Student Grant Calculator

It depends on three numbers, and the calculation is a subtraction. The reference grant is 11 times the social support index plus the tuition you pay, which in 2026-2027 is up to 6,605.43 EUR, and from that reference you subtract the household per-capita income, that is the previous calendar year income divided by the number of people in the household. If the result is below 872 EUR you receive 872 EUR, which is the floor in article 15(4). If per-capita income exceeds 12,353.99 EUR you receive nothing. That is what this calculator does, and it also shows which of the three cases your situation falls into.

Because you are probably already in the floor band, and that band is wide. The subtraction in article 15(1) makes the grant fall euro for euro with per-capita income, but article 15(4) guarantees a floor of 125 % of the tuition paid, 872 EUR in 2026-2027. Once the subtraction yields less than that, the floor takes over and the value stops responding to income. That point sits at 5,734.18 EUR of per-capita income and the eligibility ceiling only arrives at 12,353.99 EUR, so there are more than 6,600 EUR of per-capita income across which everyone receives exactly the same. The trade-off is harsh: as soon as you pass the ceiling you lose the whole 872 EUR.

They do, in a way that surprises almost everyone. Article 34(2) adds household financial assets to income, and article 43(2) sets four bands, 0 % up to 10 times the index, 10 % between 10 and 30, 15 % between 30 and 96 and 20 % above that. But article 43(3) applies the rate «to the minimum of the interval», so what is imputed does not depend on how much you hold within the band: there are four fixed values, 0 EUR, 537.13 EUR, 2,417.09 EUR and 10,312.90 EUR. In practice holding 6,000 EUR or 16,000 EUR gives exactly the same result, but going from 16,000 EUR to 16,200 EUR crosses the 16,113.90 EUR boundary and adds 1,879.96 EUR to household income. Everything in accounts, savings certificates, retirement savings plans, shares, bonds and funds counts, measured at 31 December of the previous year.

You divide household income by the number of people in the household, and it really is a plain division. Article 45 uses no equivalence scale, unlike the minimum income benefit or the older persons solidarity supplement, which count the applicant at 1, each other adult at 0.7 and each minor at 0.5. Here a household of four divides by four. The only exception is article 4(2), which counts each minor in shared custody, evidenced by the income tax return, as half a member. The income to divide is that of the previous calendar year, gross, adding employment, business, investment and property income, pensions, social benefits, regular housing support and training grants, plus the imputation of financial assets.

A per-capita income of 12,353.99 EUR, which is 23 times the 537.13 EUR social support index. It is per person in the household rather than a household total, so a family of four can have up to roughly 49,415 EUR of combined annual income and still qualify. The wording of article 5(g) is «equal to or below», so being exactly at the limit still qualifies. There is a second, independent and less well known limit: article 5(h) excludes anyone whose household holds, at 31 December of the previous year, financial assets above 240 times the index, that is 128,911.20 EUR, however low the income.

If you were in bands 1, 2 or 3 of the child benefit at 31 May of the previous academic year and entered through the national or an institutional admissions competition, yes. Article 30-A awards, with no means test, a provisional grant of 2,955 EUR in band 1, 1,343 EUR in band 2 and 872 EUR in band 3, at 2026-2027 values. Two important caveats. The grant is provisional in the literal sense: the services verify the file within 30 working days and may change or cancel the amount, adjusting what has already been paid. And it does not replace the application, nor does it stop the ordinary calculation producing more: in a large household on a low income the general rule easily exceeds 2,955 EUR. It is worth comparing the two figures, which is what this calculator shows.

It does, and more than that, by construction. The tuition actually paid enters the reference grant under article 14(1), up to the maximum tuition for the first cycle of public higher education, which the Directorate-General for Higher Education sets at 697 EUR. And the floor in article 15(4) is 125 % of that tuition, that is 872 EUR, precisely so that no grant holder receives less than the tuition they have to pay. If your institution charges less than the maximum, it is the amount actually paid that counts in both places, which lowers both the reference and the floor. If it charges more, the excess does not count: the law caps that component at the maximum tuition.

You can, but living elsewhere is not enough and the bar is higher than it looks. Article 4(3) allows a single-person household for a student whose habitual residence is outside the household of origin, provided they evidence two things: that they support themselves independently, and that in the calendar year before the application they earned «income equal to or above six times the social support index», which in 2026 is about 3,223 EUR. There are express exceptions for orphans and for those whose only income is social benefits below that annual value. Article 4(4) automatically treats as single-person households, without that income minimum, students in institutional care, members of religious orders and those held in care, educational or detention centres.

It is, but you receive less. The normal window runs from 14 August to 2 October. According to the Directorate-General for Higher Education, an application can still be submitted between 3 October and 31 May, and in that case the grant is proportional to the period between the month after submission and the end of the teaching period or internship. In practice you lose roughly one twelfth for each month of delay. There are also specific rules for late enrolment: a student who enrols before 2 October always has 20 working days to submit the application even if that runs past the date, and a student who enrols after 30 September counts the same 20 working days from enrolment.

No, it is an estimate of the annual base grant under the rules of the Regulation, and there are three reasons it may differ. First, the decision rests with the social services of your institution, which verify declared income against the tax and social security authorities and may arrive at figures different from the ones you entered here. Second, this calculation excludes the accommodation, travel and transport supplements, which can add a great deal and depend on the municipality and your particular situation. Third, there are academic eligibility conditions, in articles 5 and 7 to 10, that decide entitlement regardless of income. Use this figure to orient yourself and always confirm with the social services.