Costco Wholesale Corporation 401(k): T. Rowe Price, match $500 a year
Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan · COST · CIK 909832
T. Rowe Price is the recordkeeper named on the Form 5500 filed for this plan, the company that keeps the account records. Where to log in, and what the filing says.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing.
Maximum employer match, in dollars a year
$500
Costco Wholesale Corporation matches 50% of what an employee puts in, up to $500 a year.
From the Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026 ↗, covering the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Page data last updated July 28, 2026, when the Form 5500 bulk data was last refreshed. Why filings lag
On this page: what the employer actually paid in · the formula, word for word · when the money becomes yours · who can join · who holds your account · what the plan reports to the DOL · how it compares · what to do next
What Costco Wholesale puts in, and what the plan costs
What Costco Wholesale put into the plan, per active participant
$3,196
Costco Wholesale Corporation put $3,196 into this plan for each of its 212,976 active participants in plan year 2024. This is the whole employer side of the plan: matching money, profit sharing, non-elective and safe-harbor contributions, and reallocated forfeitures. The Form 5500 does not separate them, so this is what the employer put in and not the match.
Costco Wholesale put in more per active participant than 95% of plans with 5,000+ participants in retail. The middle plan in that group of 196 reported $700. Retail comes from business code 452300, which Costco Wholesale entered on its own Form 5500. Sponsors pick that code themselves, so a code that does not describe what the employer does ranks the plan against the wrong companies.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Costco Wholesale pays, and how much it puts in
This is dollars, not a rate. A Form 5500 carries no payroll, so the figure reflects both how much the employer puts in and how much the employer pays: two plans running the same formula report different amounts when one pays better. Crossing the peer group with industry holds most of that difference still, and none of it disappears.
This is one plan year, not an average. A true-up, a plan merger or a one-off contribution moves a single year on its own.
Source: DOL Form 5500 for the plan year ended December 31, 2024, EIN 911223280, plan 002 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $3,196 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. Costco Wholesale Corporation also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $500 a year at a $49,500 salary, and the same filing states employer contributions made outside the match. That second figure is what the formula pays one worker on that salary, and not an amount either filing reports. The two figures cover different plan years and measure different things, so neither one is the other one corrected.
What Costco Wholesale puts in
$500
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match is capped at $500 a year, reached once the worker contributes $1,000.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Company matches the lesser of 50% of each employee’s deferral contribution or $500 per year.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least $1,000 a year to collect the full match.
The cap is stated in dollars, so the contribution that reaches it does not move with salary. At a $49,500 salary that is 2.02% of pay, and the percentage falls as pay rises.
Vesting score
100 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 48% of the 369 schedules we have scored.
It measures vesting speed and nothing else. It says nothing about the size of the match, what the plan charges, or the funds inside it.
Share of the employer's money that is the worker's at hire and at each of the first 6 anniversaries: 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their deferral contributions and in certain other contributions as defined in the Plan document. Effective for participants employed on or after August 1, 2024, employer contributions are 100% vested and nonforfeitable.”
The wait before the match starts and the year-end true-up appear above when the filing states them. Neither is part of the score, and a filing that is silent on one of them is not a plan without it.
What the plan costs, against plans of its size
18th percentile
$23.38 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, cheaper than 82% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Costco Wholesale's 401(k) match formula?
Costco Wholesale's 401(k) employer match is capped at $500 a year rather than a share of pay. A ceiling stated in dollars behaves differently from one stated in pay, because the contribution rate that collects it depends on your salary.
| Match formula | 50% of contributions (matched-pay ceiling not stated in the filing) |
|---|---|
| Conditions | Match applies to employees in 'other eligible employment' (not covered by the Teamsters agreements); the annual match is the lesser of 50% of the employee's deferral contribution or $500 per year |
| Other employer contribution | Teamsters-covered employees: annual employer contribution of $0.05 to $0.47 per straight-time hour worked (based on years of service), up to a maximum of 2,080 hours; requires one year of service and employment on the last day of the Plan year; deposited in March following year end |
| Other employer contribution | Other eligible employees: annual discretionary employer contribution of 4% to 9% of compensation (based on years of service); requires one year of service and employment on the last day of the Plan year; deposited in March following year end |
What the filing says, word for word
“The Company matches the lesser of 50% of each employee’s deferral contribution or $500 per year.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Costco Wholesale's 401(k) vesting schedule?
