HSA Calculator

A Health Savings Account is the only account in the US tax code with a triple tax advantage: contributions are deductible, growth is untaxed, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free. No 401(k), IRA, or Roth account does all three.

That makes the interesting question less "what's the limit" and more "what is this actually worth to me." This calculator answers three separate questions, and you pick which one you're asking:

• Contribution room — how much you can still legally put in this year, after your employer's contributions and any months you weren't eligible.
• Tax savings — what contributing actually saves you this year in federal, payroll, and state tax, and what it therefore really costs you in take-home pay.
• Long-term growth — what the balance becomes if you invest it rather than spend it, compared against the same money in a regular taxable brokerage account.

All calculations run in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server, and there's no signup.

If your employer instead offers a Flexible Spending Account rather than an HSA — no HDHP required, but subject to a use-it-or-lose-it deadline — see our FSA calculator instead.

The IRS sets these amounts annually in a Revenue Procedure. For 2026 they come from Revenue Procedure 2025-19:

Two things trip people up constantly:

Employer contributions count against your limit. They are not extra room on top. If your employer puts in $1,200 on a family plan, your own remaining room is $7,550, not $8,750. The calculator subtracts this automatically.

The catch-up is per person, not per account. A married couple who are both 55+ can each contribute a $1,000 catch-up, but the catch-up must go into that individual's own HSA. Two catch-ups cannot be stacked into one spouse's account.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (Pub. L. 119-21) changed HSA eligibility, and the IRS issued implementing guidance in Notice 2026-5. These provisions apply for months beginning after December 31, 2025 — meaning they are live for the entire 2026 plan year. Most HSA calculators and custodian pages have not been updated for them.

1. Bronze and catastrophic Exchange plans now count as HDHPs. Previously most bronze plans failed the HDHP test because their out-of-pocket maximums exceeded the statutory limit. Under the amended rules, any bronze or catastrophic plan available as individual coverage through an ACA Exchange is treated as an HDHP even if it does not meet the minimum deductible or out-of-pocket requirements. If you buy your own coverage on the marketplace and previously couldn't open an HSA, that may have changed.

2. Direct primary care no longer disqualifies you. A direct primary care service arrangement — a flat monthly fee to a primary care practice — used to count as disqualifying coverage that blocked HSA contributions. It no longer does, provided the fee does not exceed $150/month for an individual or $300/month for an arrangement covering more than one person. Those fees are also now reimbursable from your HSA.

3. Telehealth before the deductible is permanent. The pandemic-era safe harbor allowing an HDHP to cover telehealth without applying the deductible was made permanent, retroactive to plan years beginning after December 31, 2024.

Start by picking a mode at the top, then fill in the inputs that appear.

Contribution room mode

1. Coverage type — self-only or family, as defined by your HDHP, not by your tax filing status.
2. Your age — 55 or older adds the $1,000 catch-up automatically.
3. Months eligible — count the months where you had qualifying HDHP coverage on the first day of that month. A full year is 12.
4. Employer contribution — the total your employer will put in for the year, including any match or wellness incentive.
5. Contributed so far — your own payroll deductions and direct deposits to date.

Tax savings mode

The one input that matters most here is "Contributing through payroll?" Payroll contributions made through a Section 125 cafeteria plan avoid Social Security and Medicare tax as well as income tax. Contributions you make directly to the custodian are an above-the-line deduction — they save income tax but not FICA. On a $4,400 contribution that difference is about $337. Most online HSA calculators ignore it entirely.

Set the state rate to 0 if you live in a state with no income tax, or in California or New Jersey, which do not allow an HSA deduction at the state level.

Growth mode

Set "annual medical spending from HSA" to 0 to model the strategy serious HSA investors use: pay current medical costs out of pocket, keep the receipts, and let the account compound untouched. Set it to your realistic annual medical spend to see the more common outcome.

One caveat: the return rate only applies to invested HSA dollars. Many custodians require a minimum cash balance (often $1,000–$2,000) before you can invest, and money sitting in the cash sweep earns close to nothing.

