529 College Savings Calculator
Project your 529 plan balance against future college costs: contribution schedule, tax-free growth, and the funding gap (or surplus). Free, instant.
College costs inflate faster than general inflation — a school costing $40,000/year today will likely cost far more when your toddler enrolls. This calculator projects your 529 balance (with your monthly contribution and expected return) against the inflation-adjusted cost of your target school type.
The output is the honest number: projected surplus or funding gap at enrollment, so you can adjust contributions while the compounding runway is longest.
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College Savings (529) Calculator
Project future college costs, estimate your 529 plan growth, and find the monthly contribution you need.
College costs based on 2025-2026 averages: Public in-state ~$28.5K, out-of-state ~$47K, private ~$62.5K per year. Assumes 4% annual cost growth. Investment returns are not guaranteed.
529 growth & tax-free earnings — illustrated
A 529 plan is an after-tax investment account whose earnings grow federal-tax-free, and withdrawals are tax-free as long as they pay for qualified expenses — tuition, fees, room and board, and required books. Because money compounds for a decade or more, the contribution barely matters compared to time in the market: a $10,000 lump sum plus $300/mo at 6% grows to about $92,000 by the time a 5-year-old turns 18, versus roughly $57,000 if the same cash sat uninvested. Meanwhile the price of college is rising faster than general inflation — about 4%/yr on a 2025-26 in-state public cost of ~$28,500/yr. Since SECURE 2.0, unused 529 money can also roll into the child's Roth IRA (up to $35,000 lifetime, once the account is 15 years old), so overfunding is no longer wasted.
A 5-year-old, $10,000 in a 529, $300/mo added, 6% expected return. The four-year in-state public cost grows to about $190K while savings reach about $92K — a 48% funding ratio.
Dana is 5. Her parents hold $10,000 in a 529 plan and add $300/mo, expecting 6% annual growth. An in-state public college currently costs $28,500/yr and is rising 4% a year.
- Future cost:One year is $47,455 at age 18, so all four years total $189,818
- Projected savings:$91,963 — the $10,000 grows to $21,329, contributions to $70,634
- Funding ratio:48% funded — a $97,855 shortfall remains
- To close the gap:Raise the monthly contribution to about $716/mo
About this 529 college savings calculator
This page covers how much to save for college per month, 529 plan growth projection, college cost by 2040, 529 tax free growth calculator — all the same underlying task as 529 college savings calculator. The tool above is FreeToolHub's college savings calculator embedded in full: every feature works right here, and nothing you process is uploaded to any server.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I save monthly for my child's college?
A common benchmark is about $500/month from birth to cover a public in-state four-year degree at current inflation trends; a third of that covers a similar share of costs. The calculator turns your target school type and starting age into the specific monthly figure — the earlier you start, the more the market does the work.
What happens to unused 529 money?
The beneficiary can be changed to another family member without penalty; up to $35,000 of leftover funds can roll to the beneficiary's Roth IRA over their lifetime (subject to earned-income rules under SECURE 2.0); non-qualified withdrawals cost income tax plus a 10% penalty on earnings only. Contributions themselves always come back tax-free.