The financial aid EFC chart no longer exists. The Expected Family Contribution was replaced starting with the 2024–2025 school year by the Student Aid Index (SAI), a number that runs from −1,500 up to the full cost of attendance at your school and drives every piece of your federal aid package. For the 2026–2027 award year, an SAI at or below zero gets you the full Federal Pell Grant of $7,395, and any SAI of $14,790 or higher means no Pell Grant at all.1Federal Student Aid. 2026-27 Federal Pell Grant Maximum and Minimum Award Amounts Between those two points, the math is a sliding scale rather than a bracketed chart.
What Replaced the EFC
The FAFSA Simplification Act eliminated the EFC along with the Automatic Zero EFC and the Simplified Needs Test. In their place came the SAI and new rules for maximum Pell eligibility and asset-reporting exemptions.2Federal Student Aid. FAFSA Simplification Act Changes for Implementation in 2024-25 If you find an older resource showing an EFC chart with clean brackets like $30,000 for an automatic zero, those numbers don’t apply to any current award year. Maximum Pell eligibility is now tied to federal poverty guidelines, which shift with family size and location, so no single flat-dollar chart can replace what the EFC chart used to show.
One meaningful change: the SAI can be negative, down to −1,500. The old EFC bottomed out at zero. A negative SAI won’t push your Pell Grant above the maximum, but schools use it to prioritize students for other limited funds like the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087mm – Special Rules for Student Aid Index
How Your SAI Becomes a Pell Grant Amount
The Pell Grant for 2026–2027 is calculated as the $7,395 maximum minus your SAI, rounded to the nearest $5. That formula is the closest thing to a modern EFC chart, and it produces three outcomes worth knowing:
- An SAI of −1,500 through 0 gets you the full $7,395. The negative range doesn’t add money on top; it just signals higher need to your school for other aid.
- An SAI between 1 and roughly 7,390 produces a Pell Grant equal to $7,395 minus your SAI. An SAI of 3,000, for instance, works out to about $4,395.
- An SAI of $14,790 or higher means no Pell Grant. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act set that cutoff at twice the maximum award for 2026–2027.1Federal Student Aid. 2026-27 Federal Pell Grant Maximum and Minimum Award Amounts
A high SAI doesn’t mean you receive nothing. Schools still use the number to determine eligibility for subsidized Direct Loans, work-study, and institutional grants funded by the school itself. The aid just shifts toward loans and campus-based programs rather than federal grants.
Who Qualifies for the Maximum Pell Grant
The old automatic-zero income bracket is gone. In its place, maximum Pell eligibility is tied to federal poverty guidelines. For a dependent student, the parent’s adjusted gross income must be at or below 175 percent of the poverty line for their family size and state. Single parents (whether that’s the custodial parent of a dependent student or an independent student who is themselves a single parent) get a higher threshold of 225 percent.4Federal Student Aid. Student Aid Index SAI and Pell Grant Eligibility – Section: Maximum Pell Grant Eligibility Criteria Applicants whose parents (or the student, if independent) aren’t required to file a federal tax return also receive the full grant and get assigned an SAI of −1,500.
Because poverty guidelines shift with family size, there’s no single income figure that applies to every household. A family of four in the contiguous United States has to check the current guidelines and multiply by 1.75, or 2.25 for a single parent, to estimate their cutoff. That variability is a big part of why the old fixed-dollar chart couldn’t survive the switch to SAI.
What Goes Into the SAI Calculation
For a dependent student, the federal formula adds three things: an assessment of the parents’ adjusted available income, an assessment of the student’s income, and the student’s available assets.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087oo – Student Aid Index for Dependent Students Independent students use a parallel formula that looks only at their own finances (and a spouse’s, if married). The calculation adjusts for family size and applies allowances that shield a baseline amount of income and assets from assessment.
Income and assets get counted at very different rates depending on whose they are:
- Student assets are assessed at 20 percent. Ten thousand dollars in your own savings account adds $2,000 to your SAI.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087oo – Student Aid Index for Dependent Students
- Parental assets are assessed at 12 percent of the amount above a protection allowance that varies with the older parent’s age and family size.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087oo – Student Aid Index for Dependent Students
Older guides sometimes cite a 5.64 percent maximum for parental assets. That figure belonged to the EFC formula. The current SAI rate is 12 percent, which is a real increase and can push your index up if your family holds significant non-retirement assets.
What Counts as an Asset
Not every asset factors in. The FAFSA asks about investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate other than your primary home, and the net worth of certain businesses. Your primary residence and retirement accounts (401(k) plans, pensions, IRAs) are excluded.7Federal Student Aid. How Do I Answer the Current Net Worth of Investments Including Real Estate Question Beginning with the 2026–2027 award year, the small business and family farm exclusion is restored: if your family owns and controls a small business or farm (more than 50 percent of the voting rights held by family members), its net worth is excluded from the SAI. Businesses that fail that ownership test still get reported, with net worth calculated as current fair market value minus secured debt.
When You Skip Asset Reporting Entirely
Some applicants don’t report assets at all. A dependent student whose parents have a combined AGI below $60,000 and file a relatively simple return (no Schedules A, B, D, E, F, or H, and either no Schedule C or a Schedule C showing a net gain or loss of $10,000 or less) skips the asset section entirely.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1087ss – Eligible Applicants Exempt From Asset Reporting Independent students use the same rules with their own AGI. Applicants who received benefits from a federal means-tested program in either of the prior two calendar years also qualify.
Around the $60,000 line, this exemption can swing an SAI by thousands. Families with modest income but meaningful savings feel the effect most.
Beyond the Pell Grant
Your SAI doesn’t just set your Pell amount. Your school subtracts it from the total cost of attendance (COA) to determine your financial need, which is the ceiling on need-based aid you can receive.9Federal Student Aid. How Financial Aid Is Calculated A COA of $30,000 and an SAI of $5,000 produces a financial need of $25,000. The school can’t award more than that in need-based aid, though non-need-based options like unsubsidized loans can be layered on top.
COA is more than tuition. Schools include housing, food, books, supplies, transportation between home and campus, loan fees, and a personal-expenses allowance.10Federal Student Aid. Federal Student Aid Handbook – Cost of Attendance Budget Allowances for childcare, disability-related expenses, and study abroad get added when they apply.9Federal Student Aid. How Financial Aid Is Calculated Two schools with identical tuition can produce very different financial-need figures because local housing costs differ.
When Your SAI Doesn’t Reflect Reality
If your family’s finances have changed materially since the tax year the FAFSA uses, you can ask the school’s financial aid office for a professional judgment review. Federal law gives financial aid administrators authority to adjust your SAI based on documented special circumstances. It isn’t automatic, and each school handles it differently.
Situations that typically qualify: job loss or involuntary hour reductions, a death in the family, divorce or separation, a disability that reduces earning capacity, and large medical expenses not covered by insurance. You’ll need documentation like a termination letter, death certificate, divorce paperwork, or medical bills. Credit card debt, car payments, mortgage obligations, and a parent’s voluntary choice to work less generally don’t qualify.
Schools can also raise your COA to reflect education-related expenses you’ve already incurred, which indirectly increases your calculated need. If your SAI is already at −1,500, a professional judgment review usually won’t help because there’s no room to move lower. Start early. Aid offices process these requests by hand, and some limit when they’ll accept them.