Every figure below is the calculator's actual output.

Example 1: Family plan with an employer contribution

Age 45, family HDHP coverage all year, employer contributes $1,200.

• 2026 contribution limit: $8,750
• Employer contributions: $1,200
• Remaining room for you: $7,550
• To max out evenly: $629/month

Example 2: Becoming eligible mid-year

Self-only coverage starting July 1, so eligible on the first day of 6 months.

• Full-year limit: $4,400
• Prorated limit (6 of 12 months): $2,200

The last-month rule can override this and let you contribute the full $4,400 — but it carries a testing period with a penalty if you fail it. See the FAQ below.

Example 3: What maxing out actually saves

$85,000 income, single filer, contributing the full $4,400 through payroll:

• Federal income tax saved: $968 (22% marginal bracket)
• FICA tax saved: $337
• Total tax saved: $1,305
• Net cost in take-home pay: $3,095

Contributing $4,400 costs about $3,095 of actual take-home pay. Make the same contribution directly instead of through payroll and you save only $968 — the $337 of FICA savings disappears.

Example 4: Investing it for 30 years

Starting from $0, contributing $4,400/year for 30 years at a 7% return, spending nothing from the account:

• Total contributed: $132,000
• Investment growth: $312,721
• Ending balance: $444,721, all tax-free for qualified medical expenses
• Same contributions in a taxable account (growth taxed at 22%): $333,789
• HSA advantage: $110,932

Spend $1,500/year from the account instead of investing it and the ending balance falls to $293,112. That $45,000 of spending cost about $151,600 of final balance — the real price of using an HSA as a checking account.

Withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free at any age, with no deadline. There is no "use it or lose it" rule — that's an FSA, not an HSA.

Withdrawals for anything else, before age 65, are taxed as ordinary income plus a 20% additional tax. Note that it is 20%, not the 10% figure many secondary sources quote by confusing it with the IRA early-withdrawal penalty. The 20% figure comes from Form 8889 and IRC §223(f)(4)(A).

The 20% penalty disappears in three situations: you reach age 65, you become disabled, or you die. After 65 a non-qualified withdrawal is simply taxed as ordinary income — at that point the HSA behaves like a traditional IRA for non-medical spending, while remaining completely tax-free for medical spending. This is why the HSA is often described as the best retirement account available.

Health insurance premiums are generally not qualified expenses, which surprises people. IRS Publication 969 carves out only a few exceptions: COBRA continuation coverage, premiums paid while receiving unemployment compensation, qualified long-term care insurance (subject to age-based limits), and Medicare premiums once you are 65 or older. Ordinary employer or marketplace premiums do not qualify.

Over-contributing triggers a 6% excise tax for each year the excess remains in the account. To avoid it, withdraw the excess plus any earnings on it before your tax filing deadline. The calculator flags an excess automatically when your contributions exceed your limit.

Three deep dives cover the questions people ask most:

• 2026 HSA Contribution Limits & the New OBBBA Eligibility Rules — proration, employer contributions, and three eligibility changes that took effect this year.
• Is Maxing Out and Investing Your HSA Worth It? — how to actually invest the balance, self-directed options, and what happens to it when you die.
• HSA Withdrawal Rules, the 20% Penalty, and How Rollovers Actually Work — the real penalty rate, what counts as a qualified expense, and the right way to move money between accounts.

An HSA is one part of a tax-advantaged savings plan. These tools cover the rest:

• Paycheck Calculator — see how a payroll HSA deduction changes your actual take-home pay, alongside 401(k) and insurance deductions.
• Federal Tax Bracket Calculator — find your marginal rate, which determines what each HSA dollar saves you.
• FIRE Calculator — an invested HSA is one of the strongest components of an early-retirement plan, since medical costs are a retiree's largest variable expense.
• Coast FIRE Calculator — model the point where compounding alone finishes the job.
• Roth Conversion Calculator — compare tax-advantaged accounts and decide where the next dollar should go.
• Investment Planner — project growth on the invested portion of any account.