FAFSA Student Aid Index (SAI) Calculator

The Student Aid Index, or SAI, is the number that now drives federal financial aid eligibility on the FAFSA. It replaced the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) starting with the 2024-25 award year under the FAFSA Simplification Act, and it is not just a renamed EFC. The underlying formula changed in ways that matter, most notably that the parent contribution is no longer divided by the number of household members enrolled in college at the same time, and that the asset protection allowance, which used to shelter a meaningful chunk of parent net worth based on the older parent's age, is now $0 for every parent regardless of age or marital status.

This calculator estimates SAI using Formula A, the version of the official methodology that applies to dependent students, meaning students who report parent information on the FAFSA. It is built directly from the U.S. Department of Education's own worksheet and rate tables for the 2026-27 award year, not from older EFC-era assumptions carried forward from memory. The output is an estimate for planning purposes. Your school's financial aid office and the Department of Education's own FAFSA processing determine your actual, official SAI.

The official formula is: SAI = Parents' Contribution + Student's Contribution from Income + Student's Contribution from Assets.

Parents' Contribution from Income. Starting from parent AGI, the formula subtracts four allowances: income tax paid, a payroll tax allowance (Medicare Hospital Insurance plus Social Security OASDI, calculated at the current statutory rates and wage bases), an Income Protection Allowance that scales with household size, and an Employment Expense Allowance equal to the lesser of 35% of parent income or a fixed dollar cap. What's left is Parents' Available Income, which can be negative.

Parents' Contribution from Assets. Reportable parent assets (cash, savings, checking, and net investments) are reduced by the Asset Protection Allowance, which is $0 under current law for every parent age and marital status, then multiplied by a 12% asset conversion rate. Available Income and the asset contribution are added together to form the Parents' Adjusted Available Income (PAAI), which is run through a marginal-bracket schedule (22% at the low end, rising to 47% for the highest incomes) to produce the final Parents' Contribution. A PAAI below -$8,500 produces a flat -$1,870 contribution rather than going more negative.

Student's Contribution from Income. The student's own AGI is reduced by income tax paid, the same payroll tax allowance, a flat Income Protection Allowance, and, if the Parents' Adjusted Available Income came out negative, an offsetting allowance equal to that negative amount. Half of whatever income remains becomes the Student's Contribution from Income, floored at $0.

Student's Contribution from Assets. Student assets get no protection allowance at all and are assessed at a flat 20%, higher than the 12% rate applied to parent assets.

All three pieces are added together, then floored at -$1,500 and capped at 999,999 to produce the final SAI.

Same numbers as the Quick Answer: $90,000 combined parent AGI, married filing jointly, $6,000 parent income tax paid, household of 4, $20,000 parent assets, $3,000 student AGI, $0 student tax paid, $2,000 student assets.

Parent payroll tax allowance: 1.45% Medicare on $90,000 ($1,305) plus 6.2% Social Security on $90,000 ($5,580) totals $6,885.

Parent allowances: $6,000 (tax paid) + $6,885 (payroll tax) + $44,880 (Income Protection Allowance for a household of 4) + $5,000 (Employment Expense Allowance, capped) = $62,765.

Parents' Available Income: $90,000 - $62,765 = $27,235.

Parent Contribution from Assets: $20,000 x 12% = $2,400 (no asset protection allowance applies).

Parents' Adjusted Available Income: $27,235 + $2,400 = $29,635, which falls in the $27,301-$32,800 bracket: $6,171 + 29% of ($29,635 - $27,300) = $6,171 + $677.15 = $6,848.15 Parents' Contribution.

Student side: Payroll tax allowance is $229.50 ($3,000 x 1.45% plus $3,000 x 6.2%). Student allowances total $229.50 + $11,770 (flat Income Protection Allowance) = $11,999.50, which exceeds the $3,000 of student income, so the Student's Contribution from Income is $0. The Student's Contribution from Assets is $2,000 x 20% = $400.

Final SAI: $6,848.15 + $0 + $400 = $7,248.15.

• No more "number in college" divisor. Before 2024-25, a family with two children in college at once split the parent contribution between them, effectively cutting each student's assigned share. The current Formula A worksheet has no such division anywhere. A family with three kids in college simultaneously no longer gets that multiplier benefit; each child's SAI is calculated independently from the same full parent contribution.
• A near-zero Asset Protection Allowance. The pre-2024-25 formula sheltered a meaningful slice of parent net worth on a sliding scale tied to the older parent's age, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars for parents near retirement. That allowance is now $0 across the board, so parent savings and investments are assessed dollar-for-dollar (net of the flat allowance) at the 12% rate.
• SAI can go negative, unlike the old EFC, which floored at $0. A negative SAI (down to the -$1,500 floor) is used by financial aid offices to identify students with the greatest need for a Maximum Pell Grant.

• This is an estimate, not your official SAI. The real FAFSA form and its underlying processing system, not this calculator, produce the number your school actually uses. Verify your real SAI with the FAFSA Submission Summary you receive after filing.
• Several official worksheet line items are simplified into AGI. The full Department of Education worksheet separately adds back untaxed IRA and pension distributions, tax-exempt interest, deductible IRA/Keogh contributions, and a foreign income exclusion, and separately subtracts taxable grant and scholarship aid, education credits, and federal work-study earnings. This calculator assumes AGI already represents total income.
• "Income earned from work" is assumed to equal AGI for the payroll tax allowance and the parent Employment Expense Allowance. The real FAFSA form collects wage income separately from AGI.
• Businesses, investment farms, and child support received are not modeled. The official formula applies a separate net worth adjustment schedule to business and farm assets and adds annual child support received to reportable assets; this calculator omits both.
• Independent students (Formula B and C) are not covered. This calculator only implements Formula A, for dependent students who report parent information.
• Maximum and Minimum Pell Grant eligibility tests are not evaluated. The eligibility signal shown is directional only; it does not check the separate poverty-guideline and non-filer tests the Department of Education uses to assign automatic Maximum or Minimum Pell Grants.

• Assuming a second child in college automatically lowers the family's total contribution. Under the current formula it doesn't; each dependent student's SAI is calculated from the same full parent contribution, independently.
• Believing parent retirement savings and home equity count as reportable assets. They generally don't; the FAFSA excludes qualified retirement accounts and the family's primary residence from reportable net worth, though this calculator's "parent assets" input should reflect that same exclusion.
• Confusing SAI with the dollar amount of aid you'll receive. SAI is an index used in aid-eligibility formulas, not a bill or a guaranteed award; a $0 SAI does not mean a $0 cost to attend.
• Not realizing SAI can be negative. A very low-income family can have an SAI as low as -$1,500, which is a strong signal of Maximum Pell Grant eligibility, not an error in the calculation.

• U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid, "2026-27 Student Aid Index (SAI) and Pell Grant Eligibility Guide," Version 1.1 (updated August 25, 2025), Formula A worksheet and Tables A1, A2, A4, A5.
• FAFSA Simplification Act (title VII of the FUTURE Act, as amended by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021), which replaced the Expected Family Contribution with the Student Aid Index effective the 2024-25 award year.
• studentaid.gov, Federal Student Aid's official consumer site, for general SAI and Pell Grant program background.