Annual figures · Federal retirement
TSP contribution limits for 2026, and what the match does not count against
The TSP contribution limits for 2026 start with $24,500 of your own money across traditional and Roth together, up 4.3% on 2025. Anyone turning 50 or older can add $8,000, and anyone aged 60 to 63 can add $11,250 instead. Agency and service matching sits outside those figures entirely and counts only against the $72,000 annual additions limit. Checked against the IRS and tsp.gov on 10 September 2026.
Verified 10 September 2026 against IRS and tsp.gov Next figures announced late October
Elective deferral
$24,500Your own money, traditional and Roth combined
Catch-up at 50
$8,000On top, from the year you turn 50
Catch-up at 60 to 63
$11,250Those four years only, then back down
Annual additions
$72,000Everything that lands in the account
The four figures do different jobs and the difference between the first and the last is where most of the confusion lives. The elective deferral limit governs money you choose to put in. The annual additions limit governs the total that arrives from every source, which for a FERS employee means their own contributions plus the automatic 1% plus the matching, and it excludes catch-up contributions entirely. The gap between $24,500 and $72,000 is the room the agency contributions occupy.
How to lose the match
Hitting the limit early stops the match for the rest of the year
The agency match is calculated each pay period on what you contributed in that pay period. It is not trued up at the end of the year. A participant who reaches the annual limit in October collects no match in November or December.
Take a FERS employee on $100,000 contributing 25% of pay across 26 pay periods. They reach the $24,500 limit in pay period 26, their contributions stop, and the $192 of matching they would have earned in each of the remaining 0 periods does not arrive. That is $0 of agency money left behind in a single year, for the sake of reaching the same annual total a few months sooner.
Spreading the same $24,500 evenly comes to $942 a pay period and collects the match in all 26 of them. The plan publishes its own version of this warning for the year a participant turns 64, when the higher catch-up limit drops back to the ordinary one, advising people to lower their contribution amount at the start of that year so they do not hit the lower ceiling early and miss matching for the rest of it. The same arithmetic applies every year, not only that one.
Catch-up contributions are no longer a separate election. Once total contributions reach the elective deferral limit, anything further automatically counts toward the catch-up limit, and tsp.gov confirms those contributions can still qualify for matching up to 5% of salary. For BRS participants there is a second ceiling: catch-up contributions made after the annual additions limit is reached are not matched.
The last four years
The elective deferral limit rose 8.9% between 2023 and 2026
The limits are indexed to inflation and announced together each autumn, so they move in steps rather than smoothly, and a flat year is normal rather than a sign of anything.
| Year | Elective deferral | Catch-up 50+ | Catch-up 60 to 63 | Annual additions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | $24,500 | $8,000 | $11,250 | $72,000 |
| 2025 | $23,500 | $7,500 | $11,250 | $70,000 |
| 2024 | $23,000 | $7,500 | n/a | $69,000 |
| 2023 | $22,500 | $7,500 | n/a | $66,000 |
The age 60 to 63 catch-up is a SECURE 2.0 provision and shows n/a for years before it took effect. It applies in those four years only, and drops back to the ordinary catch-up in the year a participant turns 64.
Weighing a move out of the plan? The match tool asks six questions about your account and shows the custodians that take a TSP, with their fee schedules, before anyone phones you. Start the match tool.
Combat zone pay
Tax-exempt combat pay sits outside the elective deferral limit
The one route by which a TSP participant can legitimately put far more than the annual limit into the account in a single year, and the rules attached to it are specific.
tsp.gov states that for uniformed services members the elective deferral limit does not apply to traditional contributions made from combat-zone pay. A deployed service member can therefore contribute well beyond $24,500 in a year, bounded instead by the annual additions limit of $72,000, which is the ceiling that applies to everything landing in the account from every source.
Two conditions attach and both matter at rollover time. Catch-up contributions made while earning tax-exempt pay have to be Roth regardless of income, and they cannot be drawn from incentive, special or bonus pay. That leaves a service member with a balance containing tax-exempt money alongside traditional and Roth money, and a receiving custodian has to be able to track all three separately. Whether a given gold IRA custodian can is a question worth asking before any paperwork is signed, and it is on the list in the military TSP page.
