Student Aid Index (SAI) calculator

What the number means

The Student Aid Index is an eligibility index that schools use to build an aid package. It is not a prediction of what you will pay, and it is not the amount a family has available: a college with a high cost of attendance and generous grants can ask for less than the SAI, and one that meets no need can ask for more. The Federal Student Aid Handbook calls the cost of attendance the cornerstone of establishing a student's financial need, and the SAI is the other half of that comparison; the net price calculator shows what you may actually pay after grants. The SAI replaced the Expected Family Contribution with the FAFSA Simplification changes, and this page follows the formula in the 2027–28 Student Aid Index and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide.

The method, step by step

SAI = parents' contribution + student's contribution from income + student's contribution from assets. Parents' available income = income − income tax − payroll tax − income protection allowance − employment expense allowance. Adjusted available income = available income + 12% × net worth (the asset protection allowance is $0). The contribution comes from the table: below −$8,900 it is −$1,958; from −$8,900 to $22,600, 22%; then $4,972 + 25% of the amount over $22,600, $6,397 + 29% over $28,300, $8,050 + 34% over $34,000, $10,056 + 40% over $39,900, and $12,336 + 47% over $45,600. The student's contribution is 50% of income left after taxes and the $12,220 allowance, plus 20% of assets. If the parents' adjusted available income is negative, that negative amount is added to the student's allowances. Every step is rounded to whole dollars, and the final SAI cannot go below −$1,500.

Worked example

Married parents with an adjusted gross income of $85,000, earnings of $60,000 and $25,000, $8,900 of income tax, a household of four, $15,000 in cash and $20,000 of investments: the income protection allowance is $46,590, the employment expense allowance $5,200, payroll taxes $6,503, so available income is $17,807. The $35,000 of assets adds $4,200, giving an adjusted available income of $22,007 and a parents' contribution of $4,842. The student has $3,000 of earnings, below the allowance, and $2,000 of savings, so adds $400. The estimated SAI is $5,242. For the Department of Education's own example the same method gives $12,198 against its published $12,198.

Limits of this method

Dependent students only, and a simple tax picture. Independent students use formulas B and C, which this page does not calculate; parents who filed two returns, filed separately or have foreign income also need the full worksheet. The 2027–28 guide has no state tax allowance and no number-in-college adjustment. Older EFC calculators have both; the worksheet in this guide has no line for either, so a second child in college no longer lowers the parents' contribution by formula. Pell amounts are for 2026–27. Congress and the Department set the 2027–28 amounts later. Net worth reporting. You answer asset questions on the FAFSA only if you are required to, and the school may use its own rules for its own money.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Student Aid Index?

The Student Aid Index (SAI) is the number a college's financial aid office uses to measure how much a family could be expected to contribute, and it replaced the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) in the FAFSA Simplification changes. It is not a bill and not the amount you will pay: colleges compare it with the cost of attendance when they judge your financial need, and it is used to work out Pell Grant eligibility. The SAI can be as low as −1,500 and as high as 999,999. With the form's example numbers the estimate is $5,242.

How is the parents' contribution calculated?

For a dependent student, formula A starts with the parents' income (adjusted gross income plus untaxed items, minus taxable grants, education credits and work-study). Then it subtracts allowances: income tax paid, payroll taxes on earnings (1.45% Medicare and 6.2% Social Security up to the $176,100 base for tax year 2025 on a single filer, $352,200 on a joint one), an income protection allowance by household size ($30,300 for two, $37,720 for three, $46,590 for four, $54,970 for five, $64,290 for six, plus $7,260 for each more) and an employment expense allowance of 35% of the parents' earnings, at most $5,200. What remains is the parents' available income. The parents' assets, at 12% of net worth, are added to it, and the result goes through a graduated table: 22% up to $22,600, rising to 47% over $45,600. In the example the parents' contribution is $4,842.

How are the student's income and assets counted?

Student income counts after the student's own income tax, payroll taxes and an income protection allowance of $12,220; half of what is left is added to the SAI. Student assets (cash, savings, checking and investments) are assessed at 20%, a much higher rate than the parents' 12%, so the same savings count for more in the student's name than in the parents'. In the example, the student's $3,000 of earnings are below the allowance, so the income part is $0; the student's $2,000 of savings add $400. If the student had $12,000 in savings instead, the SAI would be $7,242.

Which assets are counted?

The worksheet counts cash, savings and checking accounts, and the net worth of current investments: time deposits, money market funds, real estate other than the primary residence, vacation homes, income-producing property, trusts, stocks, bonds, mutual funds and qualified education benefits such as 529 plans. It also counts the net worth of a business or farm, adjusted by a table (40% of the first $180,000, then higher percentages), and child support received. In the 2027–28 guide the asset protection allowance (Table A4) is $0 at every age, so parents' assets are assessed from the first dollar. Some families do not have to report assets at all; the FAFSA decides whether yours does, and a zero here shows the effect: with no parent cash or investments the example SAI would be $4,318 instead of $5,242.

What Pell Grant could I get?

The maximum Pell Grant is $7,395 and the minimum is $740 for 2026–27; the Department of Education had not published a 2027–28 amount when this page was written, so the estimate uses the 2026–27 figures. A calculated Pell Grant is the maximum minus the SAI, rounded to the nearest $5; if the result is under the minimum, there is no calculated grant, but a family within a higher poverty-based income limit can still get the minimum Pell Grant, provided the SAI is below $14,790, twice the maximum. A student whose parents did not file a tax return, or whose parent's income is at most 175% of the poverty guideline (225% for a single parent) for the family size and state, gets the maximum whatever the SAI. For a household of four in the 48 states, the 2025 guideline of $32,150 gives a limit of $56,263. In the example the SAI is $5,242 and the estimate is $2,155; in a lower-income example, an SAI of −$1,500 gives $7,395 (maximum).

Does this calculator match the official FAFSA result?

It follows the same worksheet. As a check, the Department's own exemplar (Table 11 of the guide: family of seven, parents' AGI of $166,332 on two returns, $24,789 in cash and $48,574 of investments, student AGI of $5,723) gives an SAI of $12,198; entering the same numbers here, with one joint return, gives $12,198. The official result can still differ, because the FAFSA reads many of the numbers directly from the IRS, treats some tax filing situations in special ways, and adjusts for parents who file two returns. Treat this as an estimate and use the FAFSA, the school's net price calculator and the financial aid office for the real figure.

An estimate for planning only — not financial or legal advice; the FAFSA and your school's financial aid office decide. Sources, checked October 28, 2026: Federal Student Aid, 2027–28 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide, Version 1, June 2026 (formula A, Tables A1–A5, Steps 1–3, Appendices C, G, Tables 10–11); Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-01 (Pell amounts and the twice-the-maximum limit for 2026–27); HHS poverty guidelines for 2025, 90 Federal Register 5917 (January 17, 2025). Amounts are kept in one table in the page's code and updated yearly. Related: the net price calculator, work-study earnings calculator, college savings calculator and scholarship tax calculator. How we check our calculators.