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See what your Roth IRA could become with our free roth ira calculator. Enter your current age, retirement age, annual contribution, and expected return — get your projected tax-free balance at retirement in seconds.
Projecting your tax-free retirement balance takes less than a minute. Follow these steps:
Pro tip: run the numbers at three return rates — 5% (conservative), 7% (expected), and 9% (optimistic). If your retirement goal is funded even at 5%, your plan is resilient. If it only works at 9%, plan to save more, work longer, or both.
A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account with a deal that sounds almost too good to be true: you fund it with after-tax contributions — money you have already paid income tax on — and in exchange, your investments grow tax-free and your qualified withdrawals in retirement are completely tax-free too. No taxes on decades of growth, and no taxes when you spend the money. The account was created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and named after Senator William Roth, and it has since become one of the most popular retirement vehicles in the United States.
The trade-off versus a traditional IRA is entirely about timing. A traditional IRA gives you a tax deduction today and taxes you later; a Roth IRA gives you no deduction today and charges you nothing later. That makes the Roth especially powerful if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket in retirement than you are now — the classic case for young professionals whose earnings (and tax rates) are likely to rise over their careers. It is also valuable as tax diversification: holding both pre-tax and Roth accounts lets you choose, year by year in retirement, which tax bucket to draw from, smoothing out your lifetime tax bill.
The IRS sets a yearly contribution limit on how much you can put in. For 2026 the limit is $7,000 if you are under 50, plus a $1,000 catch-up contribution — $8,000 total — if you are 50 or older. The limit applies across all your IRAs combined, so $7,000 split between a Roth and a traditional IRA is fine, but $7,000 into each would be an excess contribution subject to penalties. You must also have earned income at least equal to your contribution, and high earners face income phase-outs that reduce or eliminate direct Roth eligibility — which is exactly why the backdoor Roth strategy exists.
Tax-free withdrawals come with two conditions that together make a qualified distribution: your account must have been open for at least five years (the 5-year rule), and you must be 59½ or older, disabled, or using up to $10,000 for a first-time home purchase. Meet both conditions and every dollar — contributions and earnings alike — comes out free of federal income tax. Miss them and the earnings portion (never your original contributions) can face income tax plus a 10% early-withdrawal penalty, aside from a few hardship exceptions.
Two more features make the Roth unusually flexible. First, you can withdraw your original contributions at any time, for any reason, with no tax or penalty — only the earnings are locked behind the qualified-distribution rules, which makes a Roth a reasonable backup emergency reserve once it is funded. Second, unlike traditional IRAs and 401(k)s, Roth IRAs impose no required minimum distributions on the original owner, so the account can keep compounding untouched for your entire life and pass efficiently to your heirs. Enter your numbers in the calculator above to see what that lifetime of tax-free compounding could be worth to you.
One more strategic note: a Roth IRA pairs naturally with an employer plan. Many workers contribute to a 401(k) up to the employer match, then direct additional savings into a Roth IRA to build their tax-free bucket, then return to the 401(k) for anything beyond that. The accounts complement each other — pre-tax dollars lower today’s bill, Roth dollars erase tomorrow’s.
The calculator projects your balance with the future value of an annuity formula — the standard math for a series of equal annual deposits growing at a fixed rate:
FV = PMT × [((1 + r)n − 1) ÷ r]
Here PMT is your annual contribution, r is the expected annual return as a decimal (7% = 0.07), and n is the number of years between your current age and retirement age. The formula assumes each contribution is made at the end of the year and compounds annually — a close match to steady, automatic investing. Because Roth withdrawals are tax-free, the FV figure is the actual spending power you keep, unlike a pre-tax projection that still owes the IRS a cut.
Worked example 1 — the widget’s default scenario. You are 30, plan to retire at 65 (n = 35 years), contribute $7,000 a year, and expect 7% annually (r = 0.07):
You put in $245,000 over your career; compounding adds nearly three times that amount — and under Roth rules the entire $967,658.17 is yours to spend tax-free in retirement. These are the exact figures the widget above shows with its default settings; change any input to watch the math update live.
Worked example 2 — a mid-career saver. You are 40, plan to retire at 65 (n = 25 years), contribute the $7,000 maximum each year, and expect 6% annually:
Even starting at 40 with a more conservative 6% return, maxing out the Roth each year builds a $384,000 tax-free balance — more than double what you contributed. The formula rewards two things above all: starting early and contributing consistently, year after year.
Scenario 1: The early maxer. Emma is 28 and commits to contributing the full $7,000 every year until she retires at 65 — 37 years of deposits at a 7% expected return. Her lifetime contributions total $259,000, but the calculator projects a balance of roughly $1,122,362. Compounding contributes more than $863,000 — over three times what she put in — and every dollar arrives tax-free. Because Emma started in her twenties, her earliest contributions compound for nearly four decades; money invested at 28 is the hardest-working money she will ever own. If she had waited until 38 to start the identical plan, the same $7,000 a year would reach only about $521,387 — the ten-year delay costs her roughly $601,000.
