The most you can contribute to an IRA in 2026 is $7,500, or $8,600 if you’re age 50 or older. That limit applies to your combined contributions across all traditional and Roth IRAs you own, not to each account separately.
2026 IRA Contribution Limits
The IRS raised the base IRA contribution limit to $7,500 for 2026, up from $7,000 in 2025. The catch-up contribution for people 50 and older also increased, going from $1,000 to $1,100. That means the total maximum for older savers is $8,600.
These limits are the same whether you contribute to a traditional IRA, a Roth IRA, or split your contributions between both. If you put $4,000 into a traditional IRA, you can only put up to $3,500 into a Roth IRA (assuming you’re under 50). The combined total across all your IRAs cannot exceed the annual cap.
Your Earned Income Sets a Second Cap
There’s another rule that sometimes matters more than the dollar limit: you can’t contribute more than your taxable compensation for the year. If you earned $5,000 in wages, your IRA contribution limit is $5,000, even though the general cap is $7,500.
Taxable compensation includes wages, salaries, commissions, tips, bonuses, and net income from self-employment. It does not include rental income, interest, dividends, pension payments, or deferred compensation. In certain cases, alimony received under older divorce agreements and some payments related to graduate studies also count as compensation.
If you’re married and file a joint return, a working spouse’s income can support IRA contributions for a non-working spouse. This is sometimes called a spousal IRA. Both spouses can each contribute up to the full limit as long as the working spouse’s taxable compensation covers both contributions combined.
Roth IRA Income Limits
Traditional IRAs have no income limit on contributions (though your ability to deduct them on your taxes may be limited). Roth IRAs are different. If your modified adjusted gross income is too high, your allowable Roth contribution shrinks or disappears entirely.
The IRS sets income phase-out ranges each year based on your filing status. Once your income enters the phase-out range, you can only make a partial Roth contribution. Above the top of the range, direct Roth contributions aren’t allowed at all. These thresholds are adjusted annually for inflation, so check the current year’s figures on the IRS website or in your brokerage’s contribution calculator.
If your income puts you over the Roth limit, you can still contribute to a traditional IRA (the contribution just won’t be tax-deductible if you’re also covered by a workplace retirement plan). Some higher-income savers use a strategy called a backdoor Roth, where you make a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution and then convert it to a Roth. This is legal but has tax implications if you hold other pre-tax IRA balances.
Traditional IRA Deduction Rules
Anyone with earned income can contribute to a traditional IRA regardless of income. The question is whether you can deduct that contribution on your tax return, which is what gives traditional IRAs their upfront tax benefit.
If neither you nor your spouse is covered by a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k), your traditional IRA contributions are fully deductible no matter how much you earn. If you or your spouse is covered by a workplace plan, the deduction starts phasing out once your income crosses a certain threshold. Above the phase-out range, your contributions are nondeductible. You can still make them, but you won’t get a tax break in the year you contribute.
Contribution Deadlines
You have until the federal tax filing deadline, typically April 15 of the following year, to make IRA contributions for a given tax year. That means you can make your 2026 contributions anytime from January 1, 2026, through mid-April 2027. When you contribute, your brokerage will ask which tax year the contribution applies to.
This flexibility is useful if you want to max out your IRA but can’t do it all at once. You can spread contributions throughout the year or make a lump sum before the deadline. Just be clear about which tax year you’re designating, especially if you’re contributing in January through April when two tax years overlap.
What Happens If You Contribute Too Much
If you exceed the limit, the IRS considers the excess an “excess contribution” and charges a 6% penalty tax on the overage for each year it remains in the account. The simplest fix is to withdraw the excess amount, plus any earnings it generated, before your tax filing deadline for that year. If you catch it in time, you avoid the penalty entirely. Your brokerage can process this as a “removal of excess contribution,” which is a specific type of withdrawal they handle routinely.
IRAs and Workplace Plans Together
IRA limits are completely separate from 401(k), 403(b), and other workplace retirement plan limits. Contributing to a 401(k) does not reduce the amount you can put into an IRA. If you have access to both, you can max out your workplace plan and still contribute the full $7,500 (or $8,600) to an IRA, as long as you meet the income and earned compensation requirements. The only thing a workplace plan affects is whether your traditional IRA contributions are tax-deductible.