Project college costs and the monthly savings to fund them.
Covers: college, 529, education, tuition, savings, cost.
Open the College Cost Planner tool →College costs tend to rise faster than general inflation, so a price today understates the bill years from now. This grows each future year of college at the inflation rate you choose, adds them up, and solves for the level monthly amount that would fully fund the total by the time college starts, counting what you've already saved and an assumed return on it.
The inflation and return rates are your assumptions, shown so you can change them; we never forecast markets. To keep it simple and a touch conservative, it targets having the whole cost saved by freshman year, though in reality you draw it down across the college years. Pair it with the FAFSA Student Aid Index estimator to weigh grants and aid against the sticker price.
Federal borrowing has new limits from July 1, 2026. A parent can borrow PLUS loans of up to $20,000 a year and $65,000 in all for each dependent student. A graduate student can borrow $20,500 a year and $100,000 in all, a professional student $50,000 and $200,000, and Grad PLUS loans are no longer made. No student can borrow more than $257,500 in federal loans over a lifetime. A student already enrolled and borrowing on June 30, 2026 keeps the old limits for up to three years. So the gap between the cost and what you have saved can be harder to borrow than it was.
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