Federal Student Loan Limits Calculator
Where you are in your studies, and what the year costs
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter your year of study, from 1 to 5. The third year and every year after it share a single limit, so enter 3 for any year from the third onward. The example on this page uses a second-year student.
- 02
Set your dependency status: 0 if you are a dependent student, 1 if you are independent. The FAFSA decides this, not you — you are independent if you are 24 or older, married, a veteran, a graduate student, supporting children of your own, or were in foster care. An independent undergraduate may borrow several thousand dollars more each year.
- 03
Choose the program type: 0 for undergraduate, 1 for graduate, 2 for professional. The three carry completely different caps since Public Law 119-21 took effect on 1 July 2026, so this field changes the answer more than any other.
- 04
Enter what you have already borrowed for your own education across every year so far. The example uses $5,500. This is what the aggregate and lifetime ceilings are measured against.
- 05
Enter this year's cost of attendance and the grants and scholarships against it — $28,000 and $9,000 in the example — plus any parent PLUS a parent plans to take. Read the headline, which is the most you may borrow, then the gap at the bottom, which is what none of it covers.
Formula
Three ceilings apply at once, and the smallest of them is your answer. The annual cap comes first. For an undergraduate it is set by year of study and dependency status (34 CFR 685.203): a dependent student may borrow $5,500 in the first year, $6,500 in the second and $7,500 in the third year and beyond; an independent student may borrow $9,500, $10,500 and $12,500. Those totals are built from a subsidized base of $3,500, $4,500 and $5,500, plus an additional unsubsidized amount of $2,000 for a dependent student or $6,000, $6,000 and $7,000 for an independent one. For a graduate student the annual cap is $20,500 and for a professional student $50,000 (Public Law 119-21). The aggregate cap comes second: $31,000 for a dependent undergraduate, $57,500 for an independent one, $100,000 for a graduate student beyond undergraduate borrowing and $200,000 for a professional one. Aggregate room = the aggregate cap minus what you have already borrowed. This year's maximum = the smaller of the annual cap and the aggregate room. The lifetime ceiling of $257,500 sits above all of it, excluding parent PLUS a student takes for their own child. Subsidized portion = the smaller of the subsidized cap for your year and this year's maximum. Graduate and professional loans have no subsidized portion at all. The gap = cost of attendance − grants and scholarships − this year's maximum − parent PLUS planned, floored at zero.
Example
A second-year dependent undergraduate has already borrowed $5,500. Their school's cost of attendance is $28,000 this year and grants and scholarships cover $9,000. A parent plans to take $8,000 of parent PLUS. The annual cap for a second-year dependent undergraduate is $6,500. The aggregate cap is $31,000 and they have used $5,500 of it, leaving $25,500 — more than the annual cap, so the annual cap is what binds and they may borrow $6,500. Up to $4,500 of that can be subsidized, meaning no interest accrues while they are enrolled at least half-time; the remaining $2,000 is unsubsidized and starts accruing immediately. The 1.057% origination fee means about $6,431 of the $6,500 actually reaches the account. After grants, $19,000 of the year is left to find. The $6,500 of student loans and the $8,000 of parent PLUS cover $14,500 of it, leaving a gap of $4,500. That gap is where private borrowing starts. Looking ahead, the schedule shows the aggregate closing in. Borrowing the maximum every year takes them to $12,000 after this year, $19,500 after the third and $27,000 after the fourth. In a fifth year the annual cap would be $7,500 but only $4,000 of aggregate room remains, so $4,000 is all they could take. Their lifetime room, against the $257,500 ceiling, is $252,000.
Definitions
- Cost of attendance
- The school's own published estimate of a year: tuition, fees, housing, food, books, supplies and transport. It sets the outer limit of all aid, and only the financial aid office publishes it.
- Subsidized loan
- A Direct loan on which the government pays the interest while you are enrolled at least half-time. Available to undergraduates with financial need only, capped at $3,500, $4,500 and $5,500 by year of study (34 CFR 685.203).
- Aggregate loan limit
- The total a student may owe across all years. $31,000 for a dependent undergraduate and $57,500 for an independent one, measured on unpaid principal; $100,000 for a graduate student and $200,000 for a professional one.
- Dependency status
- Whether the FAFSA counts your parents' information. Independent students — those 24 or older, married, veterans, graduate students, parents themselves, or formerly in foster care — may borrow more each year.
- Origination fee
- A percentage taken off the top of each disbursement before the money reaches the school. 1.057% on subsidized and unsubsidized loans and 4.228% on PLUS loans, for first disbursements before 1 October 2027 (Federal Student Aid, 13 May 2026). You repay the full amount borrowed, not the smaller amount that arrived.
