RESPs: how to collect the full education savings grant

Put C$2,500 a year into an RESP for each child and the federal government adds C$500, through the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG). That 20% match runs until the end of the year the child turns 17, up to C$7,200 per child in total. Start in the year your child is born and you collect the full grant by the year they turn 14, having put in C$36,000.

The RESP glossary entry has the short version. This guide covers how to collect every dollar and what to do at the end.

The grant rules for 2026

• Basic grant: 20% of the first C$2,500 contributed per child each year, so up to C$500.
• Catch-up: Each child builds C$500 of grant room a year from birth whether or not you contribute. Unused room carries forward, but the grant is capped at C$1,000 a year.
• Lifetime cap: C$7,200 per child.
• Ages 16 and 17: The grant is paid in those years only if at least C$2,000 went in before the end of the year the child turned 15, or at least C$100 a year went in during any four years before then.
• Extra grant for lower and middle incomes: If your 2026 adjusted family net income is under C$58,523, the grant adds another 20% on the first C$500 (C$100). Above that, up to C$117,045, it adds 10% (C$50). Above C$117,045 there’s no extra grant.
• Canada Learning Bond: Children in lower-income families can get C$500 in the first eligible year and C$100 a year after that up to age 15, to C$2,000. No contribution is needed, only an open RESP.

Starting late

The catch-up rule is generous, but the C$1,000-a-year cap means time runs out. Here is the most grant you can still collect, depending on the year you start:

Starting in the year a child turns 10, you’d need C$5,000 a year for seven years and C$1,000 in the eighth. Start at 12 or later and some grant is gone for good. If you’ve missed years, catching up earns more than any investment choice you’ll make in the account.

The rest of the rules

• Contribution limit: No yearly limit. The lifetime limit is C$50,000 per child across every RESP, not counting grants. An excess costs each subscriber 1% a month.
• Family or individual plan: A family plan can name several children who are related to you by blood or adoption, and lets you share the money between them. An individual plan names one person.
• When it pays out for school: Payments of growth and grants, called educational assistance payments, are taxed as the student’s income. Students often have little other income, so the tax is usually low.
• Your contributions: They can come back to you tax-free, subject to the plan’s terms.
• If no one goes to school: Grants are returned to the government. The growth can be paid to you as an accumulated income payment once the plan has passed the year of its 9th anniversary and each beneficiary is at least 21 and not eligible for school payments. It’s taxed at your rate plus an extra 20% (12% in Quebec). You can avoid the extra tax on up to C$50,000 by moving it to your RRSP, if you have the room.
• The deadline: Most plans must close by the end of the year of their 35th anniversary.

Some provinces add a grant of their own. Ask your RESP provider which ones apply to you.

Common mistakes

• Putting in a lump sum. C$20,000 at birth earns one year’s grant, C$500. The same money spread at C$2,500 a year earns the full C$7,200.
• Starting after age 15 with nothing in. Without C$2,000 in by the end of the year the child turns 15, or C$100 a year in four earlier years, the last two years earn no grant.
• Not opening one for a child who qualifies for the Learning Bond. It’s up to C$2,000 with no contribution.
• Overcontributing across several plans. Grandparents and parents opening separate RESPs share one C$50,000 limit per child.
• Collapsing the plan without a plan. Grants go back and growth faces the extra 20% tax. If one child doesn’t go to school, a family plan may let a sibling use the money.
• Staying in stocks too close to the first tuition bill. Money needed within a few years usually belongs somewhere that can’t fall much.
• Signing up for a plan you don’t understand. Some RESPs, including group plans, set contribution schedules and fees that are hard to leave. Read the terms before you sign.
• Assuming US tax works the same. If you or your child is a US citizen, the account may be taxed differently on a US return. Read our guide to cross-border advisors.

Questions to ask

1. Have we collected every year’s grant so far? If not, how fast can we catch up?
2. Family plan or one plan per child?
3. Do we qualify for the additional grant or the Learning Bond?
4. Should RESP money come before topping up our RRSPs or TFSAs?
5. How should the investments change as the first year of school gets closer?
6. If a child doesn’t go to school, what happens to their share?

For any advisor or RESP provider, also ask: “What fees come out of this plan, and what do you earn from it?” A fee-only planner earns nothing from the products. A commission-based seller may be paid through sales charges, the fund’s management expense ratio or a trailer fee.

When a fee-only planner is worth it

Contributing C$2,500 a year in a low-cost account doesn’t need a planner. One earns the fee when the RESP is one of several competing goals: a young family deciding between the RESP, an FHSA, a TFSA and an RRSP; catching up for several children at once; a blended family deciding who opens which plan; or the endgame, where moving growth to an RRSP and timing withdrawals across siblings saves real tax.

In Canada, advice-only planners who publish prices charge a median C$1,900 for a one-time plan (middle half C$950 to C$3,000), C$250 an hour, or C$2,300 a year for ongoing planning. Those come from 46, 15 and 21 firms respectively, so get two quotes. A one-time plan covers the RESP alongside everything else a new family has to decide. See what fee-only advisors charge in Canada and one-time plans vs ongoing planning.

Where to look

Browse fee-only planners by province in the public graph: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. You can also start from the flat-fee planning specialty, advisors for early-career professionals, or the lists of fee-only advisors in Ontario and flat-fee advisors.

Related reading: RRSP vs TFSA, how TFSA contribution room works and the FHSA guide.