The employee deferral is the percent of salary you enter, capped at the 2026 employee limit used in this tool, $24,500. The employer match is the match percent of salary, and it cannot exceed the employee deferral. Each year the balance grows by that combined contribution at the annual rate you enter. Catch-up contributions for older workers are not added on top of the cap.
A $100,000 salary with a 10% deferral is $10,000, which is under the $24,500 cap. A match of 4% of pay is $4,000, and because that is less than the deferral, the full $4,000 is added. The yearly addition is $14,000 before growth. A match percent that would exceed the deferral is cut back to the deferral.
This is a United States 401(k). It is not an RRSP, a TFSA, or a Canadian pension adjustment. The $24,500 figure is the employee elective deferral limit used here for 2026, not a personal IRS determination, and it does not include a catch-up amount.