FSA Calculator

A Flexible Spending Account is a Section 125 cafeteria-plan benefit that lets you pay for eligible expenses with pre-tax salary. It sounds like a Health Savings Account, and the tax mechanics are similar, but the two accounts behave very differently in practice:

• An FSA is "use it or lose it." Unspent funds above your plan's carryover (if any) are forfeited at year-end. An HSA has no such deadline — see our HSA calculator if that's the account you actually have.
• An FSA's full annual election is available on day one of the plan year, regardless of how much you've contributed so far. An HSA only holds what's actually been deposited.
• An FSA requires no HDHP enrollment — anyone whose employer offers one can participate.

Because the forfeiture risk is the account's defining feature, this calculator's third mode exists specifically to help you avoid it — something most FSA "calculators" online skip entirely in favor of a bare limit lookup. All three modes run in your browser; nothing you type is sent to a server.

Set annually by the IRS for the health FSA, and by statute (not inflation indexing) for the dependent care FSA. Current figures, from Revenue Procedure 2025-32 and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act:

The health FSA limit is per employee, not per household. A married couple who each have access to their own employer's FSA can each elect up to $3,400, for a combined $6,800 — unlike the dependent care FSA, which is one limit per household regardless of who earns it or how many employers are involved.

Employer contributions are generally not counted against the $3,400 limit, unlike an HSA where they are. The exception: if you could take the employer's contribution as cash instead, it's treated as your own salary reduction and does count.

The single most common FSA mistake is electing more than you'll actually spend. Employers are allowed — but not required — to offer one of two relief options:

• Carryover — up to $680 of unused 2026 funds can roll into the next plan year. This does not count against next year's new election.
• Grace period — up to 2.5 extra months to spend the prior year's balance, instead of a dollar carryover. A plan can offer one or the other, not both.

Neither is guaranteed — check your plan documents. If your plan offers neither, anything left unspent on December 31 is simply gone; it does not roll back to your paycheck.

The "Right-Size My Election" mode exists to make this concrete: enter what you honestly expect to spend, compare it against the election you're considering, and see the forfeiture or out-of-pocket gap in dollars rather than guessing.

Health FSA Tax Savings mode

Enter your income, filing status, and the election you're considering. Unlike an HSA, FSA contributions only exist inside payroll — there's no "direct contribution" path to compare, so the FICA savings shown always apply.

Dependent Care FSA mode

A separate account with its own separate limit — you can max out both a health FSA and a DCAP in the same year. Set your election up to the $7,500 household cap.

Right-Size My Election mode

Enter a conservative estimate of eligible expenses (copays, prescriptions, dental, vision, planned procedures), the election you're weighing, and whether your plan offers a carryover. The result shows whether you'd forfeit funds, pay out of pocket, or land in a well-matched range — plus the safe maximum you could elect given your carryover cushion.

See related tools: the HSA calculator for high-deductible-plan accounts, the ACA subsidy calculator for marketplace premium tax credits, and the federal income tax estimator for your full picture beyond payroll benefits.