Costco Wholesale vests the employer match immediately: 100% is yours as soon as it is paid in. Nothing is forfeited when you leave, which is not true of the two schedules that vest over time.
| Employer match vesting | Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Other employer contributions | Effective for participants employed on or after August 1, 2024, employer contributions are 100% vested and nonforfeitable |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately vested in their deferral contributions and in certain other contributions as defined in the Plan document. Effective for participants employed on or after August 1, 2024, employer contributions are 100% vested and nonforfeitable.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Costco Wholesale's 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Costco Wholesale enrolls new hires automatically at 4% of pay, rising 1% a year to 20% of pay.
| Plan entry | Employees may elect to defer compensation after completing 90 days of service within 12 consecutive months; participant must be at least 18 years of age and an employee of Costco or certain subsidiaries |
|---|---|
| Automatic enrollment | Yes: default deferral 4% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 20%; default investment: Retirement Trust corresponding to the participant's age |
Eligibility, word for word
“The Plan allows certain employees to elect to defer their compensation to the Plan after completing 90 days of service within 12-consecutive months.”
Automatic enrollment, word for word
“All newly-eligible participants entering the Plan are automatically enrolled at a salary contribution rate of 4%. On an active participant’s employment anniversary date and each anniversary date thereafter the percentage deferred into the Plan automatically increases by one percentage point, to a maximum of 20%. Employees may opt out of automatic enrollment and increases.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports T. Rowe Price, filed as “T ROWE PRICE RPS INC”. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. The trustee that holds the plan’s assets can be a different company, and this filing does not name it.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
801 plans on file name T. Rowe Price as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 800 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $86.70 per participant.
Participants log in at T. Rowe Price Workplace ↗. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with T. Rowe Price or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | T. Rowe Price |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper address | 1307 Point Street, Baltimore, MD 21231 |
What does the Costco Wholesale plan report on Form 5500?
The Costco Wholesale plan reported $41.0B in assets and 255,370 participants for plan year 2024.
Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
| Plan named in the DOL record | Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan |
|---|---|
| Total plan assets | $41,017,392,708 |
| Participants | 255,370 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $23.38 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $23.38 per participant. The median across plans in retail is $93.99, from the 2,177 of 2,305 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Costco Wholesale's 401(k) match compare?
Costco Wholesale Corporation's filing does not state a maximum 401(k) match as a share of pay. Across the 269 companies in our data that do, the median is 4% of pay.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in retail, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in retail.
Employer match vests immediately. Also in retail.
Maximum match 5% of pay. Also in retail.
Maximum match 5.4% of pay. Same recordkeeper, T. Rowe Price.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 4 years. Same recordkeeper, T. Rowe Price.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Vests immediately too, like Costco Wholesale.
Compare Costco Wholesale Corporation with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 29, 2026, SEC EDGAR. Every match fact on this page comes from it.
- Changed jobs? Find an old 401(k) ↗
The Department of Labor's Retirement Savings Lost & Found, a free government database.
- This year's IRS contribution limits ↗
The official deferral and catch-up limits every formula operates under.
Questions this filing answers
What is Costco Wholesale Corporation's 401(k) match?
Costco Wholesale Corporation discloses its match formula in the 11-K for the plan year ended December 31, 2025.
When does the Costco Wholesale Corporation 401(k) match vest?
Immediate: employer match is 100% vested when contributed.
Does Costco Wholesale Corporation's 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Yes: default deferral 4% of pay; auto-escalation +1%/yr to 20%; default investment: Retirement Trust corresponding to the participant's age.
Who is the recordkeeper for Costco Wholesale Corporation's 401(k)?
T. Rowe Price is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan for plan year 2024. That is the company paid to keep the account records: what is in an account, what went into it, and usually the site a participant signs in to. Matched to this employer by sponsor name, not by an identifier stated in the filing. This record could cover another plan of the same employer.
Source
The match formula, the vesting schedule and the enrollment rules on this page were read from one document: the Form 11-K annual report that Costco Wholesale Corporation filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for the plan year ended December 31, 2025. Each of those fields carries the filing sentence it was read from, expandable where the field appears. Nothing on this page was supplied by the employer to this site.
The plan assets, the participant counts, the plan-paid fees and the recordkeeper come from a different document, the plan’s DOL Form 5500 annual return, and the section that reports them links it. Comparisons with other employers are computed across the filings named in the section they appear in.
Read the filing on SEC EDGAR ↗
| Document | Form 11-K annual report |
|---|---|
| Filed with | US Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) |
| Filed by | Costco Wholesale Corporation |
| SEC CIK | 909832 |
| Accession number | 0000909832-26-000056 |
| Plan | Costco 401(k) Retirement Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 29, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Costco Wholesale Corporation, with the Securities and Exchange Commission or with this plan’s recordkeeper, and publishes this page without their involvement. It republishes a public filing and says where it came from.
Cite this page
401(k) Monitor, “Costco Wholesale Corporation 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000909832-26-000056, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
