FSA contribution limits 2026: the health FSA cap and what carries over
A health flexible spending account lets you set aside pay before tax for medical costs, up to a yearly cap per job. The calculator checks your election and shows how much of an unused balance a carryover plan lets you keep.
Health FSA election allowed
$3,400
Limit $3,400 per employer.
| 2026 limit | $3,400 |
| Carryover if the plan allows it | $680 |
| Lost (or grace period, if offered) | $220 |
| Per paycheck, 26 pay periods | $131 |
Worked out by Radif Partners · How we calculate · limits read on irs.gov · not personal financial advice
For plan years beginning in 2026 you can elect up to $3,400 of salary reductions to a health FSA (Rev. Proc. 2025-32, section 3.15). The cap applies per employee and per employer, so two working spouses can each elect $3,400 through their own jobs, $6,800 for the household. What you do not spend is normally lost, with two possible relief rules, and a plan may offer one of them but not both: a carryover of up to $680 into the next plan year, or a grace period of up to two and a half months to spend the balance. With a full $3,400 election and $900 left in December, a carryover plan saves $680 and $220 is forfeited. If you have an HSA, only a limited purpose FSA for dental and vision keeps you eligible. The 2027 cap is not published yet.
The 2026 health FSA figures
| Rule | Plan years beginning in 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary reduction limit, per employee and per employer | $3,400 |
| Maximum carryover to the next plan year, if the plan has one | $680 |
| Grace period, if the plan has one instead | up to 2 months and 15 days after the plan year |
| Per paycheck for the full amount, 26 pay periods | $131 |
| Limit for plan years beginning in 2027 | not published yet |
The figure is a ceiling, not a default: employers can set a lower cap, and many do. The limit is tied to the plan year, which is not always the calendar year. A plan year starting July 1, 2026 uses the 2026 figure until June 30, 2027. The amount for 2027 plan years usually appears in the IRS inflation adjustments published in the fall; until then this page shows it as not published yet.
Per employee, per employer
The cap is set by section 125(i) and applies to what each employee elects under each employer's cafeteria plan (Publication 15-B). Two consequences follow. A married couple who both work can each elect $3,400 at their own employer, and either FSA can reimburse costs for the whole family. And a person who works for two unrelated employers can, in principle, elect the full amount at each; employers under common control count as one.
Employer money is treated differently from your own. Flex credits that the employer adds and that you cannot take as cash do not count toward the $3,400 salary reduction limit, although plan rules often cap them. If you could have taken them as cash instead, they are treated as salary reductions and do count.
Is your election within the cap?
Health FSA election allowed
$3,400
| 2026 limit | $3,400 |
| Carryover if the plan allows it | $0 |
| Lost (or grace period, if offered) | $0 |
| Per paycheck, 26 pay periods | $131 |
An election above the cap is not allowed: ask for $4,000 and the plan can only accept $3,400, leaving $600 that must stay in your taxable pay.
Carryover or grace period: the plan chooses
A health FSA is "use it or lose it" by design, but the regulations let an employer soften that in one of two ways, never both in the same plan:
- Carryover. Up to $680 of unused money moves into the next plan year. It does not count toward the next year's election limit, so you could elect a full $3,400 again on top of it. Anything above $680 is forfeited.
- Grace period. Up to two months and fifteen days after the plan year, often to March 15, to incur new expenses paid from last year's balance. There is no dollar cap, but whatever is left after the grace period is lost.
Two cases show the difference. With $900 left from a full election, a carryover plan keeps $680 and forfeits $220; a grace period plan keeps all $900 available until mid-March, if you have expenses to use it. With $150 left from a $2,000 election, the carryover keeps all $150. A run-out period, often 90 days, is a third and separate feature: it only gives time to submit claims for expenses incurred during the plan year.
What a carryover plan lets you keep
Health FSA election allowed
$3,400
| 2026 limit | $3,400 |
| Carryover if the plan allows it | $680 |
| Lost (or grace period, if offered) | $220 |
| Per paycheck, 26 pay periods | $131 |
The uniform coverage rule
A health FSA must make your whole annual election available from the first day of coverage, even though you fund it paycheck by paycheck. Someone who elects $3,400 and has surgery in February can be reimbursed in full before contributing more than a few hundred dollars. If you leave the job in March, you generally do not owe the difference back. The flip side is that you cannot change the election during the year without a qualifying change in status, such as marriage, a birth or a change in employment.
Health FSA and HSA together
A general-purpose health FSA counts as other health coverage, so it makes you ineligible to contribute to an HSA, and the same is true if your spouse's general FSA can reimburse your expenses. The solution is a limited purpose FSA, which covers only dental and vision care (and, in some plans, medical costs after the HDHP deductible is met). It has the same $3,400 cap and keeps your HSA eligibility intact, so you can fund both: up to $4,400 in a self-only HSA plus the limited FSA. The HSA rules are on HSA contribution limits.
What it is not
The dependent care FSA is a separate account with its own household cap, for child care and adult day care rather than medical costs (dependent care FSA limit). Money cannot move between the two. Health FSA dollars pay for deductibles, copays, prescriptions, eyeglasses, dental work and, since 2020, over-the-counter medicines and menstrual products without a prescription; they do not pay insurance premiums.