For the 2025/26 tax year, the main adult ISA allowance is £20,000 in total across all your ISAs, not £20,000 each.

Core ISA limits

  • You can put up to £20,000 in ISAs in the 2025/26 tax year (6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026).
  • That £20,000 is a total allowance shared across Cash ISA, Stocks & Shares ISA, Innovative Finance ISA and Lifetime ISA.
  • Junior ISAs have a separate allowance of £9,000 per eligible child for the same tax year.

How you can split the £20,000

  • You can mix and match, for example:
    • £5,000 in a Cash ISA
    • £4,000 in a Lifetime ISA (this is the max that can go into a Lifetime ISA each year, and it sits within the £20,000).
* £11,000 in a Stocks & Shares ISA
  • You can use multiple providers and more than one ISA of the same type in a year (subject to specific product/provider rules), as long as the combined new money you pay in stays at or below £20,000.

Key rules to remember

  • The allowance is “use it or lose it” : if you don’t use some of your £20,000 by 5 April 2026, you can’t carry the unused part forward.
  • Transfers of existing ISA money from one provider to another do not use up your current year’s allowance, as long as you follow the provider’s transfer process rather than withdrawing and re-paying in.
  • Your ISA money can stay invested or saved tax-free beyond the tax year; only the new contributions each tax year are capped by the allowance.

Quick forum-style perspective

In UK personal finance forums, people often say:

“Max the ISA if you can, but don’t skip your emergency fund just to chase tax-free investing.”

Common tips discussed include:

  • Prioritise a basic emergency fund in easy access cash before locking too much into long‑term investments.
  • Then use your ISA allowance for medium‑ to long‑term goals (e.g. investing in a Stocks & Shares ISA for 10+ years).

Bottom note: Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.