Student Aid Index (SAI) Estimator
The figures the FAFSA asks for
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 the parents' adjusted gross income from the tax return the FAFSA uses, which is the one from two years before the school year, then their untaxed income for the same year. The example uses $85,000 and $4,000, which is $89,000 of total income.
- 02
Enter the federal income tax the parents actually PAID for that year — the tax on the return, not what was withheld from paychecks. The example uses $7,200. This is the single largest allowance after the income protection allowance, so taking it from a pay stub instead of the return will skew the answer.
- 03
Enter the parents' reportable assets and then the student's own income and assets separately. The example uses $60,000 of parent assets, $5,000 of student income and $2,500 of student assets. Whose name an account is in changes the result substantially, so keep them on the right lines.
- 04
Set the family size — 4 in the example — and the filing status flag, where 1 means married filing jointly. Family size selects the income protection allowance from the 2026-27 table, which for a family of four is $44,880.
- 05
Read the index, then open the table underneath. It shows every line of the formula in order, from $89,000 of income down through $63,583 of allowances to the $8,213 index, so you can see exactly which allowance is doing the work.
Formula
The Student Aid Index is the sum of three contributions, floored at −$1,500. 1. THE PARENTS' CONTRIBUTION. Parents' total income = adjusted gross income + untaxed income. Four allowances come off it: • federal income tax actually paid • a payroll-tax allowance: 1.45% of all earnings, plus 6.2% of earnings up to the Social Security contribution and benefit base ($184,500 for 2026), doubled on a joint return • an income protection allowance set by family size. For 2026-27 (Federal Register 2025-10243): a family of 2 gets $29,190, of 3 $36,330, of 4 $44,880, of 5 $52,950 and of 6 $61,930, plus $6,990 for each additional member • an employment expense allowance: the lesser of $5,000 or 35% of earned income What is left is the parents' available income. To it is added 12% of their reportable assets, after the asset protection allowance — which is $0 at every age for 2026-27. The total is the adjusted available income (AAI). The AAI is then run through the assessment schedule: below −$8,500 → a flat −$1,870 −$8,500 to $21,800 → 22% of AAI $21,801 to $27,300 → $4,796 + 25% of the excess over $21,800 $27,301 to $32,800 → $6,171 + 29% over $27,300 $32,801 to $38,400 → $7,766 + 34% over $32,800 $38,401 to $43,900 → $9,670 + 40% over $38,400 $43,901 or more → $11,870 + 47% over $43,900 2. THE STUDENT'S INCOME CONTRIBUTION. The student's income, less their own federal income tax, their payroll-tax allowance and an income protection allowance of $11,770, multiplied by 50% and floored at zero. 3. THE STUDENT'S ASSET CONTRIBUTION. The student's reportable assets multiplied by 20%, floored at zero. Nothing in the formula divides by the number of family members in college — FAFSA Simplification removed that step. Where the family qualifies for an automatic zero, the index becomes zero unless the calculated figure is negative, in which case the negative number is kept.
Example
A married couple filing jointly have an adjusted gross income of $85,000 and $4,000 of untaxed income, so $89,000 of total income. They paid $7,200 of federal income tax and hold $60,000 of reportable assets. Their family is four people. Their child earned $5,000 during the year, paid no federal income tax and has $2,500 of savings in their own name. Four allowances come off the parents' income. Federal income tax takes $7,200. The payroll-tax allowance is $6,503 — 1.45% of $85,000 plus 6.2% of it, since the income is far below the $184,500 wage base. The income protection allowance for a family of four is $44,880. The employment expense allowance is $5,000, being the lesser of that cap and 35% of earned income. Together the allowances are $63,583, leaving parents' available income of $25,418. Their $60,000 of assets is converted at 12%, adding $7,200, because the asset protection allowance is zero for 2026-27. Adjusted available income is therefore $32,618, which falls in the band from $27,301 to $32,800 and above: $6,171 plus 29% of the excess over $27,300 gives a parental contribution of $7,713. The student adds little. Their $5,000 of income is well below the $11,770 protection allowance, so their income contribution is $0. Their $2,500 of savings at 20% adds $500. The Student Aid Index is $8,213 — $7,713 from the parents, which is 94% of it, and $500 from the student. That is too high for a Pell Grant, though it is $6,577 below the $14,790 at which a Pell is blocked outright. The sensitivity is worth seeing. Run again with $10,000 more income, the index rises to $11,551, a jump of $3,338. Run again with $10,000 more in assets instead, it rises only to $8,612, a jump of $399.
Definitions
- Student Aid Index (SAI)
- The number the FAFSA produces to measure what a family can put toward college. A college subtracts it from its cost of attendance to find financial need. It replaced the Expected Family Contribution and can be as low as −$1,500.
- Income protection allowance
- The living expenses the formula shields before assessing anything, set by family size and updated each year. For 2026-27 it is $44,880 for a family of four and $11,770 for a dependent student (Federal Register 2025-10243).
