401(k) Calculator
Project your 401(k) balance at retirement from your contributions, employer match, and expected return, year by year.
Your plan
Calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing is uploaded.
Contributions
A 50% match capped at 6% means your employer adds 50 cents per dollar on the first 6% of salary you contribute.
Assumptions
You are contributing exactly to the 6% match cap, capturing the full employer match.
Assumes a constant return and steady contributions added at the end of each year. Real returns vary and can be negative.
| Year | Salary | Your contribution | Employer match | Balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 75,000 | 4,500 | 2,250 | 33,500 |
| 2 | 76,500 | 4,590 | 2,295 | 42,730 |
| 3 | 78,030 | 4,682 | 2,341 | 52,744 |
| 4 | 79,591 | 4,775 | 2,388 | 63,599 |
| 5 | 81,182 | 4,871 | 2,435 | 75,357 |
| 6 | 82,806 | 4,968 | 2,484 | 88,085 |
| 7 | 84,462 | 5,068 | 2,534 | 101,852 |
| 8 | 86,151 | 5,169 | 2,585 | 116,736 |
| 9 | 87,874 | 5,272 | 2,636 | 132,816 |
| 10 | 89,632 | 5,378 | 2,689 | 150,180 |
| 11 | 91,425 | 5,485 | 2,743 | 168,921 |
| 12 | 93,253 | 5,595 | 2,798 | 189,138 |
| 13 | 95,118 | 5,707 | 2,854 | 210,938 |
| 14 | 97,020 | 5,821 | 2,911 | 234,436 |
| 15 | 98,961 | 5,938 | 2,969 | 259,753 |
| 16 | 100,940 | 6,056 | 3,028 | 287,020 |
| 17 | 102,959 | 6,178 | 3,089 | 316,378 |
| 18 | 105,018 | 6,301 | 3,151 | 347,976 |
| 19 | 107,118 | 6,427 | 3,214 | 381,975 |
| 20 | 109,261 | 6,556 | 3,278 | 418,547 |
| 21 | 111,446 | 6,687 | 3,343 | 457,875 |
| 22 | 113,675 | 6,820 | 3,410 | 500,157 |
| 23 | 115,948 | 6,957 | 3,478 | 545,603 |
| 24 | 118,267 | 7,096 | 3,548 | 594,440 |
| 25 | 120,633 | 7,238 | 3,619 | 646,907 |
| 26 | 123,045 | 7,383 | 3,691 | 703,265 |
| 27 | 125,506 | 7,530 | 3,765 | 763,789 |
| 28 | 128,016 | 7,681 | 3,840 | 828,776 |
| 29 | 130,577 | 7,835 | 3,917 | 898,542 |
| 30 | 133,188 | 7,991 | 3,996 | 973,427 |
How to calculate 401(k) growth
Enter your plan
Type your current 401(k) balance, your annual salary, and how many years until retirement.
Set the match
Enter your contribution percentage, your employer match rate, and the cap on salary the match applies to.
Add your assumptions
Set an expected annual return and an annual salary growth rate, both of which the projection applies every year.
Read the projection
The balance at retirement, your total contributions, the total employer match, and investment growth appear instantly, with a year-by-year table below.
Why use this tool
Employer match modeled correctly
The match applies only to the first cap percent of salary you contribute. Contribute below the cap and you leave match on the table; contribute above it and the extra earns no match.
Growth split four ways
The final balance is broken into your starting balance, your contributions, the employer match, and investment growth, so you can see exactly where the money came from.
Rising salary each year
An annual salary growth rate raises the pay your contribution percentage is applied to every year, so later contributions grow along with your income.
Year-by-year table
Every year shows the salary, your contribution, the employer match, and the running balance, so you can watch the account compound toward retirement.
Handles a 0% return
Set the expected return to zero and the projection simply sums your deposits and the match with no growth, which is useful as a contributions-only baseline.
Runs entirely in your browser
Everything is calculated on your device as you type. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account to create.
About this tool
A 401(k) is a workplace retirement account you fund with a percentage of each paycheck, often with your employer adding a matching contribution on top. Small differences in the contribution rate, the match, and the return compound into large differences over a career, which makes the account hard to reason about with a single number. This calculator runs the projection year by year: each year it takes your contribution as a percentage of salary, adds the employer match on the eligible portion of salary, grows the running balance by your expected return, and then raises your salary for the next year.
The employer match is where most plans get misread. A common plan matches 50% of what you contribute, up to 6% of salary. That means the employer adds 50 cents per dollar on only the first 6% of salary you put in. Contribute less than the cap and you miss free money; contribute more and the extra earns no additional match. The calculator makes this explicit and tells you whether you are leaving match on the table. The projection reports your balance at retirement alongside a clean split of your own contributions, the total employer match, and the investment growth stacked on top.
Treat the output as a projection for comparing scenarios, not a forecast. It assumes one constant return and unbroken contributions added at the end of each year, and it works in plain numbers so the result is in whatever currency you type. Real markets move up and down, and it does not enforce annual contribution limits, so sanity-check large contribution rates against your plan. For a broader view of retiring across all your savings, use the retirement calculator, and to see how any lump sum compounds on its own, the compound interest calculator breaks the growth down period by period.
Frequently asked questions
- How does the 401(k) calculator work?
- It projects your account one year at a time. Each year it adds your contribution (your percentage of the current salary) and the employer match, grows the running balance by the expected annual return, then increases your salary by the growth rate for the next year. The final year gives the projected balance at retirement.
- How is the employer match calculated?
- The match applies to the first cap percent of salary you contribute, at the match rate you enter. With a 50% match capped at 6%, the employer adds 50 cents per dollar on the first 6% of salary you contribute. If your contribution is below the cap, only what you contribute is matched; above the cap, the extra earns no match.
- What happens if I set the expected return to 0%?
- The projection simply adds up your contributions and the employer match with no growth. That gives a contributions-only baseline, which is a useful floor to compare against once you add a realistic return.
- Does it enforce IRS annual contribution limits?
- No. It applies your contribution percentage to salary every year without capping the dollar amount, so if you model a high contribution rate on a high salary, check the result against your plan and the current annual limit.
- Which currency does it use?
- None in particular. The calculator works in plain numbers, so the result is in whatever currency you type. Figures are shown with thousands separators and no currency symbol.
- Is my data uploaded anywhere?
- No. Everything runs in your browser as you type; nothing is sent to a server, stored, or logged.
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