Scenario 2: The catch-up contributor. Marcus is 52 with no Roth yet. He uses the age-50 catch-up rule to contribute $8,000 a year until 65 — 13 years at a 6% expected return. His $104,000 of contributions grows to about $151,057, including roughly $47,057 of tax-free growth. The balance is smaller than Emma’s because his time horizon is shorter, but Marcus still gains something priceless: a tax-free bucket to draw from in retirement alongside his taxable accounts, giving him year-by-year control over his tax bill. Starting late beats never starting — and the catch-up provision exists precisely for savers like him.
Try both scenarios in the calculator above. Then change just one input — add $1,000 to the annual contribution, or push retirement out two years — and watch the projected value jump. Seeing your own numbers move is what turns the formula from trivia into a plan you will actually follow.
Keep planning with our other free financial tools. Our retirement savings calculator projects your total nest egg across all accounts, and the 401(k) calculator models your employer plan including matching contributions. Compare account types with the IRA calculator, see pure compounding with the compound interest calculator, project any portfolio with the investment calculator, and estimate guaranteed income with the pension calculator.
This page provides a free Roth IRA calculator plus an original guide covering how to use the calculator, Roth IRA fundamentals (Roth IRA, after-tax contributions, tax-free withdrawals, contribution limit), the future value of an annuity formula with two worked examples, practical saving scenarios, five common mistakes, and eight FAQs. Key entities: SigmaCalculator.net, Roth IRA Calculator, future value of an annuity, 5-year rule, catch-up contributions, IRS contribution limits. The calculator projects a tax-free retirement balance from current age, retirement age, annual contribution, and expected annual return.
For 2026 you can contribute up to $7,000 to a Roth IRA if you are under 50, or $8,000 if you are 50 or older thanks to the $1,000 catch-up contribution. The limit applies across all your IRAs combined, and you need at least as much earned income as you contribute. High earners should also check the IRS income phase-out ranges, which can reduce or eliminate direct Roth eligibility.
It depends on your taxes now versus later. A Roth IRA is usually better if you expect to be in the same or a higher tax bracket in retirement, since you pay tax now and never again — ideal for younger earners. A traditional IRA’s upfront deduction wins if you expect a lower tax rate in retirement. Many savers hedge by holding both.
Yes. You can withdraw the money you originally contributed at any time, for any reason, with no taxes and no penalty — that flexibility is unique to Roth IRAs. The restriction applies to earnings: withdrawing investment gains before age 59½ (and before the 5-year rule is met) generally triggers income tax plus a 10% penalty.
At a 7% average annual return, $7,000 contributed each year for 35 years grows to about $967,658 — from only $245,000 of total contributions. The remaining $722,658 is tax-free growth you keep in full at withdrawal. Try the calculator above with your own age and return assumptions.
The 5-year rule says your Roth IRA must have been open for at least five tax years before earnings withdrawals count as qualified (tax-free). The clock starts on January 1 of the year you made your first contribution — even a small one — so opening the account early starts the countdown. Each Roth conversion has its own separate 5-year clock.
No — the original owner of a Roth IRA never faces required minimum distributions, unlike traditional IRAs and 401(k)s. Your money can keep growing tax-free for your entire life. Inherited Roth IRAs are different: most non-spouse beneficiaries must empty the account within 10 years, though those withdrawals are generally still tax-free.
Yes — 401(k)s and IRAs have separate limits, so you can max out both in the same year. In 2026 that means up to $7,000 in your Roth IRA ($8,000 if you are 50 or older) on top of your full 401(k) contributions. A common strategy: contribute enough to your 401(k) to capture the full employer match, then fund your Roth IRA, then add more to the 401(k).
Direct Roth contributions phase out above certain incomes — the IRS sets new thresholds each year, so check the current figures before you contribute. If you earn too much, the backdoor Roth strategy lets you contribute to a traditional IRA (no income limit for nondeductible contributions) and then convert it to a Roth. The pro-rata rule can complicate this if you hold other pre-tax IRA balances, so review the tax implications first.
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APA: SigmaCalculator. (2026). Roth IRA calculator. https://sigmacalculator.net/financial-calculators/roth-ira-calculator/
MLA: “Roth IRA Calculator.” SigmaCalculator, 8 Oct. 2026, https://sigmacalculator.net/financial-calculators/roth-ira-calculator/.
Chicago: SigmaCalculator. “Roth IRA Calculator.” Last modified October 8, 2026. https://sigmacalculator.net/financial-calculators/roth-ira-calculator/.
Last updated: October 8, 2026