2027 401(k) & IRA contribution limits: projections vs 2026

The Internal Revenue Service confirmed the retirement contribution limits for tax year 2026 on November 13, 2025, in Notice 2025-67. With those numbers settled, the natural next question — and the one a growing number of savers are typing into search engines a full year early — is what the 2027 limits will be. The honest answer has two parts: a firm, officially published 2026 baseline, and a set of 2027 projections that are credible but not yet confirmed, because the IRS will not finalize them until the third-quarter CPI data (the July-through-September average the statutory formula uses) is complete, publishing the figures around the start of November 2026.

This piece keeps the two apart on purpose. It lays out the confirmed 2026 numbers for 401(k)-type plans and for individual retirement accounts, gives the best available 2027 projections with the mechanical reason each one rises or holds flat, and closes with the planning timeline that turns a November announcement into the payroll and contribution changes you actually make in January. For the separate batch of 2027 numbers the IRS indexes off a different CPI window entirely — the brackets, the standard deduction, the FSA cap, the gift exclusion — see the IRS 2027 inflation adjustments tracker.

The confirmed 2026 baseline for 401(k)-type plans and IRAs

These figures are official, published by the IRS in Notice 2025-67 on November 13, 2025. They are the anchor every 2027 projection builds from.

Limit	2025	2026 (confirmed)
401(k) / 403(b) / 457 elective deferral	$23,500	$24,500
Catch-up contribution, age 50+	$7,500	$8,000
Higher catch-up, ages 60–63 (SECURE 2.0)	$11,250	$11,250 (unchanged)
IRA contribution limit	$7,000	$7,500
IRA catch-up, age 50+	$1,000	$1,100
Overall defined-contribution limit (§415(c))	$70,000	$72,000

Two of those rows are worth pausing on, because each is the rounding rule doing something quietly significant. The IRA contribution limit had been frozen at $7,000 for both 2024 and 2025: the cost-of-living formula rounds the indexed figure down to the next-lower $500, and the accumulated inflation simply had not crossed that step. For 2026 it finally did, lifting the limit to $7,500. The IRA catch-up contribution for savers 50 and older tells a similar story with a twist. The SECURE 2.0 Act authorized annual inflation indexing of that formerly-fixed $1,000 amount starting in 2024, but the figure rounds down to the next-lower $100, and the threshold was not met for two years — 2026 is the first year it moved at all, to $1,100. A saver who is 50 or older can therefore put $8,600 into an IRA for 2026 ($7,500 plus the $1,100 catch-up), and someone maxing a 401(k) at 50 or older can defer $32,500 ($24,500 plus the $8,000 catch-up). For the four ages 60 through 63, the SECURE 2.0 higher catch-up of $11,250 replaces the standard $8,000 catch-up, pushing the 401(k) ceiling for that narrow window to $35,750.

The 2026 Roth and traditional IRA income limits

Whether you can contribute to a Roth IRA, or deduct a traditional IRA contribution, depends on modified adjusted gross income, and those thresholds moved up for 2026 as well.

Income test (modified AGI)	2025 range	2026 range (confirmed)
Roth IRA phase-out — single / head of household	$150,000–$165,000	$153,000–$168,000
Roth IRA phase-out — married filing jointly	$236,000–$246,000	$242,000–$252,000
Roth IRA phase-out — married filing separately	$0–$10,000	$0–$10,000 (fixed)
Traditional IRA deduction — single covered by a workplace plan	$79,000–$89,000	$81,000–$91,000
Traditional IRA deduction — joint filer, contributing spouse covered	$126,000–$146,000	$129,000–$149,000

A household sitting just under a phase-out ceiling is the one that most needs these numbers early. A married couple with modified adjusted gross income around $248,000 could make a full direct Roth IRA contribution in 2025 only if they stayed under that year’s $246,000 ceiling; the 2026 ceiling of $252,000 gives them room to contribute directly again. The married-filing-separately band is the cruel exception — fixed at $0 to $10,000 in the statute, never indexed — which is one of the reasons the backdoor Roth route exists.

What the 2027 numbers are likely to be

Here the ground shifts from confirmed to projected. The IRS will not publish the 2027 limits until around November 1, 2026, because the adjustment is computed from the average Consumer Price Index over the third quarter — July, August and September of 2026 — measured against each limit’s statutory base period. The most-cited independent forecast, from the actuarial firm Milliman (March 2026 update), models the figures below — and every one of them is a projection, not an official number. For the statutory formula itself, applied step by step and validated against the confirmed 2026 numbers, see our 2027 401(k) and IRA limit projection guide, which also updates the IRA outlook with CPI data Milliman’s March forecast did not yet have.

