2025-26 FAFSA Student Aid Index (SAI) Calculator

What is the Student Aid Index?

The 2025-26 FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the primary application for need-based financial aid for the 2025-26 academic year. A student and parent/s submit household and financial information. Based on this information, the FAFSA calculates the amount a family can pay for college in a given year, now called the Student Aid Index (SAI).

A college’s financial aid office uses the Student Aid Index in the simple equation below to determine a student’s eligibility for need-based financial aid given the college’s Cost of Attendance.

A student’s Financial Need is their eligibility for aid at a college. However, the rules governing Federal Student Aid plus each college’s policies on allocating their institutional need-based funds determine a college’s financial aid offer, which may or may not meet a student’s calculated Financial Need.

How is the Student Aid Index calculated?

Family size, parents’ marital status, state of residence, along with four primary financial inputs, determine the 2025-26 Student Aid Index.

1. Parent 2023 Income
2. Parent Assets on the filing date
3. Student 2023 Income
4. Student Assets on the filing date

One significant change is the number of students in college will no longer be used in the SAI formula.

1) Parent Income

The 2025-26 FAFSA relies on 2023 federal tax returns for all parent income, eliminating the reporting of non-taxed income not included on the federal tax returns. Notably, parents making pre-tax contributions to employer retirement plans will no longer count as part of parent income.

A first step determines whether a student qualifies for an SAI = $0 and the maximum Pell Grant. If the parent’s Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) is below a multiple of the Federal Poverty Level income for your state and family size, then the student’s SAI = $0. If the parent is not required to file federal tax returns in 2023, then the SAI = -$1,500. This step is incorporated as part of this calculator.

2) Parent Assets

The 2025-26 FAFSA will continue to include all assets a parent owns outside of 1) retirement accounts, 2) a primary home, and 3) life insurance policies. The assets counted as Net Worth include checking, savings, CDs, brokerage accounts, 529 or college savings plans only for the student applicant, and equity value of second properties.

Two additional categories will be counted as parent assets for the calculation of SAI.

1. Child support received. A parent reports all child support received in the calendar year prior to filing the FAFSA as an asset at the time of application. Child support received was previously reported as non-taxed income.
2. Net worth of business or farm. The net worth of a business or farm is the value of the business or farm minus any debt against that business or farm. A parent that is only a part owner would report their percentage of the overall net worth.

2) Student Income

The 2025-26 FAFSA provides income protection for a student equal to $11,400. In other words, there will be no expected contribution from student income if 2023 income is $11,400 or less. For every dollar over this amount, the contribution rate is 50%. Note, if a student qualifies for SAI = $0 based on their parent’s Adjusted Gross Income, then student income will not factor into the SAI calculation.

4) Student Assets

All assets held by a student outside of retirement are reported. These include checking, savings, CDs, and brokerage accounts for most students. 529 or college savings plans owned by the student are always reported as a parent asset. The contribution rate for student assets is 20% of every dollar. Again, if the student qualifies for SAI = $0 based on their parent’s Adjusted Gross Income, then any assets held by the student will not factor into the SAI calculation.

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2025-26 FAFSA Student Aid Index Calculator

To calculate your Student Aid Index, you can use values from the parent’s and student’s 2023 tax returns and the current value of parent and student assets. Note: This calculator is for dependent students.