Estimate child support from your state's real guideline: income-shares schedules, the Texas and Nevada percentages, and custody adjustments.
Before tax. Where your state runs on net income, the calculator converts it for you.
Used to project how many years of support are left.
Monthly premium for the children's coverage.
Texas applies the multiple-family table in § 154.129.
Texas applies a percentage to the non-custodial parent's income. The other parent's income is not part of the formula.
Source: Tex. Fam. Code § 154.125
Official state calculatorAn estimate, not legal advice. A court sets the final order and can depart from the guideline. Talk to a family law attorney.
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Child support is set by a state guideline, and the guidelines do not agree with one another. Forty-one states use income shares, which combines both parents' incomes, reads a basic obligation from a published schedule, and divides it in proportion to what each parent earns. Six states apply a percentage to the paying parent's income alone. Three use the Melson formula. This calculator implements the model your state actually uses, names the statute or regulation it came from, and tells you which quantity that guideline runs on — because a percentage of gross pay and a percentage of net resources are different numbers.
Child support is a court-ordered payment from one parent to the other toward the cost of raising their child after a separation or divorce: housing, food, clothing, school, healthcare, transport and childcare. The amount presumptively comes from the state guideline, which considers each parent's income, the number of children, the parenting-time arrangement, health and dental premiums, and work-related childcare. A court can depart from the guideline, but it has to say why on the record. Support usually runs until the child turns 18, or 19 while they are still in high school.
Income shares formula
Get a realistic figure before you file, so the number in the paperwork is not the first time you have seen it.
Take the worked steps into mediation and negotiate over a shared, checkable derivation rather than two different guesses.
See what moving from alternate weekends to a shared schedule does to the number, and where your state's threshold sits.
A raise, a layoff or a new job can support a modification. Compare the current order with what the guideline gives today.
In Texas, children you already support change the percentage through the multiple-family guidelines in § 154.129.
Texas stops applying guideline percentages above $11,700 of monthly net resources. See where the cap bites and what it means for you.
Income shares, percentage of income or a published table — the calculator runs the model your state uses and shows the statute it came from, instead of applying one average percentage everywhere.
In the 42 income-shares states the other parent's income genuinely moves the answer, because the basic obligation is read from a schedule rather than multiplied out of a flat rate.
Enter what you know — gross monthly pay. Where the guideline runs on net resources or adjusted income, as Texas, Alaska and North Dakota do, the conversion is done for you and shown as a step.
Above the threshold your state defines, the shared-custody calculation runs alongside the sole-custody one and the lower figure applies, exactly as the guideline directs.
Every step is shown with the numbers filled in, so you can check the arithmetic or take it to a mediation session and explain where the figure came from.
Where a state's guideline could not be verified against a primary source, the calculator shows no number at all and links the state's own program. A number you cannot cite is worse than no number.
It depends entirely on your state's model. At $5,000 gross a month with two children and the other parent earning $3,000, an income-shares state gives roughly $900–$1,000 a month. Texas would first convert $5,000 gross to about $4,150 of net resources, then take 25% of it — about $1,040. Wisconsin takes 25% of gross, about $1,250. Same income, three different answers, which is why the state selector is the first field.
In the 42 income-shares states, yes: the basic obligation is read from a schedule against the parents' combined income, then split in proportion to each parent's share, so a higher-earning co-parent lowers your share. In Texas, Wisconsin, Alaska, Nevada and North Dakota it does not — those guidelines apply a percentage or a table to the paying parent's income alone.
Both, depending on the state. Most income-shares states use gross income. Texas uses monthly net resources, which is gross minus Social Security and Medicare, federal income tax computed as a single filer taking the standard deduction, union dues, state income tax and the children's health and dental premiums. Alaska uses adjusted income and North Dakota uses net income. This calculator collects gross and converts where the guideline requires it.
Texas applies its guideline percentages to at most $11,700 of monthly net resources, a cap that rose from $9,200 on 1 September 2025 and is adjusted every six years for inflation under Tex. Fam. Code § 154.125(a-1). For three children that is 30% of $11,700, or $3,510 a month. A court can order more than the guideline amount if the child's proven needs exceed it.
Above a threshold your state sets, a second calculation runs. Virginia's applies above 90 days a year: the scheduled need is multiplied by 1.4, weighted by each parent's custody share and income share, and the two figures are offset. Crucially the guideline then applies whichever is lower, the shared or the sole figure — so crossing the threshold cannot increase what you owe.
It varies and the line is sharp. Virginia's shared-custody calculation starts above 90 days a year; Wisconsin's shared-placement formula needs at least 92 overnights with each parent. One night either side of the threshold can change the monthly figure by a few hundred dollars, which is exactly why parenting schedules are negotiated so closely around it.
Mississippi, Delaware, Hawaii and Montana are not estimated here. Their guidelines could not be verified against a reachable primary source, and publishing a number we cannot cite would be worse than publishing none. Those states link straight to their own official child support program instead.
No. Child support is not taxable to the parent receiving it and not deductible by the parent paying it. That has been true for child support throughout, and since the 2017 tax law the same is now true of alimony for divorces finalised after 2018.
Paying support does not by itself give you the exemption or credits. The custodial parent normally claims the child. The non-custodial parent can claim the child tax credit only if the custodial parent releases the claim on IRS Form 8332, which many settlement agreements provide for explicitly.
Ordinary living costs: housing, utilities, food, clothing, school supplies, basic transport and everyday activities. Health and dental premiums and work-related childcare are usually added on top of the basic obligation and split between the parents. Extraordinary medical bills and agreed extras like private tuition or sport are typically allocated separately in the order.
Equal time does not mean no support. In income-shares states the shared-custody formula still leaves the higher earner paying, because the calculation weights each parent's income share as well as their time. Only where the parents' incomes are also close does the offset approach zero.
Yes. Most states allow a modification on a substantial change in circumstances — a significant income change, a change in the parenting schedule, or a child ageing out. Some also allow a review on a fixed cycle. Running the guideline again with today's numbers is the usual first step in deciding whether to ask.
Usually until the child turns 18, extended to 19 or to high-school graduation in many states, and longer for a child with a disability. The projection here counts to 18 from the age of your youngest child; check your own state's termination rule, since a few also require support through part of college.
No. The guideline amount is presumptively correct, but a judge can depart from it with written findings — for special needs, extraordinary travel for visitation, a parent's other support duties, or income the guideline does not capture well, such as self-employment or irregular overtime.