Federal Poverty Level Calculator

Your Federal Poverty Level (FPL) percentage decides whether you qualify for a long list of federal and state programs, from Medicaid and SNAP benefits to Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies. The figure is simply where your household income falls relative to the official poverty threshold for a family your size. Because eligibility cutoffs are written in terms of FPL percentages, knowing your number up front tells you which forms of assistance are realistically within reach before you ever start an application.

The math behind the figure relies on the official 2026 Federal Poverty Guidelines that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) publishes each year. Take your household's total annual income, divide it by the FPL threshold that matches your household size, and multiply by 100. To put numbers on it: with a 2026 single-person threshold of $15,060, an income of $30,120 works out to an FPL percentage of 200%.

One detail trips up most people: the income you enter should be gross annual income, before any taxes or deductions are taken out, not the net amount that lands in your bank account. Count every source too, including unemployment benefits, Social Security, and self-employment earnings, since leaving any of them out understates your real position. It also helps to know that certain programs measure eligibility against Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI), which will not always match the income figure used here.