529 college savings calculator

Calculate your projected 529 shortfall or surplus

Math: college cost for each enrollment year = today's annual cost × (1 + inflation rate)^{years out}, summed over 4 years. Projected 529 balance = current balance × (1 + monthly return)^months, plus the future value of the monthly contributions over the same period. This is a projection based on your assumptions, not a guarantee; actual investment returns and college costs vary and are never certain.

What is a 529 plan?

A 529 plan is a state-sponsored, tax-advantaged investment account for education costs. The money you contribute grows tax-free, and when you withdraw it to pay for qualified education expenses, such as tuition, fees, books, and room and board, that withdrawal is also tax-free at the federal level, according to the IRS. Contributions themselves are not deductible on your federal return (some states offer a state income tax deduction or credit for contributions to that state's plan), but the tax-free growth and tax-free qualified withdrawals are the whole point of the account. Take money out for something that is not a qualified education expense, and the earnings portion is subject to income tax plus a 10% additional tax, so the tax break is real but conditional on how the money gets spent.

Why does college cost more by the time your child enrolls?

College prices have historically climbed faster than everyday prices. Federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows average tuition, fees, room, and board at 4-year institutions have risen substantially faster than general consumer prices over the long run, and the College Board's most recent Trends in College Pricing report puts 2025-26 published tuition and fees up 2.9% to 4.0% year over year across public and private four-year schools, depending on the type of school. That is why the calculator above uses a separate college cost inflation rate (5% by default) rather than assuming college costs rise at the same pace as general inflation. It also means the cost keeps climbing during the four years your child is actually enrolled, not just before: in the default projection above, senior year costs about $7,431 more than freshman year, purely from four more years of compounding cost growth.

How much does starting early actually change the outcome?

Time to compound is the single biggest lever in this calculation, more than the return you earn on the account. Here is the same target, a $25,000-a-year cost today rising 5% a year, starting from a $0 balance, showing only the monthly contribution needed to fully fund the 4-year cost by age 18, at different starting ages:

Math derived from the same formulas used in the calculator above.

Starting at birth instead of at age 10 requires less than half the monthly contribution, even though the target cost is higher, because the extra 10 years give the account far more time to compound. Waiting is not free: every year you delay, the monthly amount needed to hit the same goal climbs faster than the underlying cost does.

How much can you contribute to a 529 plan?

There is no federal annual dollar limit on 529 contributions, but contributions above the annual gift tax exclusion, $19,000 per contributor per beneficiary for 2026 (the IRS confirmed this figure is unchanged from 2025), count against your lifetime gift and estate tax exemption and generally require filing a gift tax return if exceeded in a single year. A married couple can generally combine exclusions for $38,000 per beneficiary. 529 plans also allow a special "superfunding" election: you can front-load up to five years of annual exclusions at once, up to $95,000 from one person ($190,000 from a married couple) in a single year per beneficiary, treated as if spread evenly over five years, without touching your lifetime exemption. States also set their own aggregate account maximums (often $300,000 to $550,000 per beneficiary), which cap total contributions rather than annual ones.

What happens to 529 money you do not use?

You are not locked in if your child gets a scholarship, does not attend college, or the account ends up with more than they need. You can change the account's beneficiary to another qualifying family member with no tax consequence. Under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022, you can also roll over up to $35,000 over the beneficiary's lifetime from a 529 plan directly into a Roth IRA in that beneficiary's name, provided the 529 account has been open at least 15 years and the rollover follows the beneficiary's annual Roth IRA contribution limits and earned income. Outside of these paths, a withdrawal that is not for qualified education expenses owes ordinary income tax plus a 10% additional tax on the earnings portion only, not on your original contributions.

Do you have to fully fund the whole cost yourself?

No. The monthly figure this calculator shows for "fully funding" the total 4-year cost is the amount needed if the 529 account alone is expected to cover everything, and that is a deliberately conservative framing, not a requirement. In practice, most families cover college through some mix of 529 savings, financial aid (need-based grants and scholarships identified through the FAFSA), current income while the student is enrolled, and, for the remaining gap, federal student loans. A 529 shortfall in this calculator is not a crisis number; it is a starting point for deciding how much of the gap you want to close with savings versus other sources. This site does not give personal financial advice and cannot tell you the right mix for your situation.

The flat truth

Because college costs compound upward and 529 contributions compound upward too, the date you start matters more than almost anything else you control. A 529 plan's tax-free growth and tax-free qualified withdrawals are a real, quantifiable advantage over a plain savings account, but they do not change the arithmetic of time: the earlier a dollar goes in, the more years it has to grow before tuition is due. Run your own numbers above, and treat the "shortfall" or "surplus" figure as a planning input, not a verdict; a shortfall is normal and is meant to be closed with some combination of savings, aid, and income, not savings alone.

Related guides

If loans end up covering part of the gap, see how student loan interest works to understand how a balance grows if it is not paid, and check FAFSA deadlines for when to file for aid that can shrink the gap before loans are even needed. For the underlying compounding math this calculator uses, in a general savings context (not just college), see the compound interest calculator.