- Adjusted available income
- The parents' income after all four allowances, plus 12% of their reportable assets. It is the figure the assessment schedule is applied to, and it climbs from 22% to 47%.
- Asset protection allowance
- The portion of parents' assets the formula used to shelter by age. For 2026-27 it is $0 at every age, so every dollar of reportable parent assets is converted at 12%.
- Automatic zero
- A rule in 20 U.S.C. 1087mm giving an index of zero to any applicant eligible for the total maximum Pell Grant, except that a calculated negative index is kept instead.
Good to know
What the index measures, and what it does not
The Student Aid Index is the number the FAFSA produces to summarise what the federal formula believes a family can put toward a year of college. It replaced the Expected Family Contribution, and the rename was deliberate rather than cosmetic. The old name told families they were expected to contribute a specific sum, which was never what the number meant and caused enormous confusion when colleges then asked for something quite different. An index is what it always was: a position on a scale, used to rank need. A college takes its own cost of attendance and subtracts your index to find your financial need. With the index of $8,213 this page's example produces, a college costing $30,000 records $21,787 of need. That is emphatically not a promise of $21,787 in aid. Most colleges do not meet full need, and the ones that do are a small and well-endowed minority. What the index reliably controls is the federal machinery: whether a Pell Grant is payable and how large it is, eligibility for subsidised loans, and a place in the queue for campus-based aid. What it influences but does not control is everything a college decides with its own money. The other thing worth being clear about is that nobody sends you an invoice for the index. It is not a deposit, not a minimum payment, and not a prediction of the cheque you will write. Families routinely pay less than their index at a generous college and far more than it at a college that meets little need, and both outcomes are normal. Treat it the way an aid administrator does: as an input to a calculation that happens somewhere else, and as a number worth estimating early, because a year's notice of where you sit on the scale is worth much more than a precise figure delivered in April of senior year, when every decision has already been made.
Every allowance, and which one does the work
The formula is less mysterious than its reputation suggests, and seeing it laid out line by line usually settles more anxiety than any summary can. It starts with the parents' total income — adjusted gross income plus untaxed income, $89,000 in this page's example — and then removes four allowances before assessing anything at all. Federal income tax actually paid comes off first, $7,200 here, and it is worth stressing that this means the tax on the return rather than what was withheld from paychecks; taking the figure from a pay stub is the most common way to get a wrong answer from a calculator like this one. Next is a payroll-tax allowance built from the statutory rates: 1.45% of all earnings plus 6.2% of earnings up to the Social Security contribution and benefit base, which is $184,500 for 2026 and doubled on a joint return. On $85,000 of earnings that comes to $6,503. Then the income protection allowance, which is by far the largest of the four and is set purely by family size from a table the Department of Education updates every year for inflation. For 2026-27 a family of two is allowed $29,190, a family of three $36,330, a family of four $44,880, a family of five $52,950 and a family of six $61,930, with $6,990 added for each further member (Federal Register 2025-10243). At $44,880 for this family of four it dwarfs everything else. Finally the employment expense allowance, the lesser of $5,000 or 35% of earned income, which recognises the costs of working. Together the four allowances come to $63,583 against $89,000 of income, leaving parents' available income of just $25,418. That proportion is the point most families miss: well over two-thirds of this household's income is protected before the formula assesses a single dollar, and the assessment schedule that follows is then applied only to what survives.
Assets, now that the protection allowance has gone
The treatment of savings changed in a way that older guidance has not caught up with, and it is the part of the formula most likely to surprise a parent who researched this a few years ago. The asset protection allowance used to shelter a slice of parental net worth that grew with the older parent's age, frequently tens of thousands of dollars. For 2026-27 the Federal Register notice that updates the need-analysis tables publishes that allowance at zero, for every age, married or single. The shelter is simply gone. What remains is the statutory conversion rate: parents' reportable assets are multiplied by 12% and added to their available income. The $60,000 in this page's example therefore contributes $7,200, taking adjusted available income to $32,618, which the assessment schedule turns into a parental contribution of $7,713. Before concluding that savings are ruinous, look at the comparison the page runs alongside it. Ten thousand dollars more in reportable assets raises the index from $8,213 to $8,612 — a rise of $399. Ten thousand dollars more income raises it to $11,551, a rise of $3,338, more than eight times as much. Income drives this formula; assets nudge it. That ratio is worth internalising, because it means a one-off event in the tax year the FAFSA looks at — a Roth conversion, a capital gain, a bonus, the sale of a property — does far more damage than a healthy savings balance ever will. Whose name an account sits in matters too, and here the difference is stark. Parent assets convert at 12%; the student's own assets convert at 20%. The same $10,000 counts as $1,200 in a parent's name and $2,000 in the student's, and the $2,500 of student savings in the example is adding $500 to the index by itself. Student income runs the opposite way: it is protected up to $11,770 before anything is assessed, so an ordinary summer job below that figure costs nothing at all and there is no reason to discourage one.