Good to know
Three ceilings apply at once, and the lowest one wins
People speak of the student loan limit as though it were a single number, and that is the first thing to unlearn. Three separate ceilings sit on top of each other, and in any given year the smallest of them is the one that decides what you can actually borrow. The first is the annual limit, which resets every year. For an undergraduate it depends on how far through the degree you are and whether the FAFSA counts you as dependent or independent: a dependent student may take $5,500 in the first year, $6,500 in the second and $7,500 in the third year and beyond, while an independent student may take $9,500, $10,500 and $12,500. Those figures come from 34 CFR 685.203 and Public Law 119-21 did not change them. The second ceiling is the aggregate, which never resets: $31,000 for a dependent undergraduate, $57,500 for an independent one, $100,000 for a graduate student beyond whatever they borrowed as an undergraduate, and $200,000 for a professional student. The third is new, and it is the lifetime maximum of $257,500 on everything a student borrows for their own education. The interaction is what surprises people. A second-year dependent undergraduate who has already borrowed $5,500 has $25,500 of aggregate room, which is more than the $6,500 annual cap, so the annual cap binds and $6,500 is the answer. Keep borrowing the maximum and the position reverses: by a fifth year that student would have $4,000 of aggregate room against a $7,500 annual cap, and $4,000 would be all they could take. The page shows that crossover in its schedule, which is worth looking at early rather than in the year it bites. If a degree is likely to run five years, or if a transfer or a change of major is on the cards, the aggregate is the number to plan around, not the annual one.
What changed on 1 July 2026, and who escaped it
Public Law 119-21 rewrote federal student borrowing, and the change with the widest effect is the closure of Grad PLUS. Until 1 July 2026 a graduate or professional student who exhausted their unsubsidized loan could borrow up to the full cost of attendance through Grad PLUS, which meant that in practice there was no federal ceiling on graduate borrowing at all. The statute now says plainly that a graduate or professional student is not eligible for a Federal Direct PLUS Loan for any period of instruction beginning on or after that date. What replaces it is a pair of hard caps: $20,500 a year and $100,000 in total for a graduate student, $50,000 and $200,000 for a professional student, with a student who is both sharing the $200,000 rather than adding the two together. The practical consequence is immediate and large. Run this page as a first-year graduate student at a school costing $62,000 a year with $12,000 of grants, and the $20,500 cap leaves $29,500 unfunded in a single year. Parent PLUS was capped in the same law, at $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total for each dependent student. There is, however, an exception worth checking before you plan anything. The statute protects students who were already under way: if you were enrolled in your program on 30 June 2026 and had already received a loan for that program, the previous limits continue to apply for the lesser of three academic years or the program length minus the part you have already completed. For someone halfway through a doctorate or a medical degree, that is the difference between the old uncapped world and the new ceiling, and it can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Nothing on this page can tell you which side of that line your own file falls on. Your school's financial aid office can, and it is worth asking them in writing.
Subsidized, unsubsidized, and the order to borrow in
Not all federal borrowing costs the same, and the order in which you accept it matters more than most students realize. A subsidized loan is the best money available: the government pays the interest for the whole time you are enrolled at least half-time, so you finish owing precisely what you borrowed. Subsidized loans go only to undergraduates with demonstrated financial need, and they are capped well below the annual limit — $3,500 in the first year, $4,500 in the second and $5,500 in the third year and beyond, with a $23,000 aggregate ceiling under 34 CFR 685.203. That is why a second-year dependent undergraduate's $6,500 limit splits into $4,500 that may be subsidized and $2,000 that cannot be. Unsubsidized loans come next. They are available without a need test to undergraduate, graduate and professional students alike, and they charge interest from the day the money is paid out, including every year you are in school. Graduate and professional students have had no access to subsidized loans since 2012, so every dollar of their borrowing accrues from day one. Parent PLUS comes last, and should. It carries the highest federal rate, 9.07% for 2026-27 against 6.52% for undergraduate loans, and by far the largest origination fee, 4.228% against 1.057%. There is one more wrinkle in the fee: it is taken off the top of each disbursement, so borrowing $6,500 delivers about $6,431 to your account while you owe and pay interest on the whole $6,500. None of these is a reason to avoid borrowing what you genuinely need for a degree that pays. They are reasons to take the cheapest federal money first, accept the rest only up to what the year actually costs, and treat the limit as a ceiling rather than a target. The financial aid office will list your award in this order; accepting only part of an offered loan is always allowed.
