The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 401(k): Alight, match 6% max
The Goldman Sachs 401(k) Plan · GS · CIK 886982
Alight 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.
Maximum employer match, as a share of pay
6%
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. matches 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay.
From the Form 11-K filed June 12, 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 Goldman Sachs puts in, and what the plan costs
What Goldman Sachs put into the plan, per active participant
$8,403
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. put $8,403 into this plan for each of its 23,891 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.
Goldman Sachs put in more per active participant than 68% of plans with 5,000+ participants in investment management and securities. The middle plan in that group of 45 reported $6,786. Investment management and securities comes from business code 523110, which Goldman Sachs 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.
What this figure cannot separate: how much Goldman Sachs 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 134019460, plan 001 · DOL EFAST2 ↗
The $8,403 above is the Form 5500 figure for plan year 2024, and it counts every employer dollar on one line. The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. also files a Form 11-K, which states the match formula for plan year 2025: the card below reads $2,970 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 Goldman Sachs puts in
$2,970
a year, at a $49,500 salary.
The match paragraph, word for word
“The Plan offers a dollar-for-dollar Matching Contribution on participants’ elective deferrals up to 6% of Safe Harbor Compensation, capped at a maximum match of $12,500. If an eligible participant’s Safe Harbor Compensation is less than $125,000, the firm will also allocate to that eligible participant’s account a Fixed Contribution equal to 2% of Safe Harbor Compensation. In addition to these contributions, the firm will allocate to each eligible participant an Additional Retirement Contribution of up to $4,000. Collectively, the Matching Contribution, Fixed Contribution and Additional Retirement Contribution are herein referred to as the Firm Contributions.”
What you contribute to collect all of it
Contribute at least 6% of your pay to collect the full match.
That is $2,970 a year at a $49,500 salary, and it scales with your own.
Vesting score
71.43 out of 100
How fast the employer’s money becomes yours. Higher than 32% 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: 0%, 0%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 100%. The score is the average of those 7 readings.
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately fully vested in their own 401(k) contributions. A participant’s Matching Contributions, Fixed Contributions and Additional Contributions fully vest upon the earliest to occur of: (i) completion of a two-year period of service for the Matching Contributions and Fixed Contributions or three-year period of service for the Additional Contributions, (ii) attainment of age 65 while employed by the firm or its affiliates, (iii) disability retirement, (iv) death while employed by the firm or on military duty or (v) Plan termination. There is no partial vesting of Matching Contributions, Fixed Contributions or Additional Contributions.”
The match starts with the job. This is a filed term, and it does not move the score above.
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees become eligible to make pre-tax, after-tax, and “Roth” after-tax, contributions to the Plan as of the first day of the month after they join the firm or its affiliates as eligible employees. In addition, employees become eligible for Matching Contributions and Fixed Contributions as of the first day of the month following hire date. In addition, to be eligible for the Fixed Contribution, the employee must be employed on the last day of the firm’s fiscal year that ends with or within the Plan Year.”
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
99th percentile
$331.98 per participant in plan-paid administrative cost, more expensive than 99% of plans with 5,000+ participants.
What is Goldman Sachs' 401(k) match formula?
Goldman Sachs' 401(k) employer match tops out at 6% of pay. One rate up to one limit is the commonest of the four shapes a match formula takes.
| Match formula | 100% (dollar-for-dollar) of the first 6% of pay |
|---|---|
| Maximum employer match | 6% of compensation |
| Conditions | Matching Contribution is capped at a maximum match of $12,500. The Fixed Contribution requires Safe Harbor Compensation of less than $125,000 and employment on the last day of the firm's fiscal year that ends with or within the Plan Year. The Additional Retirement Contribution is limited to a grandfathered group (active or on authorized leave of absence for no longer than two years and age 46 or older as of November 26, 2004, and employed as of the last day of the current fiscal year). |
| Other employer contribution | Fixed Contribution equal to 2% of Safe Harbor Compensation for eligible participants whose Safe Harbor Compensation is less than $125,000 |
| Other employer contribution | Additional Retirement Contribution of up to $4,000 for a grandfathered group of eligible participants |
At a $75,000 salary, contributing 6% ($4,500) earns the full employer match of $4,500 for the year.
What the filing says, word for word
“The Plan offers a dollar-for-dollar Matching Contribution on participants’ elective deferrals up to 6% of Safe Harbor Compensation, capped at a maximum match of $12,500. If an eligible participant’s Safe Harbor Compensation is less than $125,000, the firm will also allocate to that eligible participant’s account a Fixed Contribution equal to 2% of Safe Harbor Compensation. In addition to these contributions, the firm will allocate to each eligible participant an Additional Retirement Contribution of up to $4,000. Collectively, the Matching Contribution, Fixed Contribution and Additional Retirement Contribution are herein referred to as the Firm Contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 12, 2026, SEC EDGAR, corroborated by the filing's inline-XBRL facts · SEC ↗
What is Goldman Sachs' 401(k) vesting schedule?
