SNAP benefit amounts for FY2027: what changed on October 1, 2026

Yes, SNAP went up on October 1, 2026, for most of the country. The maximum monthly benefit for a household of four in the 48 states and D.C. rose from $994 to $1,023, an increase of $29 (2.9%). One person went from $298 to $306. The minimum benefit for one- and two-person households rose from $24 to $25. Hawaii is the exception: its maximum for four fell from $1,689 to $1,655. The deductions and income limits rose too. These figures come from USDA’s FY2027 cost-of-living adjustment memo, dated August 21, 2026. They apply from October 1, 2026, to September 30, 2027 (federal fiscal year 2027).

Your own benefit may rise by a different amount, stay the same, or even fall. It depends on your income, your housing costs and your state’s utility allowance. The rest of this guide shows every figure that changed, side by side with FY2026, and works two real households through both years.

Why SNAP changes every October 1

SNAP figures are reset at the start of each federal fiscal year. Under the Food and Nutrition Act, as amended by Public Law 119-21, section 10101 (July 4, 2025), USDA adjusts the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan “on October 1, 2025, and on each October 1 thereafter” for the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers over the 12 months ending in June. The Thrifty Food Plan is USDA’s estimate of a low-cost healthy diet for a family of four. The maximum SNAP benefit equals that cost, rounded down to the dollar.

The same law fixed the ratios between household sizes. A one-person household gets 30% of the four-person maximum, two people 55%, three people 79%, five people 119%, six 143%, seven 158% and eight 180%. Each person from the ninth on adds 22%, up to 200% extra in total. That is why one person’s maximum ($306) is not one-quarter of the four-person maximum ($1,023).

Income limits move for a different reason. They are tied to the federal poverty guidelines. For FY2027, USDA used the HHS 2026 poverty guidelines: $15,960 a year for one person in the 48 states and D.C. The gross limit is 130% of that, divided by 12: $1,729 a month.

USDA’s agency for SNAP, which signs its 2026 memos as the Food and Nutrition Administration, posts every year’s tables on its SNAP cost-of-living adjustment page (updated October 13, 2026).

Maximum benefits: FY2026 vs FY2027

For the 48 states and D.C., every household size went up. These are the most a household can get, which is what a household with zero net income receives.

FY2026 figures: USDA’s FY2026 maximum allotments and deductions table. FY2027 figures: the FY2027 memo. For FY2027, the memo also caps the total for households of 18 or more at $3,887 in the 48 states and D.C.

Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Federal law requires separate cost adjustments that reflect food prices in Alaska and Hawaii, and separate plans for Guam and the Virgin Islands. Four-person maximums:

FY2026 figures: USDA’s FY2026 table for Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and the Virgin Islands. The memo states only that Hawaii’s maximum “will decrease”; it gives no reason. Hawaii’s FY2027 one-person maximum is $496, down from $506. If you live in Hawaii, see the Hawaii page for how the state runs SNAP. Which Alaska column applies depends on where you live; the Alaska page covers that.

The full FY2027 tables for all areas and household sizes:

Alaska’s three regions in full:

The minimum benefit: $25

Eligible households of one or two people get at least a minimum benefit, even when the formula gives them less. Federal law, 7 U.S.C. 2017(a), sets it at 8% of the cost of the Thrifty Food Plan for one person, rounded to the nearest dollar.

FY2026 figures: USDA’s FY2026 minimum allotment table.

Two limits on the minimum, from 7 CFR 273.10(e)(2)(ii). It does not apply in your first month: if the prorated first-month benefit is under $10, nothing is issued for that month. And it covers only one- and two-person households. A household of three or more whose benefit works out to zero is denied, or certified but suspended, depending on the state.

Example: a one-person household in the 48 states with net income of $1,000 a month in FY2027. 30% of $1,000 is $300. $306 minus $300 is $6. Because the household has one person, it receives $25 instead.

Deductions and income limits: FY2026 vs FY2027

Higher deductions lower your countable (net) income, and lower net income means a higher benefit. These are the figures for the 48 states and D.C.

FY2026 figures: USDA’s FY2026 income eligibility standards and FY2026 deductions table. FY2027 figures: the FY2027 memo.

A few details in the FY2027 memo that are easy to miss:

• Assets. The general $3,000 limit did not change. Only the limit for households with a member who is 60 or older or disabled rose, to $4,750. That $4,750 is also the threshold for “substantial” lottery or gambling winnings. Many states do not apply an asset test at all; see SNAP asset limits.
• Change reporting. For households assigned to change reporting, the income change you must report is $150 for FY2027.
• Shelter cap. The cap does not apply to households with a member who is 60 or older or disabled. Their full excess shelter cost counts, so the higher cap changes nothing for them.
• Hawaii’s shelter cap. The signed memo gives $1,036, up from $1,003 in FY2026. USDA’s COLA web page and its FY2027 maximum allotments and deductions PDF both list $1,306 for Hawaii, as checked on October 16, 2026. The two USDA publications disagree, and the memo is the signed document, so this guide uses $1,036. Ask your state agency which figure it applies.

Most states use broad-based categorical eligibility (BBCE), which replaces the 130% gross limit with a higher one, such as 165% or 200% of poverty. Those state limits also rose with the 2026 poverty guidelines. Your state’s FY2027 figure is in SNAP income limits by state.

Standard deductions and shelter caps for every area in FY2027:

State utility allowances also changed

The utility part of the shelter deduction comes from your state, not from the federal memo. Each state sets standard utility allowances (SUAs) and must update them every year. They usually change on October 1 along with everything else, and they can go down as well as up.

