Interactive tool
You have a fixed amount of take-home money to set aside. Pay tax now and contribute to a Roth, or take the deduction, contribute more to a Traditional account, and pay tax when you withdraw. Set your own assumptions below and see where each path ends up.
A framing note: this illustration is built around 401(k)-style contributions, where the Traditional deduction applies in full no matter your income. Traditional IRA rules are different: that deduction phases out for higher earners covered by a workplace plan. More on that in "What else to weigh" below.
Built by Jesse Plunkett, CEPA, CRPC · Last reviewed July 11, 2026 · Verify on 
Not limited to today's seven brackets. Future tax law is unknown, so set this wherever your judgment lands.
This is an educational illustration based on the assumptions you enter, not tax advice or a recommendation. Tax law changes. Talk to your CPA and your advisor before making a contribution decision. Every calculation happens right here in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere or stored.
The usual comparison you'll see online puts the same dollar amount into both accounts and lets the Roth win almost automatically. That skips the deduction, which is the whole point of a Traditional contribution.
Roth contributions come from money you've already paid tax on, so your Roth contribution equals your take-home amount. Traditional contributions come out before tax. The same take-home cost therefore supports a bigger deposit: your take-home amount divided by one minus your current bracket. At the 24% bracket, $10,000 of take-home money funds a $13,158 Traditional contribution, and that extra $3,158 is shown above as its own stat.
Both contributions then compound at the same growth rate. At withdrawal, the Traditional balance is reduced by your assumed future rate; the Roth comes out untouched. One consequence worth noticing: the percentage gap between the two is set entirely by the difference between your current and future tax rates. Time widens the gap in dollars, but it never flips the winner. When your rate now and your rate at withdrawal match, the two paths end up identical to the penny.
The sliders answer one narrow question: given your tax rates, which account leaves more after tax. An actual contribution decision has more moving parts than that. Here's what the tool can't see.
Traditional balances come with forced withdrawals starting in your seventies, whether you need the income that year or not. Roth IRAs don't require anything during your lifetime, which leaves the timing in your hands.
Traditional withdrawals count as income, and once your income crosses certain thresholds, your Medicare Part B and Part D premiums go up. Roth withdrawals don't count toward those lines.
The same income math decides how much of your Social Security benefit gets taxed. Traditional withdrawals can pull more of your benefit into taxable territory. Qualified Roth withdrawals stay out of that formula entirely.
Non-spouse heirs generally have to empty an inherited retirement account within ten years. Inherited Roth dollars come out tax-free. Inherited Traditional dollars arrive as taxable income, often landing squarely in your kids' peak earning years.
This tool is federal-only. If you're contributing in a state with a high income tax and planning to retire in one without, or the reverse, that shifts the comparison in ways the sliders above can't capture.
You can withdraw your Roth contributions, though not the growth on them, at any age without tax or penalty. Traditional money is generally locked up until 59½, with a 10% penalty stacked on top of ordinary tax if you take it early.
Inside a 401(k), the Traditional deduction applies cleanly at any income level. A Traditional IRA is a different story: if you or your spouse is covered by a retirement plan through an employer, the deduction phases out at higher incomes. Without the deduction, the Traditional side of this comparison loses its engine.
Contribution limits are the same dollar figure whether you use them for Roth or Traditional. If you're maxing out either way rather than choosing based on affordability, a dollar of Roth room ends up worth more than a dollar of Traditional room, since only Traditional's dollar gets taxed again on the way out.
Today's brackets are current law, not a promise. Congress has rewritten rates many times, and the rate you'll actually face in twenty or thirty years is a guess. That uncertainty is one reason plenty of savers end up holding both account types rather than betting everything on one answer.
A stricter version of this comparison would have the Traditional saver contribute the same dollar amount as the Roth saver and invest the tax savings in a separate taxable account, where dividends and gains get taxed along the way. This tool takes the cleaner route of grossing up the Traditional contribution instead. The two approaches usually point in the same direction, but the exact numbers differ.
Neither is better in the abstract. Traditional tends to leave more when your tax rate at withdrawal is lower than your rate today; Roth tends to win when the opposite is true. When the two rates match, the outcomes are identical. Since future rates are a guess, many savers end up holding both.
Because of the deduction. Roth contributions come from money that's already been taxed, while Traditional contributions come out before tax, so the same take-home cost supports a bigger deposit. Calculators that compare equal contributions instead skip the deduction entirely, which tilts the comparison toward Roth before it starts.
No, and that surprises people. Both accounts grow at the same rate, so the winner is set entirely by the gap between your tax rate now and your rate at withdrawal. More years widen the dollar difference between the two, but time alone never flips which one comes out ahead.
Roth IRAs don't require withdrawals during your lifetime, so the money can stay invested or pass to your heirs on your schedule. Traditional accounts come with forced withdrawals starting in your seventies, and those withdrawals also feed the formulas behind Medicare premiums and how much of your Social Security gets taxed.
Almost always. Everything is handled virtually, so where you live is rarely a barrier. The only exception is a handful of states where I'm not registered yet, and if that's you, I'll tell you on our first call.
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A quick, useful starting point
1. The stretch between your last paycheck and your first benefit check Earned income has stopped and Social Security hasn’t started. For many people this is the lowest-income stretch of their adult life, and nothing about it feels like an event…
The sliders can't see your other accounts, your state, your conversion window, or what you want the money to do. A short call can cover all of that.
Writers, teachers, and other advisors are welcome to reference this tool or place it on their own page. Both options below keep the calculator with its assumptions, its disclosures, and a link back here, which is what makes it useful to a reader who lands on it somewhere else.
Plunkett, Jesse. “Roth vs. Traditional Calculator.” True Stewards Advisory, https://truestewards.com/roth-vs-traditional. Accessed [date].
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