Goldman Sachs vests the employer match on a cliff schedule: nothing is yours until two years of service, then 100% at once. Leave a day early and the employer money goes back to the plan, the edge a two-year cliff creates.
| Employer match vesting | Cliff: 100% vested after 2 years of service |
|---|---|
| Your own contributions | Immediate: always 100% yours |
| Accelerated vesting | Full vesting upon attainment of age 65 while employed by the firm or its affiliates, disability retirement, death while employed by the firm or on military duty, or Plan termination; there is no partial vesting |
| Other employer contributions | Fixed Contributions fully vest after a two-year period of service; Additional Contributions fully vest after a three-year period of service, with the same acceleration triggers as the match |
Vesting, word for word
“Participants are immediately fully vested in their own 401(k) contributions. A participant’s Matching Contributions, Fixed Contributions and Additional Contributions fully vest upon the earliest to occur of: (i) completion of a two-year period of service for the Matching Contributions and Fixed Contributions or three-year period of service for the Additional Contributions, (ii) attainment of age 65 while employed by the firm or its affiliates, (iii) disability retirement, (iv) death while employed by the firm or on military duty or (v) Plan termination. There is no partial vesting of Matching Contributions, Fixed Contributions or Additional Contributions.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 12, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who can join Goldman Sachs' 401(k), and is enrollment automatic?
Goldman Sachs' filing does not mention automatic enrollment, which is not the same as the plan having none.
| Plan entry | First day of the month after joining the firm or its affiliates as an eligible employee |
|---|---|
| Match eligibility | Employees become eligible for Matching Contributions and Fixed Contributions as of the first day of the month following hire date |
| Automatic enrollment | Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence) |
Eligibility, word for word
“Employees become eligible to make pre-tax, after-tax, and “Roth” after-tax, contributions to the Plan as of the first day of the month after they join the firm or its affiliates as eligible employees. In addition, employees become eligible for Matching Contributions and Fixed Contributions as of the first day of the month following hire date. In addition, to be eligible for the Fixed Contribution, the employee must be employed on the last day of the firm’s fiscal year that ends with or within the Plan Year.”
Source: Form 11-K filed June 12, 2026, SEC EDGAR · SEC ↗
Who holds your account
Schedule C of the Form 5500 filed for plan year 2024 reports Alight, filed as “ALIGHT SOLUTIONS LLC”. 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.
46 plans on file name Alight as their recordkeeper. Of those, the 46 with a computable fee have a median plan-paid cost of $87.90 per participant.
Participants log in at Alight, find your HR website ↗. Alight runs a separate site for each employer, so that page asks which employer you work for first. 401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with Alight or with any other recordkeeper, and takes nothing for this link. It is here because that is where the account is.
| Recordkeeper | Alight |
|---|---|
| Recordkeeper EIN | 821061233 |
What does the Goldman Sachs plan report on Form 5500?
The Goldman Sachs plan reported $12.8B in assets and 48,550 participants for plan year 2024.
| Total plan assets | $12,807,939,404 |
|---|---|
| Participants | 48,550 |
| Plan-paid admin cost per participant | $331.98 |
How that cost compares
This plan pays $331.98 per participant. The median across plans in investment management and securities is $111.34, from the 882 of 960 whose Form 5500 yields a per-participant cost.
The Goldman Sachs 401(k) Plan on its Form 5500 filing: fees, providers and financials
How does Goldman Sachs' 401(k) match compare?
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.'s maximum 401(k) match of 6% of pay compares with a median of 4% across the 269 companies in our data with a computable formula.
Employers worth reading next
Of the six employers below, three file in investment management and securities, two report the same recordkeeper and one vests on the same schedule.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in investment management and securities.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Also in investment management and securities.
Maximum match 5.4% of pay. Also in investment management and securities.
Match vests in steps, 100% after 5 years. Same recordkeeper, Alight.
Maximum match 6% of pay. Same recordkeeper, Alight.
Maximum match 3.5% of pay. Same 2-year cliff as Goldman Sachs.
Compare The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. with any company, side by side
What can you do next?
- Read the Form 11-K on SEC EDGAR ↗
Form 11-K filed June 12, 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 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.'s 401(k) match?
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. matches 100% of employee contributions up to 6% of eligible pay (plan year ended December 31, 2025).
When does the The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 401(k) match vest?
Cliff: 100% vested after 2 years of service.
Does The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.'s 401(k) plan have automatic enrollment?
Not mentioned in the filing (not proof of absence).
Who is the recordkeeper for The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.'s 401(k)?
Alight is named as the recordkeeper on the Form 5500 filed for The Goldman Sachs 401(k) 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.
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 The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 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 | The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. |
| SEC CIK | 886982 |
| Accession number | 0000886982-26-000287 |
| Plan | The Goldman Sachs 401(k) Plan |
| Period of report | December 31, 2025 |
| Filed | June 12, 2026 |
401(k) Monitor is not affiliated with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., 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, “The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. 401(k) plan facts”, from SEC Form 11-K accession 0000886982-26-000287, plan year ended December 31, 2025.
