College Savings Calculator
Project what college will cost when your child enrolls and see whether your savings plan covers it, using published College Board budgets.
Start from a scenario
Student and program
Your savings plan
Assumptions
Returns and cost inflation are planning assumptions, not forecasts. Change them to see how much the answer depends on them.
What a year of college costs today
College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2025: average estimated full-time undergraduate budgets for the 2025-2026 academic year.
| Sector | Annual budget |
|---|---|
| Public two-year, in-district | $21,320 |
| Public four-year, in-state | $30,990 |
| Public four-year, out-of-state | $50,920 |
| Private nonprofit four-year | $65,470 |
These are budgets, not tuition. Tuition and fees at a public four-year in-state college average $11,950 — but the full budget a family has to fund, including housing, food, books and transport, is $30,990. Planning against the tuition line alone understates the job by roughly 60%.
This is an educational projection, not financial advice. Investment returns are not guaranteed, published averages differ widely from any individual school's price, and financial aid is awarded case by case.
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How much do you actually need to save for college?
College costs are quoted as tuition, but families pay a budget. For 2025-26 the College Board puts the average tuition and fees at a public four-year in-state college at $11,950 while the full undergraduate budget averages $30,990 — housing, food, books and transport make up the rest. This calculator projects the whole budget forward at the inflation rate you choose, subtracts the aid you expect, and tells you what share of the bill your current plan will cover.
What this calculator works out
It answers two questions. First, what the program will cost in the year your child enrolls: each college year is inflated separately, so a four-year program starting in eighteen years costs more in year four than in year one. Second, whether your savings reach it — projecting your balance forward month by month, escalating your contribution if you have set an annual increase, and reporting the gap or surplus.
Coverage
Coverage = Projected savings ÷ (Inflated program cost − Inflated aid)How to use it
Enter your child's age today and the age college is expected to start.
Pick the type of college, or enter your own annual cost if you have a specific school in mind.
Enter what you have saved and what you contribute each month.
Set an annual contribution increase if you plan to raise the amount as your income grows.
Adjust the expected return and cost inflation to see how sensitive the answer is.
Read the coverage percentage, then the required monthly figure to see what full funding would take.
When to use it
Starting from birth
See what a modest monthly contribution becomes over eighteen years, and what it would take to fully fund a public four-year budget.
Catching up mid-way
Model a shorter horizon honestly. With ten years left, growth does less of the work and the contribution has to do more.
Comparing college types
Switch between the four published sectors to see how much of the gap is the school rather than the savings rate.
Stress-testing the plan
The conservative and aggressive scenarios show how much of your coverage depends on the return assumption holding.
Why project college costs rather than guess
The sticker price is not the tuition line
Tuition and fees are about 39% of a public in-state budget. Saving against tuition alone leaves housing and food unfunded.
Each college year inflates further
A four-year program does not cost four times the first year. Year four is inflated three years beyond it, and the difference compounds over a long horizon.
Aid moves with prices
Holding a scholarship flat while inflating tuition beside it overstates the gap. Both are inflated here so the comparison stays honest.
The required contribution is solved, not approximated
The monthly figure is found against the same projection the result uses, so contributing it produces exactly full coverage — not an estimate that overshoots.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on the horizon and the sector. For a newborn aiming at a public four-year in-state budget of $30,990 a year, inflating at 4% and earning 6%, roughly $555 a month funds the full four-year program. Cut the horizon to ten years and the same goal takes well over $900. The calculator solves this figure against your own inputs.
Use a full budget, not tuition. The College Board's 2025-26 averages are $21,320 for public two-year in-district, $30,990 for public four-year in-state, $50,920 for public four-year out-of-state and $65,470 for private nonprofit four-year. If you have a specific school in mind, use its published cost of attendance instead.
4% is a common planning assumption and the default here. Over the decade to 2025-26 the College Board found inflation-adjusted published tuition actually fell 7% at public four-year colleges, so 4% nominal is not aggressive — but a single school's price can move very differently from the national average.
No, and the difference matters. This calculator projects the cost and whether your savings reach it, whatever account you use. A 529 calculator answers a separate question: what the tax wrapper is worth — the state deduction, the tax-free growth against a taxable account, and what a non-qualified withdrawal costs.
Only conservatively. Merit aid is not known until the offer arrives, and need-based aid depends on income and assets at the time of application. Anything you enter here is inflated at the same rate as tuition so the two stay comparable.
Partial funding is normal and still valuable. Every dollar saved is a dollar not borrowed at interest. The remaining levers are a longer horizon, a lower-cost sector for the first two years, federal aid, and student contribution — the calculator shows how much each would have to carry.
Over a long horizon, a great deal. Raising a $300 monthly contribution by 3% a year adds roughly a third more total contributions over eighteen years than holding it flat, and the early increases compound the longest.
The arithmetic is exact; the assumptions are not. An eighteen-year projection is a planning tool, not a forecast — which is why the calculator shows a conservative and an aggressive scenario beside the expected one rather than a single number.