My SNAP BenefitsA free resource guide

Methodology & sources

How we calculate figures, check sources, and explain their limits.

Researcher reviewing source documents and data at a desk.

We are committed to transparency. Every figure on this site comes from identified public data and shows the period it describes.

What the estimator calculates

The estimator looks up the published maximum monthly SNAP allotment for a household size and a location, and shows an approximate weekly equivalent alongside general federal income-reference amounts.

What it does not calculate

It does not calculate an actual benefit and does not decide eligibility. It never asks for income, expenses, deductions, assets, immigration status, disability, work-rule details, or case information, so it has nothing with which to make such a determination. Only a state agency can decide eligibility or set an actual benefit amount.

Maximum-allotment tables

Amounts come from USDA Food and Nutrition Administration, SNAP Fiscal Year 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustments. They apply during FY2027: October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027. They were retrieved on September 27, 2026 as data version fy2027.1.

USDA FY2027 cost-of-living adjustment · USDA FY2027 cost-of-living adjustment memorandum

Geographies

  • The 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia use the ordinary 48-state schedule.
  • Alaska has three separate schedules, chosen explicitly by the visitor: Urban, Rural I, Rural II. The area is never inferred from a ZIP code, a city, a county, a community name, or a device location, and no amount is shown until an area is chosen.
  • Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands each use their own schedule.
  • New York City uses the same 48-state schedule and the same income-reference schedule as New York State.
  • Puerto Rico is excluded. It does not participate in SNAP; it operates the Nutrition Assistance Program. No SNAP amount is ever produced for Puerto Rico.

Household sizes

Household sizes 1 through 8 are the published table rows, used exactly as published. For sizes 9 through 17, the published additional-person increment applies. For 18 or more, the published FY2027 cap for that location applies. The estimator’s interface accepts 1 to 15 people; that is a limit of this website, not a SNAP rule. For a larger household, contact your state SNAP agency.

Weekly equivalent

The weekly figure is the monthly maximum multiplied by 12 and divided by 52, rounded to the nearest dollar. Benefits are issued monthly; the weekly figure is only a way to read the monthly maximum.

Rounding and display

Amounts are displayed in whole US dollars through one shared formatter, so no page can show a differently rounded figure from another.

Income-reference amounts

The general federal income amounts come from the same source and period as the allotment tables: USDA Food and Nutrition Administration, SNAP Fiscal Year 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustments, FY2027: October 1, 2026 through September 30, 2027, retrieved September 27, 2026.

  • The 48 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and New York City share one income table.
  • Alaska uses its own income table for all three of its allotment areas.
  • Hawaii uses its own income table.
  • Puerto Rico has no SNAP income-reference result.

The result panel shows the 130% gross monthly standard and the 100% net monthly standard. A third standard, at 165%, is stored and validated but not shown there: The 165% standard applies only to a household that includes an older adult or a person with a disability and is applying to be treated as a separate household. It is stored and validated here, but it is never presented as a universal eligibility standard.

Why these are not eligibility determinations

These are general federal reference amounts for a fiscal year. Some states use different rules or higher gross-income limits, and household exceptions apply. The site never collects income, so it never compares anything a visitor enters against these amounts, and it never states or implies that a household qualifies or does not qualify.

Program facts on the homepage

Each figure under “SNAP at a glance” is shown with the period it describes and a link to its source.

  • 42.1 million people (FY2025) — exact value 42.1 million people. As published, to one decimal place in millions. People, not households. Source: USDA Economic Research Service, The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (EIB-304).
  • $188 per person (FY2025) — exact value 187.94 USD per person per month. Exact published value $187.94, displayed rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Per person, not per household. Source: USDA Economic Research Service, The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (EIB-304).
  • $95.0 billion in food benefits (FY2025) — exact value 95 billion USD. As published, to one decimal place in billions. This is the value of food benefits issued, not total federal SNAP spending of $101.7 billion. Source: USDA Economic Research Service, The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (EIB-304).
  • 79% of participating households (FY2023) — exact value 79 percent of households. As published, to the nearest whole percent. Households, not people. Source: USDA Food and Nutrition Administration, Characteristics of SNAP Households: Fiscal Year 2023.

Benefits issued versus total federal spending

The published figure of $95.0 billion is the value of SNAP food benefits issued in FY2025. Total federal SNAP spending in the same year was $101.7 billion, which also covers administration, nutrition education, employment and training, and other program costs. The two figures are never used interchangeably.

Grocery basket comparison

The grocery comparison uses a committed snapshot of 23 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Average Price Data series for the U.S. city average. Each item uses its newest available observation checked October 17, 2026, through the public, keyless Version 1 API: September 2026 for 22 items and July 2026 for orange juice concentrate. Eight additional foods have no comparable BLS price and require a shopper-entered price. The comparison notes the different source months. BLS does not provide an item-level publication timestamp for these records.

