Roth IRA Calculator
Estimate how large your Roth IRA could grow by retirement, with every dollar of growth coming out tax-free. Enter your current balance, contributions, expected return, and ages, then add your marginal tax rate to see how much more the Roth keeps versus the same money in a taxable brokerage account.
Formula
Worked example
Starting with $25,000, adding $7,000 a year at 7% for 30 years: the $25,000 grows to 25,000 x 1.07^30 ~ $190,306, and the contributions grow to 7,000 x ((1.07^30 - 1) / 0.07) ~ $661,226, for a Roth balance near $851,532, of which roughly $616,532 is tax-free growth. The same plan in a taxable account at a 22% rate grows at only 5.46% a year, reaching about $584,000, so the Roth keeps roughly $267,000 more.
How a Roth IRA grows tax-free
A Roth IRA is funded with after-tax dollars, meaning you pay income tax on the money before it goes in. In return, every dollar of investment growth, dividends, interest, and capital gains, compounds without being taxed, and qualified withdrawals in retirement are completely tax-free. This calculator compounds your current balance and each annual contribution to your chosen retirement age, then separates the total into what you contributed and the growth you earned on top.
Roth IRA versus a taxable brokerage account
Add your marginal tax rate and the calculator runs the same contributions through a regular taxable account, where each year of gains is taxed at your bracket. That tax drag lowers the effective return from r to r times one minus your tax rate, so the taxable account ends up smaller. The difference is the Roth advantage: money the Roth keeps that a taxed account would hand to the IRS over the years. The chart and the year-by-year schedule show the two paths side by side so you can see the gap widen as compounding works on the untaxed balance.
Contribution limits and the five-year rule
The IRS caps annual Roth IRA contributions, $7,500 for 2026, with an extra $1,100 catch-up if you are 50 or older, and phases out eligibility at higher incomes. Turn on "maximize contributions" to use the limit for your age automatically. To withdraw earnings tax-free you generally must be at least 59 and a half and have held a Roth IRA for at least five years. Your own contributions can be withdrawn at any time without tax or penalty, since you already paid tax on them, which makes the Roth unusually flexible compared with a traditional IRA.
Why starting early matters most
Because growth compounds, the years closest to today are worth far more than the years near retirement. A contribution made at age 25 has four extra decades to multiply, while the same dollar added at 55 barely doubles. Increasing your return assumption or your contribution helps, but lengthening the time horizon is usually the single most powerful lever, which is why automating contributions and starting as early as possible tends to dominate the final balance.
2026 Roth IRA contribution limits
| Age | Annual limit |
|---|---|
| Under 50 | $7,500 |
| 50 and older | $8,600 (with $1,100 catch-up) |
IRS annual contribution limits. Eligibility phases out at higher modified adjusted gross incomes.
Frequently asked questions
How much will my Roth IRA be worth at retirement?
It depends on your current balance, how much you add each year, your rate of return, and how long until retirement. Enter those values above to project a balance. As a rough example, $7,000 a year at 7% for 30 years grows to roughly $660,000 from contributions alone, before counting any starting balance.
How much better is a Roth IRA than a taxable account?
Because a Roth grows untaxed, it avoids the yearly tax drag a brokerage account pays on interest, dividends and realized gains. Enter your marginal tax rate and the calculator shows the taxable account balance and the Roth advantage, the extra amount the Roth keeps. At a 22% rate over a few decades that gap often runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Are Roth IRA withdrawals really tax-free?
Qualified withdrawals are. Because you contributed after-tax money, both your contributions and all investment growth come out tax-free once you are at least 59 and a half and have held a Roth IRA for five years. Your contributions (but not the earnings) can be withdrawn earlier without tax or penalty.
What return rate should I use?
There is no guaranteed return, but a long-run estimate of 6-8% before inflation is common for a diversified stock-heavy portfolio. Use a more conservative figure as you approach retirement and shift toward bonds. Remember these projections are not inflation-adjusted, so future dollars buy less than today’s.