Family RESP Plan Calculator Canada

What the family RESP calculator does

A family plan is one pot of money: contributions go in together, growth compounds together, and educational assistance payments can go to whichever child ends up in school. But the government’s limits do not merge. The annual grant maximum, the $7,200 lifetime grant maximum and the $50,000 lifetime contribution limit each belong to a named beneficiary, not to the plan.

Modelling it as one big account overstates the grant, sometimes badly. This calculator ages each child forward year by year, gives each a grant ledger, and reports what the family collected against what was available.

A worked example

With the default inputs (two children aged 4 and 7, $5,000 a year for 15 years, 5% return, contributions split evenly), the plan grows to about $126,816: $75,000 of contributions, $12,500 of grant and about $39,316 of growth. The family captures about 87% of its $14,400 grant ceiling and leaves $1,900 unclaimed. Turn off the even split and the grant rises to $14,000, about 97% of the ceiling, and the plan to about $128,471.

One pot, several sets of limits

The pooled part is useful. If one child goes to university and another does not, the income and contributions can follow the one who does, without transfers between individual plans. One account also means one set of fees and one investment decision.

The per-child part is where money is won or lost. Every beneficiary builds grant entitlement at the annual maximum from birth to the end of the year they turn 17, capped at $7,200 per child. Contribution room is also per child, and contributing beyond it for one beneficiary triggers a monthly penalty tax rather than more grant. A plan with three children has three times the grant ceiling and contribution room of a single plan, but only if the money is directed so that each child can reach their own ceiling.

Who is allowed in

Every beneficiary must be related to the subscriber by blood or adoption: children, grandchildren, brothers and sisters. Nieces, nephews, cousins and friends’ children do not qualify, and each beneficiary must be named before turning 21. If the group fails the relationship test, use individual plans; this calculator will overstate what one account can do.

How the grant is calculated per child

Each year, for each child, the calculator takes the lowest of:

• The 20% match on what was contributed for that child
• The annual grant maximum, plus at most one carried-forward year
• What is left of that child’s lifetime grant ceiling

Once a beneficiary passes the grant age the match stops, however much room is left. That deadline is why the tool reports how many grant years the youngest child has left.

The grant age is editable, but it starts from a maintained parameter based on section 5 of the Canada Education Savings Act, which pays the grant only where the beneficiary was under 17 at the end of the previous year. In practice the last year a contribution attracts grant is the year the child turns 17, with extra conditions at 16 and 17. Change the field only if a plan has lost eligibility for a reason this projection does not model.

Carried-forward grant room

A child born eight years ago has eight years of unused entitlement. You cannot claim it all at once, but you can claim one extra year on top of the current year, every year, until it is used or the child ages out. A plan opened when a child is twelve can run at double the annual grant for the remaining years and still collect a large share of the ceiling. The calculator assumes the banked room is untouched, which matches an empty plan; if the plan already earned grant, the catch-up figure will be optimistic.

That is also why an even split is often the wrong choice. It treats a four-year-old and a fifteen-year-old the same, when only one is up against a deadline.

Splitting evenly against splitting grant-first

With the even split off, the calculator ranks the children each year by how close they are to ageing out and gives each, in that order, exactly the contribution needed to collect the grant their room allows, before spreading anything left over. That stops the youngest child from absorbing contributions they could make later, and the gain in grant is often ten percentage points or more. Each child’s notional share of contributions then grows at a different pace, which matters less in a family plan because earnings are shared anyway.

Contribution room and the penalty nobody notices

The $50,000 lifetime contribution limit is per beneficiary and there is no annual contribution limit. You can put in a large amount in one year; it simply will not attract more than the annual grant maximum. Exceeding a beneficiary’s lifetime limit brings a monthly penalty on the excess until it is withdrawn, and family plans make that mistake easier because the money looks like one balance. The calculator caps each child’s contributions at their own room and reports how much family room is unused.

Reading the result

The headline is the projected plan value, split into contributions, grant and growth. The two figures to watch are the share of the family grant captured and the grant left unclaimed. Capturing 98% of the ceiling means the plan is doing nearly everything available; capturing 70% usually means a late start, contributions below the level that earns the full match, or an even split that should not be.

Every figure is a projection based on your numbers and the current grant rules, not financial advice. Returns are assumed, not guaranteed, and grant eligibility depends on residency and on your promoter filing correctly. Confirm the details with your RESP provider.

About This Family RESP Calculator

Use this family RESP calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official CRA guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.