• Texas set its standard utility allowance at $464 and its basic utility allowance at $417, effective October 1, 2026 (Texas Works Handbook C-121.1, Revision 26-4).
• Wisconsin raised its heating allowance to $930 and its limited utility allowance to $466 for FFY 2027, but lowered its electric allowance to $149 and its cooking fuel allowance to $36 (DHS Operations Memo 26-32, September 16, 2026).

Since July 4, 2025, internet costs no longer count toward the shelter deduction under P.L. 119-21, section 10104. That change was in place before FY2027 began. Your state page lists the FY2027 utility allowances where the state has published them.

Worked example 1: a family of four with a job and high rent

A family of four in the 48 states. One parent earns $2,400 a month before taxes. Nobody is 60 or older or disabled. Rent is $1,650 a month, and the family pays its own utilities, so the state’s utility allowance is added to rent. With rent this high, the shelter deduction hits the cap in both years, whatever the state’s utility allowance is. The order of steps follows 7 CFR 273.10(e).

The family’s benefit rose $38 a month. $29 of that is the higher maximum. The other $9 comes from the bigger deductions: the standard deduction rose $6 and the shelter cap rose $25, which cut net income by $31, and 30% of $31 is about $9.

States may round 30% of net income up to the next dollar, or not round it and round the final benefit down instead. In this example both methods give the same result.

Worked example 2: one person on SSI, before and after January 2027

A single adult who receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI) because of a disability. SSI is the only income: $994 a month in 2026, the federal SSI payment for one person, with no state supplement. Rent is $800 with utilities included, so no utility allowance applies. No out-of-pocket medical costs. Because the person is disabled, there is no gross income test and no cap on the shelter deduction.

October 2026 brought this person $12 more a month. Then the Social Security Administration’s 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 raises the federal SSI payment for one person from $994 to $1,029 (SSA 2027 fact sheet). SSA says increased SSI payments begin on December 31, 2026, and Social Security benefits rise starting with the January 2027 payment. Higher income means lower SNAP: in this example the benefit drops to $180, $4 below the September 2026 amount.

You usually do not have to report the Social Security or SSI increase. Under 7 CFR 273.12(e)(3), states handle these cost-of-living increases as a mass change. When a state applies the percentage increase across its caseload, the change must show up no later than the second SNAP benefit issued after the month the increase takes effect. For an increase effective in January 2027, that means no later than the March 2027 benefit. Some states instead have you report the new amount on a periodic report. If the mass change lowers your benefit, 7 CFR 273.12(e)(4) requires the state to notify you of the change, the month it takes effect and your right to a hearing.

If you get SSI and your state runs a combined application project for SSI recipients, your SNAP amount may be set by a simpler standard method; see SNAP for seniors and people with disabilities. Every step of the formula is explained in How SNAP benefits are calculated, and the SNAP benefit estimator runs it with your own numbers and FY2027 figures.

Do you need to do anything?

No. The October 1 adjustments are a “mass change.” Under 7 CFR 273.12(e)(1), the state applies the new federal standards to every household at the same time, going forward. You do not need to apply again, call, or turn in a form.

The state does not have to send you an individual notice of adverse action for these changes. It must publicize them at least through the news media, posters in offices, or general notices mailed to households. Some states send an individual notice anyway. Wisconsin, for example, says FoodShare members “will receive a Notice of Decision if the COLA results in a change of benefits, effective October 1, 2026” (Operations Memo 26-32).

Your October 2026 benefit, paid on your state’s usual day in October, is the first one figured with FY2027 standards. See EBT deposit schedules by state for your date. If your October amount looks wrong, compare it with the examples above and your last notice, then ask your state agency. If you think the agency made an error in your case, you can ask for a hearing; see SNAP denied, reduced or stopped.

Will SNAP go up again?

Not before October 1, 2027. There is no mid-year federal increase scheduled for FY2027. The next adjustment comes from the FY2028 memo and takes effect October 1, 2027, as the law requires each October 1. The FY2027 memo was dated August 21, 2026, about six weeks before it took effect.

P.L. 119-21 also lets USDA re-evaluate the Thrifty Food Plan’s market baskets, but “not earlier than October 1, 2027,” and it says a re-evaluation may not increase the plan’s cost. Yearly inflation adjustments continue regardless.

Within FY2027, your own benefit can still change for other reasons: a change in income (including the January 2027 Social Security and SSI increase), household size, rent or utilities, a new state utility allowance, or your renewal. The year’s other policy changes are collected in SNAP changes in 2026.

Sources

• SNAP – Fiscal Year 2027 Cost-of-Living Adjustments, memo dated August 21, 2026, USDA Food and Nutrition Administration. Checked 2026-10-16.
• SNAP Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information, USDA FNA, page updated October 13, 2026. Read on 2026-10-16 through the agency’s CDN host, fns-prod.azureedge.us.
• FY2026 tables, USDA: maximum allotments and deductions, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and Virgin Islands allotments, minimum allotments, income eligibility standards. Checked 2026-10-16.
• Public Law 119-21, section 10101 (July 4, 2025), GPO.
• 7 U.S.C. 2017(a), minimum allotment, GPO.
• 7 CFR 273.10 and 7 CFR 273.12, eCFR.
• HHS Poverty Guidelines for 2026, ASPE. Checked 2026-10-16.
• Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Information for 2027 and 2027 COLA fact sheet, Social Security Administration. Checked 2026-10-16.
• Texas Works Handbook C-120, Revision 26-4, Texas HHSC, effective October 1, 2026.
• DMS Operations Memo 26-32, FoodShare Cost of Living Adjustments, Wisconsin DHS, September 16, 2026.