Calculator
401(k) Calculator with Employer Match
This calculator projects your 401(k) balance with the employer match counted separately, so you can see what's yours, what's free money, and what compounding does with both. On a $70,000 salary, contributing 6% with a 50%-of-the-first-6% match for 30 years at 7% (with 2% raises), the projected balance is about $785,000 — roughly $85,000 of it employer contributions you'd simply not get otherwise, before their growth.
Your numbers
How is an employer 401(k) match calculated?
Each month, your contribution (your percentage of that month's salary) and your employer's match go into the balance, and the whole balance grows at the return you entered, compounded monthly. Salary — and therefore both contributions — grows once a year by your raise assumption. The match formula covers the common structure: "rate% of the first cap%" — so "100% of the first 3%" is rate 100, cap 3, and "50% of the first 6%" is rate 50, cap 6. Both cost your employer the same 3% of salary, but the second only pays out in full if you contribute 6%.
The receipt splits the ending balance into your money, employer money, and growth — because the employer line is the point: contributing below the match cap leaves part of your compensation unclaimed. A full match is an instant 50–100% return on those dollars before the market does anything at all.
One thing this page deliberately doesn't model: contribution dollar limits, which the IRS adjusts every year. If your percentage implies contributions near the annual limit, check the current figure at irs.gov. Remember vesting, too — employer money may only become fully yours after a few years of service.
A worked example
The defaults: $70,000 salary, contributing 6% with a 50%-of-first-6% match. You put in $4,200 the first year; your employer adds $2,100. Over 30 years at 7% with 2% raises, the employer's contributions alone — money you'd simply not get otherwise — compound into six figures. Press Calculate and look at the "employer match" line; that's the cost of not taking the match. The reason thirty years does that to $2,100 a year is compounding, shown with real numbers.
Common questions
I can't afford the full match percentage. Contribute what you can, but know the trade: every 1% below the cap forfeits the match on that slice. Even stepping up 1% per year (some plans automate this) captures more of it.
Traditional or Roth 401(k)? Traditional contributions skip tax now and are taxed at withdrawal; Roth is the reverse. The match is typically traditional either way. See 401(k) and IRA in the glossary for the two-sentence versions.
Is 7% guaranteed? No — it's a long-run average that includes crashes (bear markets) and booms. Real sequences vary, and the result is in future dollars — inflation means they'll buy less than today's.
General information, not personalized financial or tax advice. Plan rules vary — your summary plan description is the authority on your match and vesting. Found an error? Tell us and we'll fix it.