529 contribution limits in 2026: the gift rule, the plan ceiling and the state cap
Three different numbers get called the 529 limit. Only one of them actually stops a deposit, and it is not set by the IRS.
Fits in the five-year election
$80,000
No lifetime exemption used, if no other gifts go to the same child for five years.
| Yearly exclusion, 2026 | $19,000 |
| Room over five years | $95,000 |
| Counted per year | $16,000 |
The election is made on Form 709 and spreads the gift over five years; gifts to the same child in those years count against the same room.
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · federal rules from Public Law 119-21 and IRS Publication 970, state rules from each state · not tax advice
Federal law sets no yearly dollar limit on 529 contributions. It only requires each plan to refuse deposits beyond what the beneficiary's qualified education could need, and plans turn that into a maximum balance per beneficiary: $235,000 to $675,000 in the state plans of our table. What most families meet first is the gift tax rule. A contribution is a gift to the child, and in 2026 each giver can put in up to $19,000 per beneficiary without filing a gift tax return, $38,000 for a married couple. A special election spreads a larger deposit over 5 years, so one person can contribute $95,000 at once, a couple $190,000, while staying inside the exclusion, provided no other gifts go to that child in those years. The third number, the state deduction cap, limits the tax break, not the deposit: money above it is accepted and grows tax-free, it simply earns no state deduction.
No annual federal ceiling
Unlike an IRA or a Coverdell account, a 529 has no contribution limit written as a yearly dollar figure in the tax code. The statute asks something else of the plan: it must provide adequate safeguards to prevent contributions for a beneficiary in excess of those necessary to pay that beneficiary's qualified education expenses (26 U.S.C. 529(b)(6)). The IRS repeats it in its questions and answers: contributions cannot exceed the amount necessary to provide for the qualified expenses of the beneficiary. There is no income limit for the person contributing, and anyone can give, a parent, a grandparent, a friend.
For comparison, the nearby accounts all have yearly caps: $2,000 per child for a Coverdell education savings account, $20,000 for an ABLE account in 2026, $5,000 a year for a Trump account, $7,500 for an IRA. The 529 rule is a ceiling on the total, set plan by plan.
The plan maximum: a ceiling on the balance
Each state turns the federal requirement into a maximum account balance per beneficiary, written in its plan description. In the plans of our table it runs from $235,000 in Mississippi to $675,000 in Virginia, with Pennsylvania near the middle at $511,758. In Illinois, for instance, the plan accepts contributions until the accounts of one beneficiary reach its limit. Plans raise these figures from time to time, which is why each state page gives the date we read the plan description.
| State plan | Maximum balance per beneficiary |
|---|---|
| Virginia | $675,000 |
| New Hampshire | $650,580 |
| Wisconsin | $613,240 |
| Utah | $606,000 |
| North Carolina | $600,000 |
| Nevada | $575,000 |
| South Carolina | $575,000 |
| Ohio | $570,000 |
| Alaska | $550,000 |
| Connecticut | $550,000 |
| Georgia | $550,000 |
| Illinois | $550,000 |
| Kansas | $550,000 |
| Missouri | $550,000 |
| Montana | $550,000 |
| Nebraska | $550,000 |
| Vermont | $550,000 |
| West Virginia | $550,000 |
| Maine | $545,000 |
| California | $529,000 |
| Minnesota | $525,000 |
| New York | $520,000 |
| Rhode Island | $520,000 |
| Pennsylvania | $511,758 |
| Iowa | $505,000 |
| Arkansas | $500,000 |
| Colorado | $500,000 |
| Delaware | $500,000 |
| District of Columbia | $500,000 |
| Florida | $500,000 |
| Idaho | $500,000 |
| Louisiana | $500,000 |
| Maryland | $500,000 |
| Massachusetts | $500,000 |
| Michigan | $500,000 |
| New Mexico | $500,000 |
| Texas | $500,000 |
| Washington | $500,000 |
| Alabama | $475,000 |
| Indiana | $450,000 |
| Kentucky | $450,000 |
| Oklahoma | $450,000 |
| Oregon | $400,000 |
| South Dakota | $350,000 |
| Hawaii | $305,000 |
| North Dakota | $269,000 |
| Mississippi | $235,000 |
The maximum applies to one child's accounts in that state's program, as the Illinois plan words it. In practice the plan ceiling only binds for families who contribute heavily over many years or front-load a large sum for a young child.
The gift tax exclusion: $19,000 per giver, per child
A 529 contribution is treated as a completed gift to the beneficiary, of a present interest, which means it qualifies for the annual gift tax exclusion. For 2026 that exclusion is $19,000 per giver and per recipient, under Rev. Proc. 2025-32. A married couple can give $38,000 to the same child, and each additional child or grandchild opens another $19,000 per giver. The exclusion covers all gifts to that person during the year, not only 529 money: a cash birthday gift from the same grandparent counts against the same $19,000.
Going above the exclusion is not forbidden. It requires a gift tax return, Form 709, and uses part of the giver's lifetime exemption. The IRS points to the Form 709 instructions for the special 529 rule.
Five years of gifts in one deposit
The special rule is the five-year election in section 529(c)(2)(B). When a giver's 529 contributions for one beneficiary pass the annual exclusion in a calendar year, the giver may elect to treat them as made ratably over 5 years. One person can thus contribute up to $95,000 in 2026 with no lifetime exemption used, a couple $190,000. The election is made on Form 709, filed for the year of the deposit.
A widowed grandmother who puts $80,000 into a grandchild's account in 2026 can count $16,000 a year for five years, inside her $19,000. What the election takes away is room: any other gift to that grandchild during the five years adds to the yearly amount. Grandparents who want to seed three grandchildren with $400,000 have $570,000 of five-year room between them; the whole sum fits.
Grandparents seeding several children
Fits in the five-year election
$400,000
| Yearly exclusion, 2026 | $19,000 |
| Room over five years | $570,000 |
| Counted per year | $80,000 |
The election has an estate side. If the giver dies before the 5 years end, the share allocated to the years after death goes back into the giver's estate under section 529(c)(4)(C). Outside that case, section 529(c)(4)(A) keeps an interest in a 529 out of the gross estate. The superfunding page and the grandparent page go further on both points.
The state cap limits the deduction, not the deposit
The third figure people quote is the state deduction cap, $5,000 single in Connecticut, for example. It decides how much of a deposit reduces state tax that year, nothing more. A Connecticut single parent at $85,000 who puts in a $12,000 bonus deducts $5,000 in 2026, saving $275, and the other $7,000 still goes into the account. Connecticut lets that excess carry forward for 5 years, within the same yearly cap.
Connecticut: a deposit above the cap
Connecticut tax saved on this contribution
$275
| Subtracted from state income | $5,000 |
| Your state marginal rate | 5.50 % |
| Cap that applies this year | $5,000 |
| Back per $1,000 contributed | $23 |
States in our table that carry an excess forward: Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin. New Mexico, South Carolina, West Virginia deduct contributions with no dollar cap other than the plan maximum. Everywhere else, the part above the cap earns no deduction, ever. The state-by-state table shows the cap that applies to your return and whether it counts per child.
Exit limits are separate again. Up to $35,000 can move to the beneficiary's Roth IRA over a lifetime, within the yearly IRA limit, only from an account open for 15 years, and not from contributions of the last 5 years (529 to Roth). Money put in late cannot use that path at once.