Method
Every figure on this page is a published annual number read off the IRS and tsp.gov pages listed alongside, on 10 September 2026, rather than computed from anything. The worked example in the match section uses a $100,000 salary, 26 pay periods and a 5% match to illustrate the mechanism, and those three inputs are ours rather than the plan's. The next set of figures is announced in late October and this page is updated when it lands.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service, COLA increases for dollar limitations on benefits and contributions, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Internal Revenue Service, Retirement topics, 401(k) and profit-sharing plan contribution limits, retrieved 10 September 2026
- Thrift Savings Plan, Contribution limits, retrieved 10 September 2026
The Digest Perspective
A rollover is not a contribution and does not touch these limits
· Gold IRA Digest Editorial Team
People arrive at this page from two different questions and only one of them is about limits. Moving an existing balance out of the TSP is a rollover, and a rollover consumes none of the $24,500 and none of the $72,000. Those figures govern new money going in. Anyone who has been told a rollover will use up their annual limit has been told something false, and it is worth knowing who told them.
The limits do matter for the decision in one indirect way. A participant who leaves the plan stops being eligible for the agency match on future contributions, and at 5% of salary that match is the single highest-return feature of any retirement account available to a federal employee. Nothing bought with the proceeds has to merely perform well. It has to outperform by enough to cover a guaranteed 5% of pay given up.
The strongest argument against us
None of this argues against contributing the maximum, and the match point cuts against leaving the plan while still employed rather than against gold as an asset. A separated or retired participant is not giving up any match, because there is no salary left to match, so the strongest reason on this page to stay does not apply to them at all.
What we would actually check
Whether you are still employed, because that changes the answer more than anything else here. Whether contributions are spread across all 26 pay periods, since front-loading quietly costs $0 in the example above. And whether a balance containing combat-zone tax-exempt money is going somewhere that can track it separately, because not every custodian can.
We are not a licensed adviser and none of this is a recommendation to buy.
Questions
TSP contribution limit questions
What is the TSP contribution limit for 2026?
$24,500 of your own money, combining traditional and Roth, which the IRS calls the elective deferral limit. On top of that you can add $8,000 in the year you turn 50 or later, or $11,250 in the years you are 60, 61, 62 or 63. Agency or service matching does not count against either figure. Everything together is capped by the annual additions limit of $72,000. Checked against IRS and tsp.gov on 10 September 2026.
Does the agency match count against the TSP contribution limit?
No, and this is the most common misreading of the rules. tsp.gov states plainly that the elective deferral limit does not include matching contributions, so a FERS employee contributing the full $24,500 and receiving a 5% match is putting more than that into the account. What the match does count against is the annual additions limit of $72,000, which covers employee contributions, the automatic 1% and the match together, and excludes catch-up contributions.
Can I lose the TSP match by contributing too much too early?
Yes, and it is the most expensive avoidable mistake in the plan. The match is calculated each pay period on what you contributed that period, so once you hit the elective deferral limit your contributions stop, and with them the match for every remaining pay period of the year. tsp.gov gives its own version of this warning for the year you turn 64, advising participants to lower their contribution amount at the start of that year so they do not reach the lower catch-up limit early and miss matching for the rest of it.
When does the IRS announce the next TSP contribution limit?
In late October, in the same annual notice that carries the 401(k), 403(b) and IRA figures. The 2026 elective deferral limit came in at $24,500, up 4.3% on 2025, and the limits are indexed to inflation so they rise in most years and stay flat in a few. This page is updated when the notice lands.
Does moving my TSP to a gold IRA use up my contribution limit?
No. A rollover moves money that is already inside a retirement account and is not a contribution, so it consumes none of the $24,500 elective deferral limit and none of the $72,000 annual additions limit. Those figures govern new money going in. A direct rollover sends the balance from the plan straight to the receiving custodian with no tax withheld, while an indirect rollover pays you first, withholding applies, and the full original amount has to be redeposited inside 60 days out of your own pocket. Once it lands in a self-directed IRA the purity rules take over, so bullion has to meet the fineness standard in section 408(m) and sit at an approved depository rather than at home, and the storage fee and the premium over spot are both charges the TSP does not have.
Do combat zone contributions count against the TSP limit?
Not against the elective deferral limit. tsp.gov states that for uniformed services members the limit does not apply to traditional contributions from combat-zone pay, which is why a deployed service member can put far more than $24,500 into the account in a year. The annual additions limit of $72,000 still applies. Catch-up contributions made while earning tax-exempt combat pay have to be Roth, and cannot come from incentive, special or bonus pay.
What the five funds returned, and what each one costs, is on TSP returns since 2003. The blends the plan builds from them are on the Lifecycle funds tracker. The rules governing the account itself are on TSP rules.