Treasury has set the I bond rate for the next six months, and the cap on how much one person can buy has not moved. A saver can put up to $10,000 a year into electronic I bonds, and bonds issued from November 1, 2026 through April 30, 2027 start at a 5.51% annual rate.

That 5.51% is a six-month number. It combines a 1.40% fixed rate that stays with the bond for as long as it is held and an inflation piece that moves every six months after that.

How much one person can buy

TreasuryDirect, the official government site where savings bonds are bought and kept, spells out the cap on its buying page. In any one calendar year, a person may buy up to $10,000 in Series I electronic bonds for themselves. A separate $10,000 is allowed in Series EE electronic bonds, and any amount from $25 to $10,000, to the penny, can be bought at a time.

The limit is per person, not per household. A married couple can each buy $10,000 as owner of their own bonds. Bonds bought for a child or as gifts are on top of that, TreasuryDirect says. The count is by calendar year, so it starts over on January 1.

For anyone holding cash in a savings account, the practical questions are how much to move and when. Whatever has already gone into I bonds in 2026 comes off the $10,000, and the rest can be bought through December 31. Bonds issued before November 1 carry the earlier rates, including a 0.90% fixed rate, while bonds issued from November 1 carry the new 1.40% fixed rate for life.

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What the new rate is and how long it lasts

Treasury’s I bond rate page lists the current rate at 5.51%, including the 1.40% fixed rate, for bonds issued November 1, 2026 to April 30, 2027. Treasury announces the fixed rate every May 1 and November 1. That fixed rate then applies, for the life of the bond, to every I bond issued over the next six months.

The 5.51% comes from Treasury’s formula: the fixed rate, plus two times the six-month inflation rate, plus the fixed rate times the inflation rate. With 1.40% fixed and 2.04% six-month inflation, the result is 0.0550856, which rounds to 5.51%.

The inflation piece is the part that moves. The 2.04% six-month reading feeds this round and lifts the total well above the fixed rate. At the next reset, that inflation reading is replaced with a new one, while the 1.40% fixed rate stays where it is.

Each bond runs on its own clock. TreasuryDirect says the rate on a Series I bond changes every six months based on inflation, and that it can go up or go down. A bond issued in November sees its rate change on May 1 and every six months after that. A bond issued in January would change in July.

How I bond interest is paid

I bonds earn interest from the first day of the month they are bought, and the interest is added twice a year. At 5.51% a year, a full $10,000 would earn about $275 over its first six months.

Cashing out early costs something. For bonds less than five years old, the values shown in TreasuryDirect and its calculator leave out the last three months of interest, because Treasury does not pay those final three months on a bond cashed before the five-year mark.

How the new rate compares

Series EE bonds issued over the same stretch earn 2.90%, according to TreasuryDirect. Bonds bought from May 2026 through October 2026 carry a 4.26% composite rate, the same as bonds bought from November 2025 through April 2026.

Side by side, the new 5.51% sits 1.25 percentage points above the 4.26% composite on bonds bought over the prior six months. On a full $10,000, that gap is worth roughly $125 over a year at the opening rates.

The fixed rate is where the difference shows up. Treasury set it at 1.10% on May 1, 2025, 0.90% on November 1, 2025, 0.90% again on May 1, 2026, and now 1.40%. The last time the fixed rate was 1.40% was November 2006, which makes this the highest fixed rate in 20 years.

Three numbers to settle before buying

The first is the room left under the $10,000 for 2026, after anything already bought this year. The second is the 1.40% fixed rate that a November or later bond keeps for life. The third is the reset month, which depends on when the bond is issued.

For a saver who has bought nothing in 2026, the picture is simple. A full $10,000 in bonds issued in November starts at 5.51%, and a couple using both allowances could put $20,000 to work at the same starting rate.

TreasuryDirect is plain that 5.51% is the opening rate and that the variable part can fall as well as rise. The rate page and the buying page carry the live figures, and a saver with a spouse has two allowances to work with, not one.

Cash earning almost nothing in a savings account?

Cash left in an account that pays close to nothing loses ground every month, and an I bond slot left empty on December 31 does not carry into January. A bond bought without knowing its reset month can also land on a rate change nobody planned for.

Make Your Savings Pay You is an 11-page guide to the safe places that pay more than a near-zero bank account. It covers I bonds whose rate adjusts with inflation every six months, Treasury bills from $100, free of state and local income tax, and a ladder that can be copied so money comes due on a schedule. A cash map worksheet and a large-print edition are included.

Get the I bond $10,000 limit savings guide with a copy-it ladder →

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.