How to Start in Canada

How to Open an RESP and Claim the Government Grants

Open an RESP, claim the 20% Canada Education Savings Grant match and the up-to-$2,000 Canada Learning Bond, and withdraw it all for school.

Written October 24, 2026 · 10 min read

Applies in: across Canada

The short answer

An RESP is a savings plan you open with a financial institution, and the federal government adds money to it through two programs. The Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) matches part of what you contribute. The Canada Learning Bond (CLB) pays money in with no contribution at all, for children from lower-income families who qualify. You need Social Insurance Numbers for yourself and the child, a promoter that offers the grants you want, and a plan with the child named as beneficiary. The promoter helps you apply for both grants when you open the plan.

This guide covers the process: how to open the plan, how the two grants work, and how the money comes out for school. It is not investment advice, and it does not recommend any provider.

Before you start: what you need

You need two things before a promoter can open the plan: a Social Insurance Number for yourself and one for the child. A SIN is free from Service Canada, and you can apply at a Service Canada Centre or through the process on canada.ca. You do not need a bank account to open an RESP.

Next, pick a promoter. Promoters are the organizations that offer RESPs: banks, credit unions, certified financial planners, and group plan dealers. The federal list of RESP promoters is published on canada.ca. Not every promoter offers every grant, so ask directly whether the promoter offers the Canada Learning Bond and the additional CESG for lower- and middle-income families before you sign anything. Read the plan's terms and conditions too — fees, withdrawal rules, and what happens if you stop contributing all vary by plan.

There are two plan shapes. A family plan covers more than one child in the same family under one plan. An individual plan covers a single child; group plans are a collection of individual plans administered for a group of beneficiaries born in the same year. If you have more than one child, a family plan keeps the paperwork in one place, but the grants are still tracked per child.

The Canada Education Savings Grant: the match on your contributions

The CESG only pays when you contribute. The basic grant is 20% of the first $2,500 contributed for a beneficiary in a year, to a maximum of $500 per year. Contribute $1,000 in a year and the basic grant is $200. Contribute $2,500 and it is the full $500. Money above $2,500 in a year still sits in the plan, but it earns no extra basic grant that year.

Unused grant room carries forward. Every year you contribute less than the maximum, the shortfall stays available for later years. That is why a catch-up year can pay up to $1,000 of CESG: one year of current room plus one year of carried-forward room, on a $5,000 contribution. You cannot stack several missed years into a single year — the catch-up is one earlier year at a time.

The lifetime maximum is $7,200 per beneficiary, and grants are paid only up to the end of the calendar year in which the child turns 17. Starting late has a catch: a 16- or 17-year-old only gets the CESG if, before the end of the calendar year they turned 15, either at least $2,000 was contributed to the RESP (and not withdrawn) or at least $100 was contributed in any four previous years. If neither condition was met, a late contribution earns no grant.

Lower- and middle-income families can also get an additional CESG on top of the basic grant. For 2026, the additional grant is calculated on the first $500 contributed in the year: families with adjusted family net income under $58,523 get an extra 20%, or $100, for a yearly maximum of $600; families between $58,523 and $117,045 get an extra 10%, or $50, for a yearly maximum of $550; families above $117,045 get the basic grant only, for a yearly maximum of $500. The additional grant counts toward the same $7,200 lifetime maximum.

The Canada Learning Bond: money with no contribution

The Canada Learning Bond is the grant people miss most often, because it does not depend on contributing anything. An eligible child can receive up to $2,000 in total: $500 in the first year of eligibility, plus $100 for each additional year the child is eligible, up to the year the child turns 15.

A child qualifies if they were born on or after January 1, 2004, are a resident of Canada, have a valid Social Insurance Number, had a family income that met the income eligibility criteria for at least one year, and are named as a beneficiary in an RESP. Children in care for whom a Children's Special Allowance is payable qualify automatically. Receiving the bond does not affect other Government of Canada benefits.

The practical step is the same as for the CESG: open the RESP, name the child as beneficiary, and ask the promoter to request the bond. If the child qualifies, the eligible bond money is deposited into the RESP. If nobody claimed it while the child was young, an eligible young adult can still apply: the Canada.ca material describes applying from age 18 up to the day before turning 21.

Provincial benefits on top: British Columbia and Quebec

Two provinces add their own money on top of the federal grants. In British Columbia, the B.C. Training and Education Savings Grant is a one-time $1,200 for an eligible child aged 6 to 8 whose parent and child are B.C. residents, named as beneficiary of an RESP with a participating financial institution. In Quebec, the Quebec Education Savings Incentive is a refundable tax credit with a lifetime maximum of $3,600 per eligible beneficiary. Ask your promoter whether it offers the provincial benefit for your province — not every promoter does.

Contributing: a simple routine

Once the plan is open, contributions are the only lever you control for the CESG. A routine that matches the grant math is straightforward: contribute regularly through the year, and check once a year whether you have unused grant room worth catching up. Because the basic grant tops out at $2,500 of contributions per child per year, spreading contributions across several children in a family plan means each child's grant room is used separately — a contribution for one child does not earn a grant for another.

