RESP Calculator 2026

See how much an RESP can grow by age 18 with the Canada Education Savings Grant, the Canada Learning Bond and your province’s grant, and how to collect every dollar of grant.

✓ 2026 rates · verified Oct 27, 2026

The RESP in one minute

A registered education savings plan holds savings for a child’s education after high school. The government adds a 20% grant (the CESG) on top of what you put in, up to $500 a year, and lower-income families get more. Growth isn’t taxed while it’s in the plan.

Why $2,500 a year is the sweet spot: 20% of $2,500 is exactly the $500 of grant room a child gets each year. More than that earns no grant unless you’re catching up on missed years; less leaves room unused. At $2,500 a year from birth, the $7,200 lifetime maximum is reached the year the child turns 14.

How the grants are calculated

1. Basic CESG: 20% of contributions, up to the child’s unused grant room ($500 for each year from birth) and $1,000 a year, until the year they turn 17. Lifetime maximum $7,200.
2. Additional CESG: on the first $500 contributed each year, another 20% if family net income is $58,523 or less, or 10% up to $117,045 (2026 thresholds). It doesn’t carry forward and counts toward the $7,200.
3. Canada Learning Bond: $500 for the first year a lower-income family qualifies and $100 for each later year up to the year the child turns 15, up to $2,000. No contribution needed; children born in 2004 or later.
4. Growth: your yearly return, compounded monthly. Grants go in with the contributions they’re paid on.

Catching up on missed years

Unused grant room carries forward, so a child who started late can still get the full $7,200. The catch: the grant is at most $1,000 a year, so you can catch up only $500 of missed grant a year by contributing $5,000 instead of $2,500. For a child who is 6 in 2026, the cheapest way to the full grant is $5,000 in 2026, $5,000 in 2027, $3,500 in 2028, then $2,500 a year: $36,000 in all for $7,200 of grant.

The Canada Learning Bond

The Learning Bond needs no contribution at all: a family with income under the limit only has to open an RESP and ask for it. For one to three children the 2026–2027 limit is $58,523 of adjusted family net income, the same income the Canada Child Benefit uses; it rises with each extra child (four children: under $66,036). A child born this year in a family under the limit every year collects $2,000 by 15. Payments for missed years are paid once you ask, until the child turns 21. From April 2028 the government will open an RESP automatically for eligible children born in 2024 or later.

Provincial grants

• Quebec (QESI): Revenu Québec adds 10% of each year’s contributions, up to $250 a year, and up to $250 more from unused past amounts, to $3,600 in all. Lower- and middle-income families can get up to $50 more a year. This calculator counts the basic 10% to age 15 only; catch-up amounts, the extra for lower incomes and ages 16 and 17 (which have special requirements) aren’t included.
• British Columbia (BCTESG): a one-time $1,200, with no contribution needed, if you apply between the child’s 6th birthday and the day before they turn 9, while you both live in B.C.
• Saskatchewan and Alberta had their own grants (SAGES and ACES); both have ended.

Worked example

A child born in 2026, $2,500 contributed each January to age 17, family net income $90,000, 5% a year:

• Contributions: $45,000.00.
• Basic CESG: $500 a year until the $7,200 limit, less the additional CESG: $6,550.00. Additional CESG (10% on the first $500, at this income): $650.00.
• Growth: $34,766.73, for $86,966.73 by the end of the year the child turns 17.

If your child doesn’t go to school

You get your contributions back tax-free and the grants go back to the government. The growth can be paid to you as accumulated income payments: taxed as your income plus an extra 20% (12% federal for Quebec residents, plus Quebec’s own additional tax). With RRSP room, contributing those payments to your RRSP reduces the amount subject to that tax, up to $50,000 in your lifetime. Many plans can also be transferred to a sibling.

What this calculator assumes

• The child lives in Canada every year, and your family income and number of children stay the same; grant thresholds stay at today’s amounts (they’re indexed each year).
• Contributions aren’t withdrawn. Grant room built up before this year is $500 a year from birth, less the CESG you’ve received.
• Canada Learning Bond payments for past years (at the same income) are paid in the first year; your provider asks for them when you open the plan.
• The return is your assumption, the same every year, before any fees.

Rates for tax year 2026, verified October 27, 2026 · Page updated October 27, 2026