married filing jointly | Under $242,000 | $242,000 to $252,000 | $252,000 or more |
| Married filing separately, lived with spouse | – | $0 to $10,000 | $10,000 or more |
Inside the range the limit falls in proportion. A single filer with a MAGI of $160,000 can contribute $7,500 × ($168,000 − $160,000) ÷ $15,000, rounded up to the next $10: $4,000. If the result is more than $0 but less than $200, you can still contribute $200. Above the range, some people make a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution and convert it to a Roth IRA, known as a backdoor Roth; any pre-tax money in your traditional IRAs makes part of that conversion taxable.
Roth IRA withdrawal rules
- Contributions can be taken out at any time, with no tax or penalty. Withdrawals count as contributions first, then conversions, then earnings.
- Earnings are tax-free once you are 59½ and five years have passed since January 1 of the year of your first Roth IRA contribution.
- Earnings taken out earlier are usually taxed and cost a 10% penalty, unless an exception applies, such as a disability or up to $10,000 for a first home.
- There are no required minimum distributions during your life. A traditional IRA requires them from age 73 or 75; the RMD calculator shows the amounts.
Roth IRA vs. other retirement accounts
This calculator compares a Roth IRA with a taxable account. To compare it with a traditional, SIMPLE or SEP IRA, which gives the tax break now instead of later, use the IRA calculator. A workplace plan with an employer match is usually worth funding first, up to the full match: the 401(k) calculator shows how much the match adds. To check whether all your savings together are enough to retire, use the retirement calculator, and for savings outside retirement accounts, the compound interest calculator.
Roth IRA growth in Excel
For a fixed yearly contribution, Excel's FV function gives the same result as the calculator: =FV(6%, 35, -7500, -30000) returns $1,066,343. For the taxable account, use the return after tax: =FV(4.5%, 35, -7500, -30000) returns $751,245. When the contribution changes over the years, the schedule table exports every year to CSV, which opens in Excel.
How the calculator works
- Contributions are added at the end of each year; the balance earns the expected return once a year.
- In the taxable account the whole return is taxed each year at your marginal rate.
- Contributions to both accounts come from income that has already been taxed, so they are the same.