RESP Calculator Canada
Project your Registered Education Savings Plan balance with CESG grants and compound growth — see how much you'll have for your child's education.
The Power of Starting Early
Opening an RESP at birth and contributing $2,500/year ($208/month) captures the full $500 annual CESG every year, for a total of $7,200 in free government money over 17 years. At a 5% average annual return, that $42,500 in contributions + $7,200 in CESG grows to approximately $82,000–$90,000 by the time your child starts university.
If you can't contribute $2,500/year, start with whatever you can. Even $50/month gets you partial CESG and compound growth. Many financial institutions offer no-fee RESPs — check with your bank, credit union, or an online brokerage like Questrade or Wealthsimple that offers low-cost RESP accounts.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) pays 20% on the first $2,500 contributed per year — that's $500/year maximum. The lifetime CESG limit per child is $7,200. Unused grant room from prior years can be caught up at $1,000/year (double grant on $5,000 contributions).
You can keep the RESP open for 36 years in case your child changes their mind. If they ultimately don't attend, you return the CESG to the government but keep all investment growth — which is withdrawn as "Accumulated Income Payments" taxed at your marginal rate plus a 20% penalty tax. Rolling it into your RRSP (up to $50,000 lifetime) avoids the penalty.
Yes — you can open multiple RESPs for the same child (family or individual plans), but the $2,500 annual CESG-eligible contribution is per child, not per account. Total contributions across all plans for one child still count toward the $50,000 lifetime limit.
The $2,500 rule — and the catch-up nobody explains
The Canada Education Savings Grant pays 20% on the first $2,500 you contribute each year, so $2,500 attracts the maximum $500 annual grant. The lifetime cap is $7,200 per child. There is no tax deduction for contributing — the grant is the benefit, and a guaranteed 20% return is difficult to beat anywhere.
Unused grant room carries forward, but you can only catch up one extra year at a time. Contribute $5,000 in a year and you receive $1,000 — the current year's $500 plus one year of catch-up. You cannot contribute $15,000 and collect six years of missed grant at once. This matters enormously for a late start: a child who has never had an RESP needs several years of $5,000 contributions to recover the full $7,200, and grant eligibility ends at the end of the year the child turns 17.
Additional grants many families qualify for and never claim
Additional CESG pays an extra 10% or 20% on the first $500 contributed, depending on adjusted family net income — worth up to $100 a year beyond the basic grant.
The Canada Learning Bond is the one most often missed. For children from low-income families it pays up to $2,000 — $500 in the first year and $100 annually after — and requires no contribution at all. You only need to open an RESP and apply. A large number of eligible Canadian children have never received it, purely because nobody opened an account. If money is tight, opening an RESP with a zero balance still captures the bond.
Getting money out: EAPs versus your contributions
An RESP withdrawal has two distinct parts, and the difference is worth real money.
Educational Assistance Payments — the grants plus all investment growth — are taxable, but taxable in the student's hands. A student with little other income and the tuition credit usually pays little or no tax on them. Your original contributions come back completely tax-free to anyone, because they were made with after-tax money.
The planning point: draw EAPs first, in the years the student's income is lowest. Leaving them to the end risks the student graduating into a job and paying real tax on them. There is a limit on EAPs in the first 13 weeks of study, after which the restriction lifts.
If the child doesn't go to school
You get your contributions back tax-free regardless. Grants must be returned to the government — they were never yours. The investment growth becomes an Accumulated Income Payment, taxed as income plus an additional 20% penalty tax.
Two ways to avoid that. Transfer up to $50,000 of growth into your RRSP if you have room — the cleanest outcome. Or, with a family plan covering siblings, redirect the money to another child. Family plans are generally the better structure for more than one child for exactly this reason. An RESP can stay open for 35 years, so there is rarely a need to decide quickly — "not going to school" at 18 often becomes trades training at 24, which qualifies. See our RESP and CESG guide for the full picture.