Limit	2026 (confirmed)	2027 (projected)
401(k) / 403(b) / 457 elective deferral	$24,500	~$25,000 (+$500)
Catch-up contribution, age 50+	$8,000	~$8,000 (flat)
Higher catch-up, ages 60–63	$11,250	~$11,750 (+$500)
Overall defined-contribution limit (§415(c))	$72,000	~$75,000 (+$3,000)
IRA contribution limit	$7,500	~$8,000 (favored on June CPI data)

The pattern of which limits move and which stay flat is not guesswork; it is the rounding rule again. The elective-deferral and catch-up limits round down to the next-lower $500, the overall defined-contribution limit rounds down to the next-lower $1,000, and the IRA limit rounds down to the next-lower $500. Because each increase is truncated downward, the indexed amount has to accumulate a full step before the published number ticks up. That is why Milliman models the age-50 catch-up holding flat at $8,000 for 2027 even as the main deferral limit rises by $500: the modeled inflation does not push the catch-up across its own $500 boundary. The IRA limit is the row where the picture has moved since Milliman’s March run. Applying the statutory formula to the CPI data published through June 2026 puts the unrounded IRA figure just above the $8,000 step — the June index already clears the threshold the third-quarter average needs — so a rise to $8,000 is now the favored outcome rather than flat. The full projection guide shows that calculation, and the official IRS figure in November 2026 is the only one that ultimately counts.

Planning decisions that depend on the new limits

401(k) deferral budgeting. A household that maxes a 401(k) needs the new limit to set the January payroll deduction. The jump from $23,500 in 2025 to $24,500 in 2026 is $1,000 of additional pre-tax shielding; at a 24% marginal federal rate that is $240 of federal tax deferred, before state tax and before the decades of tax-deferred growth. If the 2027 limit lands near the projected $25,000, that is another $500 of room to budget for.

Roth IRA contribution timing near the phase-out. For a couple whose modified AGI hovers around the joint phase-out, the moving ceiling decides whether they contribute directly or through the backdoor. The 2026 top of $252,000 is $6,000 higher than the 2025 figure; a couple that was phased out last year may be eligible again this year without changing anything but the calendar.

Catch-up planning at 50, and at 60. The catch-up applies for the entire calendar year in which you turn 50, so someone turning 50 in 2026 can use the full $8,000 from January 1. The ages 60-to-63 window is the one to plan around deliberately: for those four years the higher $11,250 catch-up is available, and it reverts to the standard catch-up at 64.

Backdoor and mega backdoor Roth sizing. The IRA limit, the IRA catch-up, and the overall defined-contribution limit together cap how much a high-income household can route to Roth in a year. With the §415(c) limit at $72,000 for 2026, the after-tax space available for a mega backdoor Roth is that figure minus your own deferrals and any employer match — a number that rises again if the projected $75,000 holds for 2027.

The November-to-January timeline

The IRS announcement in early November gives a household roughly eight to ten weeks before the new tax year. That window is enough to act on every decision above:

• Early November 2026 — read the announcement; note the confirmed 2027 limits.
• Mid-November — set contribution targets, especially the 401(k) payroll deferral amount.
• Late November / early December — submit the updated 401(k) election to payroll for a January 1 effective date; most plans require the change by mid-December.
• Early December — adjust the Roth IRA plan if your modified-AGI projection is close to a phase-out.
• January 1 — new payroll deductions take effect, and the IRA contribution window for the new tax year opens (IRA contributions can be made any time from January 1 through the following April filing deadline).

Front-loading the IRA contribution early in January, rather than in December, buys a full extra year of tax-advantaged growth on that money — a small structural edge that compounds over a saving career.

What to verify when the 2027 announcement comes

• IRS retirement-plan COLA notice: irs.gov/retirement-plans/cola-increases-for-dollar-limitations-on-benefits-and-contributions
• IRS inflation-adjustment Revenue Procedure (brackets, standard deduction, and other non-retirement items): search irs.gov/newsroom for “Tax Year 2027 Inflation Adjustments”
• Health savings account limits, which the IRS sets on a separate spring schedule rather than in the November notice, and the Social Security wage base, released by the Social Security Administration in October
• Your own plan’s election deadline in your employer’s payroll system

The 2026 numbers above are settled. The 2027 figures are a well-grounded forecast until the IRS confirms them in November 2026 — at which point this piece updates, and the framework here tells you exactly what to do with whatever the official numbers turn out to be.