How much can I put in an ISA in 2026/27?

Full answer

Understanding exactly how the ISA allowance works, including its sub-limits and how allowances interact, helps you make the most of this valuable tax-free savings and investment wrapper. **The overall £20,000 allowance** For the 2026/27 tax year, every UK adult resident can put up to £20,000 total into ISAs, split across as many different ISA providers and ISA types (Cash, Stocks and Shares, Innovative Finance) as they choose, as long as the combined total across all of them does not exceed £20,000. **The Lifetime ISA sub-limit** Within the overall £20,000 allowance, the Lifetime ISA has its own specific sub-limit of £4,000 a year -- this £4,000 counts toward, not in addition to, your total £20,000 allowance, so if you put the full £4,000 into a Lifetime ISA, you have £16,000 remaining to allocate across other ISA types in the same tax year. **Junior ISAs are entirely separate** The Junior ISA allowance (£9,000 for 2026/27) is completely separate from an adult's own £20,000 allowance -- a parent or guardian can contribute up to £9,000 into a child's Junior ISA while ALSO using their own full £20,000 personal ISA allowance in the same tax year, since these are entirely distinct allowances tied to different individuals. **Multiple ISAs of the same type allowed** Rules were relaxed some years ago to allow opening and contributing to multiple ISAs of the SAME type (for example, more than one Cash ISA) within a single tax year, as long as your combined contributions across all ISAs of all types still respect the overall £20,000 limit -- previously, only one ISA of each type per tax year was permitted. **Unused allowance does not carry forward** The ISA allowance is a "use it or lose it" annual limit -- any unused portion of your £20,000 allowance at the end of the tax year (5 April) is lost and cannot be carried forward or added to a future year's allowance. **Worked example** Someone contributes £4,000 to a Lifetime ISA (getting the 25% government bonus, worth £1,000, on top), £10,000 to a Stocks and Shares ISA, and £6,000 to a Cash ISA in the same tax year -- totalling exactly £20,000 across all three, using their full allowance for the year while diversifying between different ISA types. **What happens if you exceed the limit** If you accidentally exceed the £20,000 combined limit (for example, by contributing to ISAs with multiple providers without tracking your total), HMRC will identify the breach and may require the excess to be removed, potentially with tax consequences on any growth attributable to the over-contribution -- keep track of contributions across all your ISA providers to avoid this. **Practical tip** If you use multiple ISA providers or ISA types in the same tax year, keep a simple running total of contributions across all of them, since it is easy to lose track and inadvertently exceed the combined £20,000 limit when saving is spread across several accounts.

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More answers

• What is the difference between a Cash ISA and a Stocks and Shares ISA?
• What happens if I withdraw from a Lifetime ISA before age 60?