What Is the Average SNAP Benefit Per Person? $187 and the Max

The average SNAP benefit per person was about $187.20 per month in fiscal year 2024, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. ¹ That comes out to roughly $6.24 a day. Whether your household lands above or below that average depends on your income, how many people you’re feeding, and which deductions apply to you.

Why the Average Sits at $187

SNAP served about 41.7 million people per month in fiscal year 2024, and the $187.20 figure is what the program paid out per participant on average across that group. ¹ The number reflects a wide range underneath it. Households with little or no countable income receive close to the program’s maximum. Households where most members earn wages receive a partial benefit, sometimes just the minimum, and those smaller amounts pull the average down.

The average moves year to year. It ran unusually high during pandemic-era emergency allotments, when most households received the maximum regardless of income, and it dropped once those temporary boosts expired in 2023. What’s left is the post-pandemic baseline, calculated using the updated Thrifty Food Plan that permanently raised maximum allotments in October 2021.

The Ceiling: Maximum Monthly Benefits

Every SNAP benefit is calculated by starting from a maximum allotment and subtracting a share of the household’s income. The maximum is what a household with zero net income would receive, and it grows with household size. For fiscal year 2026, running from October 2025 through September 2026, the maximums in the 48 contiguous states and D.C. are: ²

1 person: $298
2 people: $546
3 people: $785
4 people: $994
5 people: $1,183
6 people: $1,421
7 people: $1,571
8 people: $1,789
Each additional person: add $218

Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands use higher maximums to reflect elevated food costs. A single person in Hawaii, for instance, can receive up to $506 per month. ³ The maximums are ceilings. Most people receive less because they have some countable income after deductions.

How Your Actual Amount Is Calculated

SNAP assumes a household can spend 30% of its net monthly income on food. Your benefit is the maximum allotment for your household size minus that 30% contribution. ⁴

A single person with $500 in net monthly income would receive $298 minus $150, which comes to $148 a month. A household of four with $1,000 in net income would receive $994 minus $300, or $694 a month. ²

The key word is net. Your gross income (wages, self-employment earnings, Social Security, pensions, and most other recurring income) gets reduced by a series of deductions before the 30% calculation runs. ⁴ Two households with identical paychecks can end up with very different SNAP amounts once their deductions are counted.

Deductions That Lower Countable Income

For fiscal year 2026, the deductions that reduce your countable income include:

A standard deduction that every household receives automatically. It’s $209 for households of one to three, $223 for four, $261 for five, and $299 for six or more in the 48 contiguous states and D.C.³
An earned income deduction equal to 20% of everything a household earns from work. If you earn $1,500 at a job, $300 comes off your countable income.⁴
A dependent care deduction for out-of-pocket child care or adult care costs when they let a household member work or attend training.
A medical expense deduction for households with a member age 60 or older or with a disability, covering unreimbursed medical costs above $35 per month.
An excess shelter deduction. If rent or mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and utilities eat up more than half your income after the other deductions, the excess is deductible up to $744 per month. Households with an elderly or disabled member have no cap on this one.³

Most states apply a Standard Utility Allowance for the shelter calculation, which is a flat figure based on the utilities you pay, so you don’t have to itemize every bill. Combined with rent or mortgage, it produces your total shelter cost.

The Minimum Benefit

If the formula produces a very small number, one- and two-person households still receive a monthly minimum of $24 in most states. ² Larger households that calculate down to zero or a negative number receive nothing.

Where Income Fits In

To qualify at all, most households have to pass two income tests. The gross income limit is 130% of the federal poverty level: $1,696 a month for one person and $3,483 for a household of four in fiscal year 2026. The net income limit is 100% of poverty: $1,305 for one person and $2,680 for a household of four. ⁵ Households where every member is age 60 or older or receives disability benefits only have to pass the net test. ²

Once you’re through the door, though, the size of your benefit isn’t set by a category. It’s the maximum for your household size, minus 30% of whatever net income remains after your deductions. That’s why the person-level average settles around $187: most recipients have some income, so most benefits sit well below the household-size maximum, and a smaller group with almost no countable income receives amounts close to the ceiling.

1
Economic Research Service. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – Key Statistics and Research
2
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information
3
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Fiscal Year 2026 Maximum Allotments and Deductions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 2014 – Eligible Households
5
Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Eligibility