The $50,000 lifetime contribution limit

There is no annual limit on RESP contributions. The limit is a lifetime one: $50,000 per beneficiary, across every RESP that exists for that child. A parent's plan and a grandparent's separate plan draw from the same $50,000 of room, so uncoordinated contributions from two subscribers can push a child over the limit without either of them intending to.

Only your own contributions count toward the $50,000. Government grants and investment growth inside the plan do not count. Going over the limit triggers a tax of 1% per month on your share of the excess, and it keeps accruing every month until the excess is withdrawn.

Two more time limits to know. You can put money into an RESP for up to 31 years from the day the plan was opened, and the plan can stay open for up to 35 years to use the money. If more than one RESP exists for the same child, tell the other subscribers what you have contributed, so the shared limit is tracked in one place.

Withdrawing the money for school

When the beneficiary is enrolled in a qualifying post-secondary program — an apprenticeship, CEGEP, college, trade school, or university, full-time or part-time — the subscriber asks the promoter for a withdrawal, and the promoter will ask for proof of enrolment first. Get that proof from the institution early in the term so the payment is not held up.

Withdrawals come in two parts, and the split matters for tax. Your own contributions come out as a Post-Secondary Education payment, tax-free, and can be paid to the subscriber or the beneficiary. Grants and growth come out as an Educational Assistance Payment, paid to the beneficiary, and count as the beneficiary's income.

The early-withdrawal limits apply to Educational Assistance Payments only. For a full-time student, EAPs are limited to $8,000 during the first 13 consecutive weeks of enrolment. After that period, any available amount can be requested, with no set limit — unless the student takes a break and does not re-enrol in a qualifying program for 12 months, in which case the original limit applies again. For a part-time student, EAPs are limited to $4,000 for every 13-week period of enrolment. For both full-time and part-time study, EAPs can also be paid for up to 6 months after enrolment ends, if the plan allows it. If you need more than the limit in the early weeks, the promoter can send a request with verified school expense receipts to the Canada Education Savings Program.

The money can pay for education-related expenses such as tuition, books, and transportation. The promoter does not police every dollar, but the withdrawal has to fit the plan's terms and the program has to qualify, so confirm both before the student counts on the payment.

If your child does not go on to post-secondary study

This is the case to sort out before you close anything. Grants are tied to education use, and taking money out for non-education purposes triggers grant repayment and tax rules that depend on the plan and the withdrawal route. The options — transferring the plan to another beneficiary, holding it, or withdrawing under the plan's non-education rules — all have different consequences, and a promoter can walk through them with the actual numbers from your plan. Do not withdraw first and ask later.

Related guides

Opening an RESP and claiming the grants, in five steps

  1. Get a Social Insurance Number for yourself and the childBoth SINs are needed to open the plan and apply for the grants. A SIN is free from Service Canada.
  2. Pick a promoter that offers the grants you wantBanks, credit unions, certified financial planners, and group plan dealers all offer RESPs, but not every promoter offers every grant. Ask before you open.
  3. Open the RESP and name the beneficiaryThe person opening the plan is the subscriber. The child you are saving for is the beneficiary. You do not need a bank account to open an RESP.
  4. Apply for the grants with the promoter's helpThe promoter helps you apply for the Canada Education Savings Grant and the Canada Learning Bond, plus any provincial benefit, at the same time you open the plan.
  5. Contribute for the CESG; the CLB needs no contributionThe CESG only pays on money you put in. The Canada Learning Bond pays with no contribution at all, as long as the child qualifies.

Questions people ask

Do I have to contribute to get the Canada Learning Bond?

No. The Canada Learning Bond pays into the RESP with no contribution required. You still have to open an RESP and name the child as beneficiary, and the child needs a valid SIN, Canadian residency, and a birth date on or after January 1, 2004, plus a family income that met the criteria for at least one year.

How much Canada Education Savings Grant do I get each year?

The basic grant is 20% of the first $2,500 you contribute for a child in a year, which works out to $500. If you have unused grant room from an earlier year, you can get up to $1,000 in a single year. The lifetime maximum is $7,200 per child, and grants stop at the end of the calendar year the child turns 17.

What happens if I miss a year of contributions?

The unused grant room carries forward. You can catch up one earlier year at a time, which is how a single year can pay up to $1,000 of CESG instead of $500. You cannot claim several missed years all at once, so a missed year is recovered gradually, not in one lump.

Can a grandparent open an RESP for a grandchild?

Yes. You can open an RESP and save for your own child, someone else's child, yourself, or another adult. The subscriber does not have to be the child's parent. Whoever opens the plan controls the contributions and the withdrawal requests, so the family should agree on that before the paperwork is signed.

When can the money come out of an RESP?

Once the beneficiary is enrolled in a qualifying post-secondary program — an apprenticeship, CEGEP, college, trade school, or university, full-time or part-time. The promoter will ask for proof of enrolment first. Your own contributions come back tax-free, while grants and growth come out as an Educational Assistance Payment to the student and count as the student's income.

What happens to the grants if my child does not go on to post-secondary study?

Do not just close the plan. Grant repayment and tax rules apply when the money is not used for education, and the exact outcome depends on the plan type and the withdrawal route. Talk to your promoter about the options before you take anything out, so you do not trigger a repayment you could have avoided.

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