Two changes that catch families out, and one honest limit
The first change has cost families real money since it took effect, because it reversed advice that had been sound for decades. Until 2023-24 the formula divided the parents' contribution by the number of family members in college at the same time, so two children at university together roughly halved the assessed contribution for each. FAFSA Simplification removed that division outright. Under 20 U.S.C. 1087oo the parents' adjusted available income is assessed once, and that is the end of it. In this page's example the parental contribution is $7,713; with two children in college it is $7,713 for each of them, not $3,857 apiece. Families who planned around overlapping college years, or who deliberately spaced children's enrolment, were planning against a rule that no longer exists. Some colleges do apply their own sibling adjustment when distributing their own institutional money, so the question is worth putting to each aid office directly, but no federal relief remains. The second is more cheerful. Under 20 U.S.C. 1087mm, an applicant eligible for the total maximum Pell Grant is treated as having an index of zero however the rest of the arithmetic comes out — with the sensible refinement that a calculated negative index is kept rather than rounded up, because a negative index can still signal need to a college. The floor is −$1,500. Eligibility for that automatic zero turns on whether a federal return had to be filed at all and on income measured against the poverty line, and the FAFSA applies the test from data it already holds rather than waiting to be asked. Finally, an honest limit on any estimate of this kind. This page runs the federal formula only. Several hundred colleges, mostly private and often the most generous, also run their own institutional methodology, which asks about home equity, a non-custodial parent's income and the value of a small business, and can produce a very different number from identical circumstances. File the FAFSA, file whatever else the college asks for, and let the aid office produce the figure that counts.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Student Aid Index and how is it different from the EFC?
It is the number the FAFSA produces to measure what your family can put toward college, and it replaced the Expected Family Contribution when FAFSA Simplification took effect. The name change was deliberate: it is an index a college uses to work out your financial need, not a bill and not a prediction of what you will pay. A college subtracts it from its own cost of attendance to find your need. The index in this page's example is $8,213, and at a college costing $30,000 that means $21,787 of need on paper — which is not the same as $21,787 of aid, because most colleges do not meet full need.
Does having two children in college at once still cut the number in half?
No, and this is the change that catches families out most often. Until 2023-24 the formula divided the parents' contribution by the number of family members in college. FAFSA Simplification removed that division, and 20 U.S.C. 1087oo now assesses the parents' adjusted available income once and stops. In the example the parental contribution is $7,713; with two children in college it is $7,713 for each of them, not $3,857. Some colleges apply their own sibling adjustment when they hand out their own money, so it is worth asking each aid office directly.
How much do my savings hurt my child's aid?
Less than income does, but more than they used to. The asset protection allowance is $0 at every age for 2026-27 (Federal Register 2025-10243), so the shelter of forty or fifty thousand dollars that older guidance describes no longer exists. Parent assets are converted at 12%, so the $60,000 in the example adds $7,200 to the adjusted available income. Ten thousand dollars more in savings raises the index by $399. Ten thousand dollars more income raises it by $3,338 — over eight times as much.
Should I move money into my child's name?
Almost never, for this purpose. Parent assets are assessed at 12% and the student's own assets at 20%, so the same $10,000 counts as $1,200 in a parent's name and $2,000 in the student's. The $2,500 in the student's name in the example is adding $500 to the index on its own. Student income works the other way: it is protected up to $11,770 before anything is assessed, so a summer job below that figure adds nothing at all, and there is no reason to discourage one.
What is an automatic zero index?
Under 20 U.S.C. 1087mm, an applicant who is eligible for the total maximum Pell Grant is treated as having an index of zero whatever the rest of the arithmetic produces, except that a calculated negative index is kept because it can still help. Eligibility turns on whether a federal return had to be filed at all and on income measured against the poverty line. The FAFSA applies the test from data it already holds — you do not claim it. Setting the flag on this page shows you what it would do to your own figures.
Can the index be negative, and does that help?
Yes, down to a floor of −$1,500 set by 20 U.S.C. 1087oo. A negative index signals need beyond what the maximum Pell Grant covers, and some colleges use it when they package their own money. It does not produce extra federal cash by itself — the Pell calculation treats any negative index as zero — but it is not wasted information either, and the floor exists precisely so that the formula can record need below the bottom of the scale.
How accurate is this estimate?
It runs the federal formula from the 2026-27 tables and shows its working, but it has two honest limits. It treats the parents' adjusted gross income as earned income when computing the payroll-tax allowance of $6,503 and the employment expense allowance of $5,000, so a family with a lot of investment income will have smaller allowances and a higher real index. And it runs only the federal formula: several hundred colleges also use their own institutional methodology, which asks about home equity, a non-custodial parent and small-business value, and can produce a completely different number from identical circumstances. File the FAFSA and let the aid office produce the real figure.