The default baskets use the displayed BLS units and prices. The Healthy Basket includes fruit and vegetables; shoppers can add more produce and a chocolate bar to either basket. These baskets are not equal in food amount, weight, servings, duration, or nutrition.

Calculation and rounding

Source prices stay at their published three-decimal precision. Quantities may have two decimal places. Integer fixed-point arithmetic multiplies and sums the exact values before a single half-up currency rounding. Percent difference is the exact signed Unhealthy-minus-Healthy difference divided by the exact Healthy total, rounded to one decimal place with integer quotient and remainder arithmetic. Because displayed line amounts are rounded separately, they can add to one cent more or less than the total; the page discloses that next to any affected total.

Links, privacy, and refreshes

Basket quantities can be represented in the URL for reload, sharing, and browser history. Optional Your price entries are never placed in the URL, stored, or transmitted. The committed data records its acquisition hashes as documentary provenance; fresh byte equality is not required because response formatting can change. BLS prices need periodic reconciliation as newer months become available. The mixed-month snapshot was checked October 17, and the next review is scheduled for the October data release on November 10, 2026. The comparison note identifies which months supply these prices.

BLS Average Price Data

Eat Well for Less guide

The Eat Well for Less guide uses seven current official sources selected for dietary guidance, meal planning, recipes, local produce, food safety, SNAP healthy incentives, and retailer locations. Externally verifiable factual, numeric, food-safety, program-availability, and interface claims map to a source in the validated registry. General practical suggestions are identified as editorial guidance and do not receive invented citations.

The registry was reviewed October 27, 2026. Its advisory annual editorial recheck is due October 27, 2027; a controlling-source change requires an earlier review. The retailer locator's healthy-incentive filtering function was checked August 16, 2026. These dates document our checks, not source publication dates. No source, API, browser service, key, or personal data is requested at runtime.

The guide includes the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendation to prioritize whole, nutrient-dense foods and limit highly processed foods, plus the high-level food options the page uses. It excludes political framing, disease-causation claims, clinical instructions, and individualized targets because those are outside a general educational page. Food-safety rules remain separately attributed to USDA FSIS rather than blended into budget suggestions. The page does not provide personalized nutrition.

Recipes remain outbound links to official USDA pages. No recipe text, image, nutrition panel, or partner content is copied into this site.

Sources

State resources

State program names, application links, hotlines, office locators, and EBT information are drawn from official government directories and state resources. Each jurisdiction page shows the USDA directory entry's last update date when available.

Food help directory sources

Find Help brings together several directories. A nearby listing does not confirm that a location is open or has food available today. Check its source and call before visiting.

For every geographic ZIP code, the disaster search checks the current national Red Cross service feed and the Red Cross and FEMA shelter systems. If no location appears, those sources returned no active site within 50 miles at that time; the ZIP was not skipped. A state, tribal, local, or community organization may still operate a service that has not been published to those national systems.

Agency name

SNAP is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Administration (FNA), formerly the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS). Older report titles and web addresses still use the earlier name, so both appear in our source citations.

The funding explanation covers the change in who pays to run SNAP, which began October 1, 2026. That change does not itself reduce household benefits. SNAP changes explains the dates and links to the sources. Content reviewed October 13, 2026.

Data periods and refreshes

Every result shows the period or date of the source data. When newer information is not yet available, the site shows the most recently verified data with its effective period.

FY2027 maximum allotments take effect October 1, 2026. Replace the allotment and income tables together when USDA publishes FY2028 figures; never mix fiscal-year rows.

The FY2027 tables shown by the estimator have applied since October 1, 2026. For benefits before that date, use the USDA FY2026 tables. Rows from two fiscal years are never mixed, and a fiscal-year change is made as one controlled data-version change validated at build time.

Refresh triggers

  • Allotment and income tables: a new USDA cost-of-living adjustment, effective October 1.
  • Program facts: Replace when USDA ERS publishes the FY2026 Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape report.
  • State resources: a change to an official state directory entry.
  • Funding explanation: the annual review, or an effective change in federal law.

Plain-language standard

Pages are written to lead with the answer, use short and familiar sentences, explain program terms where they appear, and define every acronym at first use. Statistics are paired with the fiscal year or period they describe, households are distinguished from people, and benefits are distinguished from total program spending. We use neutral, non-stigmatizing language and avoid advocacy, partisan commentary, and unsupported causal claims.

Independent resource

My SNAP Benefits is an independent educational resource. It is not a government agency and does not determine eligibility, process applications, or access individual benefit cases.