About SNAP Eligibility Calculator

Alex Bennett built SNAP Eligibility Calculator to help people understand SNAP eligibility before they apply. The site grew out of personal experience with the SNAP application process and a frustration with calculators that gave numbers without showing the math.

Every state guide on this site is researched against USDA Food and Nutrition Service publications, state agency documentation, official federal regulations, and established journalism. Every numeric claim and policy interpretation is anchored to a primary source you can verify yourself — the source links live at the bottom of each deep-dive section, not buried in a separate references page.

Alex Bennett is not a lawyer, social worker, or government official. This site is informational and points you to official agencies for authoritative determinations.

SNAP Eligibility Calculator does two things. First, the eligibility calculator walks you through a household, income, and deductions worksheet and produces a benefit estimate that shows the steps it took — gross income test, net income test, asset rule, the deductions applied, and the maximum allotment for your household size. If a result surprises you, you can see exactly which figure changed it.

Second, the state SNAP guides cover the operational reality of applying in each launched state — the portal, the phone number, expedited timelines, BBCE rules, work-requirement implementation dates, and a unique deep-dive section on what makes that state's program different from a generic federal description. Eligibility rules vary by state in ways that matter; these guides try to surface those differences instead of flattening them.

Every state guide is built from primary sources, in roughly this order of authority:

• USDA Food and Nutrition Service publications — the BBCE election table, the Standard Utility Allowance memo, ABAWD waiver decisions, and program regulations under 7 CFR Part 273.
• State agency documentation — the official SNAP page from the state's DSS, DHHS, HHSC, OTDA, DCF, ODJFS, or equivalent agency, including published mass-change letters, manuals, and benefit-rate notices.
• Federal regulations and statute — the SNAP statute at 7 U.S.C. § 2014 and the implementing regulations, when a state-page claim turns on a federal rule.
• Established journalism and research — investigative reporting from outlets like ProPublica, the Texas Tribune, NC Health News, City Limits, and similar; analyses from CRS, GAO, NACo, CLASP, and APHSA.

Wikipedia, anonymous summary blogs, and AI-generated content from other sites are not used as authority. When a comparative claim is made — "X state is one of only five that does Y" — that comparison is verified against the underlying USDA data before publication, not summarized from a secondary source.

Pages carry a last reviewed date and many time-sensitive blocks (income limits tables, BBCE callouts, work-requirement rules) carry a verified on date so you can see when each piece of information was last checked. Material policy changes — the OBBBA work-requirement rollout, October-1 income-limit updates, new state legislation — trigger a review.

More detail on the verification process lives on the Editorial Policy page.

This site is informational. It is not legal advice, not a substitute for talking with a state SNAP caseworker, and not affiliated with USDA, any state agency, or any government office. The calculator produces estimates based on the rules encoded for each state at the time the page was reviewed; the only authoritative eligibility determination comes from your state SNAP agency after they review your actual application.

State rules change. Federal rules change. The October 1 cost-of-living adjustment, state legislative sessions, and federal legislation like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act all shift income limits, work requirements, and eligibility rules. The dates on each page tell you when the content was last verified — if you are reading a page months after that date, confirm the figures with your state agency before relying on them.

If you find an error, please tell us — see Contact below. Corrections are made promptly and the page's reviewed date is updated when a factual change goes in.

To report a correction, ask a question, or send press inquiries, use the contact form. Alex Bennett reads every submission and responds when a response is needed.