What is the 2025 401(k) employee deferral limit?

For 2025 the IRS elective deferral limit is $23,500 for employees under 50. Those 50 and over can add a $7,500 catch-up for $31,000, and a new rule lets workers aged 60 to 63 add a higher $11,250 super catch-up for $34,750.

What is the age 60 to 63 super catch-up?

Under SECURE 2.0, starting in 2025 employees who are 60, 61, 62 or 63 during the year can make a larger catch-up of $11,250 instead of $7,500. At 64 and above the catch-up reverts to the standard $7,500.

Does the limit include the employer match?

No. The $23,500 (plus catch-up) limit is the employee elective deferral only. Employer matching and profit-sharing fall under a separate, much higher overall limit ($70,000 in 2025, plus catch-up), so the match does not eat into your personal deferral cap.

How do I convert the limit to a per-paycheck amount?

Divide the amount you still need to contribute by the number of pay periods left in the year. The tool does this and also expresses it as a percentage of your per-paycheck gross so you can set your deferral rate in your plan.

Are Roth 401(k) contributions counted in the same limit?

Yes. Traditional pre-tax and Roth 401(k) employee deferrals share the same combined annual limit. You can split contributions between them, but the total cannot exceed your personal deferral cap including any catch-up.

US 401(k) Contribution Limit Calculator

A 2025 401(k) contribution limit calculator that tells you the maximum you can personally defer this year and exactly how to hit it. It applies the IRS $23,500 elective deferral limit, the $7,500 age-50 catch-up, and the new SECURE 2.0 $11,250 super catch-up for workers aged 60 to 63, then converts the remaining headroom into a per-paycheck dollar amount and percentage.

How it works

Your personal limit depends only on your age during the year:

base catch-up rules (2025):
  age < 50        -> limit = $23,500
  age 50-59       -> limit = $23,500 + $7,500  = $31,000
  age 60-63       -> limit = $23,500 + $11,250 = $34,750   (super catch-up)
  age 64+         -> limit = $23,500 + $7,500  = $31,000

remaining     = limit - alreadyContributed
perPaycheck   = remaining / payPeriodsLeft
percentOfPay  = perPaycheck / (salary / payPeriodsPerYear)

The employee deferral cap is separate from employer matching — the match falls under a higher overall limit ($70,000 in 2025 plus catch-up), so it never reduces your personal cap. Traditional and Roth 401(k) deferrals share this one limit.

Example and notes

A 52-year-old earning $120,000, paid bi-weekly (26 periods), who has already deferred $10,000 with 15 paychecks left: their limit is $31,000, leaving $21,000 to contribute. That is $1,400 per paycheck, or about 30.3% of their $4,615 gross pay. The tool flags if the required per-paycheck amount exceeds your gross pay, which means you cannot fully max out in the periods that remain.

These are the 2025 figures. Limits are indexed for inflation and change yearly, and your plan may impose its own deferral-percentage ceiling. All calculations run in your browser.