People search “Roth IRA contribution limits” as if the IRS publishes one number. It publishes two tests that share the name. The first is the dollar ceiling on IRA contributions: $7,500 if you are under 50, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older, for 2026. That ceiling is shared across every traditional IRA and Roth IRA you fund, and it cannot exceed your taxable compensation. The second is the MAGI phase-out that can shrink or zero a direct Roth even when that dollar ceiling is still open. For 2026 the band is $153,000 to $168,000 if you file single or head of household, $242,000 to $252,000 if you file married filing jointly, and $0 to $10,000 if you file married filing separately and lived with your spouse. The IRS newsroom COLA notice and Notice 2025-67 set those dollars. Publication 590-A and the retirement-topics IRA contribution limits page write the two tests. Clearing one does not clear the other.
What are the Roth IRA contribution limits for 2026?
The 2026 Roth IRA contribution limits are two figures that answer different questions: $7,500 of IRA room ($8,600 at age 50 or older), and a MAGI band that can cut a direct Roth below that room or close it.
Name which test you mean before you decide you are maxed. Under the MAGI band, the dollar ceiling can still be open. At $7,500 of IRA deposits, a direct Roth can still have been closed.
What MAGI is is the worksheet that feeds the second test. 401(k) contribution limits for 2026 are a different statute. Filling one leaves the other untouched.
What is the 2026 IRA dollar ceiling?
The 2026 IRA dollar ceiling is $7,500, or $8,600 if you attain age 50 before year-end.
Notice 2025-67 raised the section 219(b)(5)(A) limit from $7,000 to $7,500 and the age-50 amount under section 219(b)(5)(B)(ii) from $1,000 to $1,100. The retirement-topics page publishes the combined $8,600 figure. That page also caps the same total at taxable compensation if compensation is smaller.
Traditional and Roth IRAs share the ceiling. $5,000 in a traditional IRA leaves $2,500 of Roth room before MAGI is applied, or $3,600 if you qualify for catch-up. Publication 590-A reduces the Roth piece by contributions for the year to IRAs other than Roth IRAs. Employer deposits under a SEP or SIMPLE stay outside that employee ceiling. Rollovers stay outside it too.
Compensation here is wages, salaries, tips, professional fees, bonuses, self-employment income, and the other items Publication 590-A lists. Interest and dividends do not count. If you file jointly, a spouse with no compensation can still use the Kay Bailey Hutchison spousal limit: each spouse can fund an IRA up to the dollar ceiling, and the combined deposits cannot exceed the compensation on the joint return.
What MAGI phase-out shrinks a direct Roth?
A direct Roth contribution phases out, then closes, once Roth MAGI enters the 2026 band for your filing status.
Notice 2025-67 writes those bands under section 408A(c)(3):
- Single or head of household: $153,000 to $168,000.
- Married filing jointly, or qualifying surviving spouse: $242,000 to $252,000.
- Married filing separately, if you lived with your spouse at any time during the year: $0 to $10,000.
Publication 590-A Table 2-1 treats a married person who files separately and did not live with their spouse at any time during the year as using the single band.
The MAGI on that table is not Form 1040 line 11 by itself. Publication 590-A Worksheet 2-1 starts from AGI, subtracts taxable Roth conversions and qualified-plan-to-Roth rollovers, then adds items such as the traditional IRA deduction and the student loan interest deduction. A conversion year can look over the band on line 11 and under it on Worksheet 2-1. How a Roth conversion counts as income is the tax on the converted dollars. This post is the contribution test that uses that MAGI.
The traditional IRA deduction has its own 2026 MAGI bands, and those bands turn on workplace-plan coverage. They are not this Roth test. The newsroom notice lists them separately.
Does clearing one test clear the other?
No. The dollar ceiling does not rise because MAGI is under the phase-out. Hitting $7,500 does not mean a direct Roth was open.
