The United States obligated roughly $82 billion in foreign assistance in fiscal year 2024, making it the largest single-country donor in the world. That sounds enormous, and it is, but it works out to about 1% of total federal spending. Polls routinely find Americans guess the share at around 20 to 25%. The gap between perception and reality shapes most of the political argument over how much money the US gives to other countries, and the answer is shifting fast: a January 2025 executive order paused most new aid, and the agency that ran the bulk of it has since been shut down.
The Headline Numbers
Foreign aid obligations climbed steadily in recent years, pushed higher by supplemental spending tied to the war in Ukraine. In FY2023, the government spent close to $72 billion on international assistance. In FY2024, that rose to about $82.3 billion. Even at that elevated level, foreign aid was a small slice of the roughly $6.7 trillion federal budget, well behind Social Security, Medicare, defense, and interest on the debt.
One caveat worth carrying through the rest of these numbers: the annual figure understates actual spending during crises because Congress routes much of the money through supplemental appropriations rather than the regular budget. The Ukraine response alone drew roughly $188 billion across five supplemental acts covering FY2022 through FY2024.1Ukraine Oversight. Funding
Which Countries Receive the Most
The top of the list moves with geopolitics, but a few countries appear near the top year after year. In FY2024, the largest recipients were:
- Israel — $6.8 billion. A long-standing memorandum of understanding commits about $3.8 billion per year in military aid through 2028. Supplemental appropriations tied to the Gaza conflict nearly doubled that baseline in FY2024. Almost all of Israel’s aid is military financing, not economic assistance.2ForeignAssistance.gov. U.S. Foreign Assistance By Country – Israel
- Ukraine — $6.5 billion. Ukraine became the top overall aid recipient after Russia’s 2022 invasion, the first time a European country held that spot since the Marshall Plan.
- Jordan — $1.7 billion. A mix of economic and military assistance reflecting Jordan’s role in Middle East stability.
- Ethiopia — $1.3 billion. Entirely economic, focused on food security, health programs, and humanitarian relief.3ForeignAssistance.gov. U.S. Foreign Assistance By Country – Ethiopia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo — $1.3 billion. Driven by ongoing conflict and public health crises.
Egypt historically sits near the top as well, receiving about $1.3 billion annually in military financing tied to the Camp David framework. Sub-Saharan Africa collectively takes a large share, driven by infectious disease programs and food insecurity. These allocations can swing sharply year to year when a conflict erupts or a famine hits.
What the Money Actually Buys
Foreign aid rarely means wiring cash into a foreign bank account. Most of it moves as specific goods, services, or credits, and a large share of the spending ends up with American companies and workers.
Economic and Development Assistance
The broadest category, covering global health, disaster relief, agricultural development, clean water infrastructure, and education. Long-term development projects aim to build enough economic independence that recipient countries eventually need less aid. Many programs run through partnerships with local organizations rather than direct government-to-government transfers.
Security Assistance
Military aid takes several forms. Foreign Military Financing provides grants or credits that allow partner countries to buy American-made defense equipment, so much of the money flows back to US defense contractors. Training programs build the capacity of allied military and law enforcement forces. Peacekeeping support funds multinational operations in conflict zones.
Global Health
Health spending is a category of its own by sheer scale. The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, received $4.6 billion in the FY2026 appropriations bill, one of the single largest line items in the foreign aid budget. Combined with contributions to the Global Fund and other HIV-related programs, total HIV/AIDS spending reaches roughly $5.9 billion a year. PEPFAR is credited with saving more than 25 million lives since its creation in 2003.
Money That Comes Back Home
Food aid procurement requires commodities that are 100% US-grown. In early 2026, the USDA announced a $452 million agreement with the World Food Programme to deliver American wheat, rice, beans, lentils, sorghum, and other commodities through the Food for Peace program.4USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. USDA to Purchase 211,000 Metric Tons of American Commodities, Administer Food for Peace Program as America First International Food Assistance Foreign Military Financing works the same way: the credits sit on allied government books, but the hardware purchases go to American manufacturers.
What Changed in 2025
Anyone reading recent-year totals should know the pipeline has been fundamentally altered. On January 20, 2025, the White House issued an executive order imposing a 90-day pause on all new obligations and disbursements of foreign development assistance. Every agency with foreign aid responsibility was directed to halt spending pending a review of each program for “programmatic efficiency and consistency with United States foreign policy.” The Office of Management and Budget was given authority to enforce the freeze through fund apportionment.5The White House. Reevaluating And Realigning United States Foreign Aid
The pause became something more permanent. The administration canceled thousands of aid contracts, terminated nearly all remaining USAID employees, and folded the agency’s surviving programs into the State Department. USAID had historically managed roughly 60% of all foreign aid disbursements after being established through the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.6Office of Inspector General. OIG Oversight: USAID Overview More than $19 billion was reserved to cover closeout costs, including legal fees, pending invoices, and asset disposition. By mid-2026, the administration was redirecting billions originally intended for global health programs toward those closure expenses. The channel through which most American development aid flowed for over sixty years has effectively been shut down, and what will replace it at scale is unresolved.
Legal Limits on Where Aid Can Go
Foreign aid is not open-ended. Several layers of law restrict where it can flow.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, codified starting at 22 U.S.C. § 2151, is the foundational statute. It authorizes economic aid, designates the coordinating role of the Secretary of State, and sets the structure agencies follow when administering programs.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 22 U.S. Code 2151 – Congressional Findings and Declaration of Policy
The Leahy Law, actually two related statutes covering the State Department and the Pentagon, prohibits US assistance to any foreign military or law enforcement unit credibly implicated in gross human rights violations, including torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and rape. The State Department version allows an exception when the foreign government takes effective steps to bring those responsible to justice. The Defense Department version adds exceptions for disaster relief and situations where the Secretary of Defense certifies that corrective steps have been taken.8United States Department of State. Leahy Law Fact Sheet
Section 7008 of the annual foreign aid appropriations bill bars funding to any government whose elected leader is overthrown in a military coup. The restriction covers economic, security, multilateral, and export assistance. Humanitarian and health funding can usually continue, the Secretary of State can waive the restriction on a program-by-program basis for national security reasons, and aid can resume once a democratically elected government takes office.9Congressional Research Service. Coup-Related Restrictions in U.S. Foreign Aid Appropriations