Updated August 3, 2026. Quick answer: $10,000 in electronic I bonds per Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number per calendar year. The gift mechanism is the part worth understanding, and the rule that governs it is one sentence: a gift counts against the recipient’s limit in the year they receive it, not the year it was bought.
The limit
$10,000 in electronic I bonds per Social Security Number or Employer Identification Number per calendar year. It is per identification number, so a couple has two allowances, and an entity such as a trust or a business has its own.
The paper-bond-via-tax-refund channel was not re-verified this session and no figure is published for it.
The gift box, and how the timing works
A bond can be bought for someone else and held undelivered in the buyer’s account. A gift bond held undelivered in the giver’s account does not count against anyone’s limit while it sits there. And on delivery: “The gift counts for that person’s limit in the year in which they get the bond.”
So the mechanism has a specific shape:
- Buying a gift does not use up the recipient’s allowance while it sits undelivered.
- Delivering it does, in the delivery year.
- A gift bought in one year can therefore be held and delivered in a later year when the recipient has room.
- It earns interest from the purchase month, not the delivery date — which is the whole reason the mechanism is interesting.
One procedural condition: “The giver must hold the savings bonds in your account for at least 5 business days before you deliver them to the gift recipient.”
The obvious limitation is equally important. A recipient with a full allowance in a given year cannot receive the gift that year, so a large gift box delivers over several years and the recipient cannot buy their own during those years without going over. That is a real constraint, not a technicality.
Holding rules
“You can cash in (redeem) your I bond after 12 months.” There is no way out before then at all.
And between one and five years: “if you cash in the bond in less than 5 years, you lose the last 3 months of interest. For example, if you cash in the bond after 18 months, you get the first 15 months of interest.”
So the instrument has a hard twelve-month lock and a soft four-year one. Money that might be needed inside a year does not belong here at all, and money that might be needed inside five years pays a known, bounded price to leave.
The current rate
4.26% composite for I bonds issued 1 May 2026 through 31 October 2026, built from a 0.90% fixed rate and a semiannual inflation component.
The fixed component stays with the bond for its life; the inflation component resets every six months. Two I bonds bought in different months can therefore behave differently forever, which is why the purchase month is worth recording.
Related: when the interest is taxed · the education exclusion and why most people do not qualify.
General information drawn from IRS, Medicare, HUD and state statute and regulation, not legal, tax or financial advice. Continuing-care law is state law and differs materially between states; every figure here is year-labelled and every source named. Fiduciary licensing, executor compensation and intestacy are STATE law and differ change. Rates and limits are year-labelled and move; verify current terms at treasurydirect.gov before acting. Nothing here is a prediction or a recommendation about any investment – it describes how these instruments work.