You can sit under the MAGI band and still have no Roth room left, because $7,500 already went into a traditional IRA. You can also deposit $7,500 and still have been over the income gate. The two failures look the same in a year-end statement: the Roth did not get the money you expected. The fix is different.
The backdoor Roth exists because of the MAGI gate. It is a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution plus a conversion, then Form 8606. It is not extra room on top of $7,500. The dollar ceiling still applies to the first step.
How does the phase-out shrink a contribution inside the band?
Inside the band, Publication 590-A Worksheet 2-2 reduces the direct Roth. Above the top of the band, the direct Roth is zero.
The worksheet takes Roth MAGI, subtracts the bottom of the band, divides by the width of the band ($15,000 for single or head of household, $10,000 for married filing jointly or for married filing separately if you lived with your spouse), and applies that decimal to the dollar ceiling (or to compensation, if compensation is smaller). It rounds the leftover up to the nearest $10. If the leftover is more than $0 and less than $200, the worksheet raises it to $200. Other IRA contributions for the year then come off what remains.
Take a single filer under age 50, with compensation above the ceiling, MAGI of $160,500, and no traditional IRA deposit. MAGI sits $7,500 above the $153,000 floor. $7,500 divided by the $15,000 single width is 0.500. Half of $7,500 is $3,750. Direct Roth room for that year is $3,750. The same person at $168,000 or more has no direct Roth room.
Do that math on Worksheet 2-2 with your own MAGI. The HTML publication still shows 2025 floors in some worksheet rows. Use the 2026 floors from Notice 2025-67.
What if MAGI is over the Roth phase-out?
A direct Roth contribution is closed. The dollar ceiling can still be open for a traditional IRA.
That is the usual path into a backdoor Roth: fund the traditional IRA without a deduction, then convert. Publication 590-A still applies the $7,500 (or $8,600) ceiling to that contribution. Form 8606 then taxes the conversion against every traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA you own on December 31. Empty the pre-tax pile before you fund the two-step, or skip it.
After-tax leftover under section 415(c) inside a 401(k) is the mega backdoor Roth. Those dollars stay off Form 8606 while they remain in the plan. Filling the IRA ceiling leaves that 415(c) leftover untouched.
Do 401(k) deferrals use this same ceiling?
No. Employee elective deferrals use the 2026 section 402(g) cap of $24,500. The IRA dollar ceiling is separate.
A $24,500 401(k) deferral does not spend the $7,500 IRA ceiling. An IRA deposit does not spend 402(g). See 401(k) contribution limits for 2026 for the three plan ceilings. Workplace coverage can still change whether a traditional IRA deposit is deductible. It does not, by itself, close a Roth. Roth MAGI does that.
When can you make a 2026 Roth IRA contribution?
You can contribute for 2026 during 2026, or by the due date of the 2026 return, not including extensions.
Publication 590-A writes that rule for Roth IRAs the same way it writes it for traditional IRAs. For most people the 2026 due date is April 15, 2027. A deposit between January 1 and that April date needs a year designation. If you do not tell the custodian, the custodian can treat it as a current-year contribution.
An excess Roth contribution (more than the dollar ceiling, more than compensation, or a direct Roth after MAGI closed it) is subject to a 6% excise tax for each year the excess stays in the IRA. Withdraw the excess and its earnings by the due date, including extensions, and Publication 590-A treats the contribution as not made. The earnings are income for the year you contributed.
There is no age cap on a regular Roth contribution. That rule changed for 2020 and later.
How does Nino map the 2 tests?
Nino maps the shared IRA dollar ceiling and the Roth MAGI phase-out against the household file, with a CFP and a CPA on the same numbers for 1 flat annual fee.
The work is which test still has room, whether a traditional IRA deposit already spent the ceiling, and whether MAGI points at a direct Roth, a reduced worksheet amount, or the backdoor two-step.
Book a demo if you want that map before you contribute. Every Advisor Plan includes a 30-day money-back guarantee.