SNAP calculator: estimate food stamps in your state

How the SNAP calculator works

SNAP benefits are the maximum allotment for your household size minus 30% of your net income, because households are expected to spend about 30% of their own money on food.^[3][7] The calculator follows the federal steps in order:^[4]

1. Gross income. Add all earned and unearned income before taxes, and compare it with your state’s gross limit (130% of poverty, or up to 200% in states with broad-based categorical eligibility).^[5]
2. Deductions. Subtract 20% of earnings, the standard deduction ($217 for one to three people), dependent care, legally owed child support you pay, and medical costs over $35 for members who are 60 or older or disabled.
3. Shelter. Add rent or mortgage to your state’s utility allowance; anything above half of your adjusted income is deducted, up to $769 unless someone is elderly or disabled.^[1]
4. Net income test. Net income must be at or below 100% of poverty, unless your state waives the test.
5. Benefit. Maximum allotment minus 30% of net income, with 30% rounded up to the next dollar. Eligible one- and two-person households get at least $25.^[3]

Your state matters in two places: the gross income limit and the standard utility allowance, which can differ by hundreds of dollars between states and is updated every October.^[6]

Maximum SNAP benefits by household size

The maximum benefit for a household of four in the 48 states and DC is $1,023 a month from October 1, 2026, up from $994 the year before.^[1][2] A household with no countable net income gets the full maximum.

Outside the 48 states the four-person maximum is $1,306 to $2,027 in Alaska (by area), $1,655 in Hawaii, $1,507 in Guam and $1,315 in the U.S. Virgin Islands.^[1] Households of 18 or more people are capped at $3,887 in the 48 states.

SNAP deductions for 2026–27

Deductions are what turn gross income into net income, and they are why two households with the same pay can get very different benefits.^[4][1]

Example: USDA’s four-person household

USDA’s own example is a family of four with $1,500 in wages, $550 in Social Security, $362 of child care and $700 in shelter costs; under last year’s figures it gets $679 a month.^[7] Our calculator reproduces every line:

With the figures in force since October 1, 2026, the same household gets $711: the standard deduction for four people rose to $229 and the maximum to $1,023.^[1] USDA’s page, updated November 3, 2026, shows $706 for this household because it subtracts $217, the standard deduction for one to three people; with the four-person amount from USDA’s own memo the result is $711.^[7][1] The example has no utility allowance; adding your state’s allowance usually raises the shelter deduction.

SNAP by state

Each state page has the state’s own income limit, utility allowances, application portal, interview and reporting rules, and a worked example:

• FLFlorida food stamps
• INIndiana food stamps
• LALouisiana food stamps
• MOMissouri food stamps
• GAGeorgia food stamps
• NYCNew York City food stamps
• NYNew York State food stamps
• OKOklahoma food stamps
• OHOhio food stamps
• WAWashington food stamps
• NVNevada food stamps
• ARArkansas food stamps
• VAVirginia food stamps
• KYKentucky food stamps
• MAMassachusetts food stamps
• TNTennessee food stamps
• NCNorth Carolina food stamps
• PAPennsylvania food stamps
• TXTexas food stamps
• MDMaryland food stamps
• SCSouth Carolina food stamps
• COColorado food stamps

For limits in every state on one page, see what is the income limit for food stamps, and for the non-income rules, the requirements to be on food stamps.

Medicaid income limits by state

Many households that qualify for SNAP also qualify for Medicaid, but the income limits are set differently: as a percentage of the poverty guidelines that depends on age, pregnancy, parenthood and whether the state expanded Medicaid. Our pages convert each state’s limits into dollars. For heating and cooling bills, the LIHEAP income limits page shows each state’s federal maximum, and for debt relief, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy income limits page lists state median incomes:

• COColorado
• CACalifornia (Medi-Cal)
• NYNew York
• INIndiana
• OHOhio
• PAPennsylvania
• VAVirginia
• IDIdaho
• NCNorth Carolina
• OROregon (OHP)
• FLFlorida
• MAMassachusetts (MassHealth)
• GAGeorgia
• KYKentucky
• SCSouth Carolina
• MOMissouri

What changed in 2025 and 2026

The 2025 reconciliation law (Public Law 119-21) made the biggest SNAP changes in decades; most took effect when it was signed on July 4, 2025, and states applied them at new applications and at each household’s next recertification.^[8][9]

• Work time limit widened to able-bodied adults up to age 64 and parents of children 14 and older; exemptions for veterans, homeless people and former foster youth ended.^[10]
• Noncitizen eligibility narrowed to green-card holders, Cuban and Haitian entrants and COFA citizens.^[11]
• Utility allowance through energy assistance now only for households with an elderly or disabled member, and internet costs no longer count as shelter costs.^[12]
• States pay more: 75% of administrative costs from October 2026, and from October 2027 a share of benefit costs (0% to 15%) depending on each state’s payment error rate.
• Benefit formula: future Thrifty Food Plan updates must be cost-neutral, so annual increases follow inflation.

The state share depends on each state’s payment error rate, the share of benefit dollars paid in the wrong amount. The national rate for fiscal year 2025 was 10.62%.^[13] The table applies the law’s tiers to each state’s 2025 rate; for 2028 a state may elect its 2026 rate instead, and a rate × 1.5 of 20% or more delays the start by a year.^[8]