Pell Grant eligibility comes down to four things. You must be an undergraduate without a bachelor’s or professional degree, you must file the FAFSA, your financial need must be high enough, and you must have Pell eligibility left on your lifetime limit. For the 2026-27 award year, the maximum Pell Grant is $7,395 and the minimum is $740. Pell is a grant, so you do not repay it.
Several of these rules changed on July 1, 2026, under the reconciliation law signed July 4, 2025 (Public Law 119-21). Anything you read about Pell from before 2026 may be out of date.
Current Pell Grant amounts
The Department announced the 2026-27 figures in Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-01. The letter notes that the maximum “remains fixed at $7,395” and could change if Congress acts.
| Award year | Maximum Pell | Minimum Pell | SAI at which Pell ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 (July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027) | $7,395 | $740 | $14,790 or higher |
| 2027-28 (school starting fall 2027) | Not yet announced | Not yet announced | Twice the 2027-28 maximum |
As of November 2026 the 2027-28 maximum had not been published. Do not plan around a figure you see quoted elsewhere until the Department confirms it. The Department sets the figure through a Dear Colleague Letter like GEN-26-01 once Congress has finished appropriations.
Basic Pell Grant eligibility rules
The FSA Handbook’s Pell eligibility chapter sets out who can receive a Pell Grant:
- Undergraduate enrollment. You generally must be in an undergraduate program at an eligible school. “A student who has earned a graduate or professional degree is ineligible to receive a Pell Grant.”
- No bachelor’s degree, with exceptions. A bachelor’s degree normally ends Pell. One exception is a student enrolled at least half time in an eligible postbaccalaureate program for initial teacher certification or licensure.
- Financial need, measured by the FAFSA. Your Student Aid Index (SAI) and your family’s income compared with the poverty guideline decide whether you qualify and for how much.
- General federal aid eligibility. This includes being a US citizen or eligible noncitizen and keeping satisfactory academic progress at your school.
Students in an eligible Prison Education Program can also receive Pell. The revised Second Chance Pell experiment ended June 30, 2026, according to the same handbook chapter.
How your Pell amount is calculated
There are three paths to an award, according to the handbook’s Pell calculation chapter:
- Maximum Pell by income. A dependent student gets the maximum when the parents are not required to file a federal tax return. A student also qualifies when the family’s adjusted gross income is at or below 175% of the poverty guideline with two parents, or 225% with a single parent. Independent students have parallel tests.
- Minimum Pell by income. For dependent students the thresholds are 275% of the poverty guideline with two parents and 325% with a single parent. Independent students have higher thresholds, for example 400% for a single parent.
- Calculated Pell. Everyone else gets the maximum Pell minus their SAI, rounded to the nearest $5, capped at the student’s Pell cost of attendance. A result below the minimum is not paid as a calculated award.
The poverty guideline used is the one for the tax year the FAFSA asks about, 2024 for the 2026-27 form. Part-time students in term-based programs receive less than the full-time Scheduled Award. Our Student Aid Index guide explains how the SAI itself is calculated.
What changed on July 1, 2026
The 2025 law added three Pell rules. Each one is confirmed in Department guidance.
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1. The SAI ceiling
Public Law 119-21 “prohibits an applicant whose SAI is equal to or greater than twice the maximum Pell Grant amount for the award year from receiving a Pell Grant.” For 2026-27, that threshold is $14,790. The rule does not apply to Special Rule students, who are dependents of certain servicemembers and public safety officers who died in the line of duty. Sources: GEN-26-01 and Electronic Announcement APP-25-23. A calculated award is already zero long before an SAI reaches $14,790. The ceiling matters for students who would otherwise qualify for Pell through the income tests even though their SAI is high, for example because the family has significant assets.
2. Non-federal aid that covers your full cost
Students whose grants and scholarships from non-federal sources cover their entire cost of attendance are no longer eligible for Pell. Those sources include the college, the state and private sponsors. The provision is effective for award years beginning on or after July 1, 2026, according to Electronic Announcement GENERAL-26-32. If you win a full-ride scholarship, expect your school to adjust your Pell.
3. Workforce Pell
Starting July 1, 2026, students in eligible short-term workforce programs can receive Pell, even if they already hold a bachelor’s degree. They cannot hold, or be enrolled in a program leading to, a graduate credential, according to the FSA Handbook. Schools could begin applying for Department approval of workforce programs on July 1, 2026, according to GENERAL-26-32. Ask the school directly whether a specific program has been approved, because the school, not the student, flags it on the FAFSA record.
The same law also adds excluded foreign earned income back into adjusted gross income when testing Pell eligibility, according to APP-25-23.
The lifetime limit that surprises students
You can receive Pell for the equivalent of six full-time years. The handbook measures this as Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU). The cap is 600%, equal to six Scheduled Awards, where one full-time year is 100%, according to the FSA Handbook’s LEU chapter. The Pell DCL describes the same cap as 12 semesters or the equivalent.
- At or above 600%, you cannot receive further Pell.
- Between 500% and 600%, you get a reduced award based on what remains.
- Part-time terms use up a proportionally smaller share.
- The limit dates from the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2012.
Students who changed majors, transferred, or stopped and restarted are the ones who hit this limit. If you are an adult learner going back to school, ask your aid office for your current LEU percentage before you plan your remaining terms.
How to apply
There is no separate Pell application. You apply by filing the FAFSA for the award year you will attend, which is the 2027-28 form for school starting in fall 2027. Our step-by-step guide to filling out the FAFSA covers each section. If a family situation has changed since the tax year the FAFSA uses, a professional judgment review can sometimes adjust the inputs; see our financial aid appeal guide.
Pell is often the foundation of an aid package, and state grants and scholarships stack on top. To find outside awards, use our scholarship finder. Keep in mind that awards covering your entire cost of attendance now affect Pell.
For 2026-27, if your FAFSA Submission Summary shows an SAI of $14,790 or more and you are not a Special Rule student, you will not receive a Pell Grant that year. An SAI of $6,655 or less, which is the $7,395 maximum minus the $740 minimum, generally points to at least a minimum award for a full-time student.
Sources
- Federal Student Aid, Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-01: 2026-27 Federal Pell Grant Maximum and Minimum Award Amounts
- Federal Student Aid, Electronic Announcement GENERAL-26-32: Effective Dates for Workforce Pell and Federal Pell Grant Ineligibility Provisions
- Federal Student Aid, Electronic Announcement APP-25-23: 2026-27 FAFSA Form and Pell Grant Eligibility Updates
- Federal Student Aid, 2026-27 FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 1: Student Eligibility for Pell Grants
- Federal Student Aid, 2026-27 FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 2: Calculating Pell Grants
- Federal Student Aid, 2026-27 FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8: Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used