401(k) contribution limits

The age band from 60 to 63 is not a typo. A larger catch-up applies for exactly those four years and then reverts to the standard amount at 64. If you are in that window it is worth acting on, because it does not come back.

Age is measured by how old you are at any point in the calendar year, so someone turning 50 in December gets the catch-up for that whole year.

Your $24,500 covers salary deferrals only. Whatever your employer adds, matching, profit-sharing or a non-elective contribution, is additional. If you defer $24,500 and your employer matches $6,000, $30,500 went into the plan and you have not exceeded anything.

A separate, much larger combined limit caps everything going into the plan for you in one year across all sources. It is high enough that ordinary employees rarely approach it; it matters mainly for high earners with generous profit-sharing, and for anyone running a Solo 401(k) where they are both employer and employee.

If your plan offers both, the $24,500 is the combined ceiling, not $24,500 each. You can split it however you like, $15,000 traditional and $9,500 Roth, or all of one. The tax treatment differs; the room does not.

Note that employer matching contributions generally go to the traditional side even when your own deferrals are Roth, so most Roth 401(k) savers accumulate a pre-tax balance too.

The deferral limit belongs to you, not to each plan. Work two jobs with two 401(k)s and $24,500 is still the total across both.

Neither payroll department can see the other, so nothing will stop you exceeding it. If you do, you must notify a plan and have the excess distributed before April 15. Miss that and the excess is taxed in the year you contributed it and again when it is eventually withdrawn.

The same trap catches people who change jobs mid-year and start fresh at a new plan without counting what they already deferred at the old one.

Deferrals are set as a percentage of pay, so the practical question is what percentage reaches $24,500. On a $100,000 salary that is roughly 24.5%. On $150,000 it is about 16.3%.

One thing to watch if you are maximizing: front-loading. Hitting the limit in September stops your deferrals, and with them any per-paycheck match for the rest of the year, unless your plan offers a true-up. Some plans do, many do not, and it is worth checking before you accelerate.

403(b) plans share the $24,500 with a 401(k), so someone with both cannot defer $24,500 into each. A governmental 457(b) is the exception, and it is a valuable one: it carries its own separate limit.

A public sector employee with access to both a 403(b) and a 457(b) can therefore defer $24,500 into each, for $49,000 in a single year, before any catch-up. Teachers, state employees and hospital staff frequently have both available and often do not realize the limits stack.

The 457(b) also has its own special catch-up in the three years before normal retirement age, which can be larger than the standard age-50 amount. The two catch-ups cannot generally be used in the same year, so it is worth asking your plan which applies to you.

All 2026 figures are from IRS Notice 2025-67, which also covers 403(b), governmental 457(b) and the Thrift Savings Plan. Walnut is informational and is not an investment adviser. This guide is educational and not personalized tax or investment advice; anything with a tax consequence is worth confirming with a tax professional.