ACA premium tax credit calculator 2026 — free, no email required.

Forget the IRS Publication 974 wording for a minute. The premium tax credit is the government's way of saying: "You shouldn't have to pay more than X% of your income for a basic health plan. If the plan in your county costs more than X% of your income, we'll pay the difference."

The "basic plan" is defined as the second-lowest-cost Silver plan in your county (the "benchmark"). The "X%" slides from 0% to 8.5% depending on where you fall on the Federal Poverty Level. Below 150% FPL, X = 0% — meaning the government picks up the entire benchmark Silver premium. Above 400% FPL, X is capped at 8.5%.

Once the dollar amount of the credit is calculated, you can apply it to any Marketplace plan you want — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. If your chosen plan costs less than the benchmark, you pay less than your "expected contribution." If it costs more, you pay the difference. The dollar credit doesn't change.

The credit is refundable. That means it's not capped by your tax liability — you get the full amount even if you owe no taxes. You can take it monthly (as APTC) or claim the whole thing at tax time on Form 8962. Most people take APTC.

Here's the canonical example we walk people through on the phone. Take a 50-year-old single filer in Travis County, TX, projecting $60,000 in 2026 modified AGI.

The $335 monthly credit applies to any Marketplace plan in Travis County. If our 50-year-old picks a Bronze plan at $410/month, they pay $410 − $335 = $75/month. If they pick a Bronze plan at $325/month (which exists in Travis), the credit covers the full premium — $0/month, with $10 of credit "wasted" (the credit is capped at the plan's actual premium).

This is the math that makes most middle-income households qualify for a $0 Bronze plan. The pattern: find a plan that costs less than your county's benchmark Silver. In most counties, multiple Bronze plans and often the lowest-priced Silver come in below the benchmark.

Below 400% FPL the cap is lower — at 200% FPL, your expected contribution is just 2% of income (~$80/month on $48,000 income). At 150% FPL or below, it's 0%, which means the government pays the full benchmark Silver premium and nearly every Bronze in the county nets to $0/month.

1. Mid-year income change

The calculator uses one income number for the full year. Real life has raises, lost contracts, and seasonal swings. If your actual 2026 income comes in 20% higher than you projected, the IRS will reconcile on Form 8962 and you may owe part of the advance subsidy back, subject to repayment caps based on income.

The fix: report income changes to the Marketplace within 30 days. They'll re-run the calculation and adjust your APTC for the remaining months, smoothing out the reconciliation at tax time.

2. The family-glitch fix may apply

Until 2023, a worker with "affordable" self-only employer coverage made their entire family ineligible for Marketplace subsidies — even if family coverage cost thousands. The Treasury fix in late 2022 separated those tests. Now, if employer self-only is affordable but family coverage exceeds 9.02% of household income, the spouse and kids may qualify for Marketplace subsidies independently.

Standard calculators ask whether you have an employer offer but often don't probe family-coverage affordability separately. See: how the ACA family glitch fix works.

3. SEP timing

If you're enrolling outside Open Enrollment (Nov 1 – Jan 15 in most states), you need a Special Enrollment Period — a 60-day window triggered by a qualifying life event like job loss, marriage, new baby, or losing other coverage. SEP enrollments start coverage the first of the next month in most cases (sometimes retroactive), which can affect how many months of APTC you draw and how it reconciles.

Calculators assume a 12-month enrollment. If you start in July, your annual subsidy total is roughly half what the calculator estimates for the full year.