The gap the caps leave, and what to do before you fill it
The most useful number this page produces is not the borrowing limit but the gap underneath it. In the worked example a school costs $28,000, grants and scholarships cover $9,000, and $19,000 is left to find. Federal student loans bring $6,500 and a parent plans to add $8,000 of PLUS, which still leaves $4,500 unfunded. That figure is where private borrowing starts, and it deserves several rounds of attack before anybody signs for it. Start with the aid office, because the cost of attendance and the aid against it are both theirs to change. A professional judgment review — sometimes called a special circumstances appeal — lets a financial aid administrator adjust your file when something the FAFSA could not see has changed: a parent's job loss, a death, high unreimbursed medical costs, a divorce. Departmental and outside scholarships are frequently under-applied for, particularly in the second and later years, when most students assume the money has already been allocated. Payment plans matter more than they sound: many schools let a year's bill be spread across nine or ten monthly installments for a small enrollment fee, and money paid that way is money not borrowed at 6.52% for fifteen years. Then look at the cost of attendance itself, because a large part of it is housing and food rather than tuition. Moving off campus, taking a resident adviser post, or adding a summer term to graduate sooner can each move the number by more than a scholarship would. Working a set number of hours a week, if the schedule allows it, closes gaps of this size directly. Only when all of that is exhausted is private borrowing the right answer, and by then the amount needed is usually much smaller. If a gap this size is appearing in the first year, it will appear in every subsequent year too, and it is better to face that arithmetic now than after two years of borrowing.
Frequently asked questions
How much can I borrow in federal student loans this year?
It depends on your year, your dependency status and your program. On this page's example — a second-year dependent undergraduate — the answer is $6,500, of which up to $4,500 can be subsidized and $2,000 is unsubsidized. A third-year independent undergraduate who has borrowed $20,000 so far can take $12,500. A first-year graduate student can take $20,500. These come from 34 CFR 685.203 and Public Law 119-21.
What are the graduate limits now that Grad PLUS is gone?
A graduate student may borrow $20,500 a year and $100,000 in total beyond their undergraduate borrowing. A professional student — the degrees listed in 34 CFR 668.2, such as medicine, dentistry and law — may borrow $50,000 a year and $200,000 in total, and a student who is both shares the $200,000 rather than adding the two together. Before 1 July 2026, Grad PLUS let a graduate student borrow up to the full cost of attendance, so there was effectively no ceiling. Run the page as a first-year graduate student at a school costing $62,000 with $12,000 of grants and the $20,500 cap leaves a $29,500 gap in a single year.
What is the $257,500 lifetime limit?
It is the maximum a student may borrow in federal loans across their whole life, introduced by Public Law 119-21 from 1 July 2026. It covers everything the student borrows for their own education and excludes parent PLUS loans they later take out for a child of their own. In the example the student has borrowed $5,500, leaving $252,000. The important detail is in the statute's own words: it is counted 'without regard to any amounts repaid, forgiven, canceled, or otherwise discharged'.
Does paying a loan off free up room to borrow again?
It depends which ceiling you mean, and the two work in opposite directions. The $257,500 lifetime maximum and the $65,000 parent PLUS aggregate are both counted without regard to anything repaid, so paying them down never gives the room back. The older undergraduate aggregates — $31,000 for a dependent student and $57,500 for an independent one, under 34 CFR 685.203 — are measured on unpaid principal, so repaying does free room under those. It is worth knowing which one is binding on you before you plan around it.
How much can my parents borrow on top?
For a dependent undergraduate, all of that student's parents together may borrow $20,000 of parent PLUS a year and $65,000 in total for that student. The aggregate is again counted without regard to amounts repaid. Parent PLUS is not available for a graduate or professional student, or for an independent undergraduate, so the page shows $0 in those cases. It is also the most expensive federal option, at 9.07% with a 4.228% origination fee.
Why is my school offering me less than this page shows?
Two rules can reduce it, and neither is a mistake. If you enroll less than full-time, the statute reduces the loan in direct proportion to how far short of full-time you are, rounded to the nearest whole percentage point. Separately, a school may set its own lower limit for a program of study as long as it applies that limit to everyone in the program. Your financial aid office applies both before it makes an offer, which is why an award letter can show less than the legal maximum.
I started my degree before July 2026 — do the new caps apply to me?
Possibly not. Public Law 119-21 carries an interim exception: if you were already enrolled in your program on 30 June 2026 and had already received a loan for that program, the previous limits keep applying for the lesser of three academic years or the program length minus what you have already completed. For a graduate student partway through a degree that is the difference between the old, uncapped Grad PLUS world and the new $100,000 ceiling. Ask your financial aid office in writing which set of limits your file is under.