Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Calculator
Pell Grants stop at 600.000% of Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU), which is six scheduled awards. At 533.000%, you have 1.34 full-time semesters left.
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Your Pell Grant lifetime eligibility
Lifetime Eligibility Used
533.000%
Left (% of a Scheduled Award)
67.000%
Regular Award
$4,954.65
With 533.000% of Lifetime Eligibility Used, you have 67.000% of one scheduled award left before the 600.000% limit, which is 1.34 full-time semesters.
On a $7,395.00 scheduled award, that limits your next award to $4,954.65 (67.000% of it), or $4,954.00 if your school pays whole dollars.
Year-Round Pell cannot add to that, because no more than one scheduled award is left.
That award would be your last, because it uses all 67.000% that is left.
Your Pell Grant history
- Year 6: $2,440.35 ÷ $7,395.00 × 100 = 33.000%
- Years 1 to 6 add up to 533.000%
- left = 600.000% − 533.000% = 67.000%
- semesters left = 67.000% ÷ 50.000% = 1.34
- Year-Round Pell maximum = $7,395.00 × 67.000% = $4,954.65
- regular award = $7,395.00 × 67.000%, rounded down = $4,954.65
Award by LEU
Lifetime Eligibility Used by Award Year
| Award year | Pell Grant received | Scheduled award | Added this year (%) | Running total (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | 100.000 | 100.000 |
| Year 2 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | 100.000 | 200.000 |
| Year 3 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | 100.000 | 300.000 |
| Year 4 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | 100.000 | 400.000 |
| Year 5 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | 100.000 | 500.000 |
| Year 6 | $2,440.35 | $7,395.00 | 33.000 | 533.000 |
The 6 award years add up to 533.000%: 5 were full awards at 100.000%, and the other year added 33.000% together.
Your Next Award Years at Full-Time Enrollment
| Next award year | Regular award | LEU after it (%) | Left after it (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $4,954.65 | 600.000 | 0.000 |
One more award year uses the 67.000% you have left. Each row assumes full-time enrollment and the same scheduled award.
Your Award at Different LEU Levels
| Lifetime Eligibility Used (%) | Left (%) | Regular award | Year-Round Pell maximum | Handbook flag |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300.000 | 300.000 | $7,395.00 | $11,092.50 | N |
| 400.000 | 200.000 | $7,395.00 | $11,092.50 | not assigned |
| 450.000 | 150.000 | $7,395.00 | $11,092.50 | H |
| 500.000 | 100.000 | $7,395.00 | $7,395.00 | H |
| 525.000 | 75.000 | $5,546.25 | $5,546.25 | C |
| 533.000yours Your LEU | 67.000 | $4,954.65 | $4,954.65 | C |
| 550.000 | 50.000 | $3,697.50 | $3,697.50 | C |
| 575.000 | 25.000 | $1,848.75 | $1,848.75 | C |
| 600.000 | 0.000 | $0.00 | $0.00 | E |
At your 533.000%, the Handbook flag is C and the regular award and the Year-Round Pell maximum are the same $4,954.65. The regular award stays at $7,395.00 up to 500.000%, and the Year-Round Pell maximum stays at $11,092.50 up to 450.000%.
How Lifetime Eligibility Used works
Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) is the running total of the Pell Grants you have received. The Department of Education keeps it in its Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) system. Each award year adds the share of that year's scheduled award that you were paid. A scheduled award is the Pell Grant a full-time student would get for a full year. The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says “one Scheduled Award equals 100% LEU”. Six scheduled awards therefore make 600%, the limit in 34 CFR 690.6(e). The same chapter says the count “includes all grants disbursed since the beginning of the program (1973-74)”.
The statute counts semesters. 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(A) limits Pell Grants to “12 semesters, or the equivalent of 12 semesters”, and a term taken at a fraction of full time counts as that fraction. Twelve semesters equal six scheduled awards, so a full-time semester uses 50% of LEU. LEU is out of 600, not 100. A student at 533.000% has used 88.833% of the lifetime total, which is 5.33 scheduled awards.
The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says “COD calculates a student’s LEU to three decimal places”. It does not say how COD rounds. This page rounds each year's share to the nearest thousandth of a percent, then adds the rounded shares, so every table row adds across and down exactly.
When less than one scheduled award is left, the award is the scheduled award times the share left. The Handbook's example has the school “subtract 533% from 600%, leaving the student with 67% of a Scheduled Award remaining”. This page rounds an award down to the cent, because the Handbook says “you may not round up if that would cause the student to exceed either the Scheduled Award or 600% LEU”.
What the N, H, C and E flags mean
The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, sorts students into four groups, and your Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR) carries the code. Code N is for “LEU of less than 400%”, where even a full scheduled award cannot pass the limit. Code H is for “LEU greater than 400% but less than or equal to 500%”, where a full award is likely. Code C is for “LEU greater than 500% but less than 600%”, where less than one scheduled award is left. Code E is for “LEU 600% or higher”, where no Pell eligibility remains.
The bands skip one value. N stops below 400% and H starts above it, so exactly 400.000% has no code. This page says so instead of choosing a code for you.
The same page describes a reduced award for “an LEU greater than 450% but less than 600%”. A regular award is not reduced until LEU passes 500.000%, so that sentence does not fit a regular year. It does fit Year-Round Pell, where a year can hold 150% of a scheduled award: 600% minus 150% is 450%. The Handbook's weekly report for schools lists students with a “Pell LEU greater than or equal to 450%”, which fits that cut-off. The Handbook does not name Year-Round Pell in the 450% sentence, so this is our reading. The levels table and chart above show both cut-offs.
Video walkthrough
A 3½-minute walkthrough of how Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used is added up, how much of the lifetime limit is left, and how the award falls as you near it.
Read the transcript
How much Pell Grant is left
0:00 How many Pell Grant semesters do you have left?
0:03 On the page's example, your lifetime eligibility used is 533%, against a limit of 600%.
0:11 That leaves 67% of a scheduled award, or about 1.3 full-time semesters.
0:17 The page adds up the Pell Grant you received in each award year, and compares each year with that year's scheduled award.
Adding up your award years
0:24 Each award year adds a share of a scheduled award.
0:28 The Handbook counts a full scheduled award as 100% of lifetime eligibility used.
0:34 For each year, divide the Pell Grant you received by that year's scheduled award.
0:38 A year paid in full adds 100 percent.
0:41 In the example, the full years add up to 500 percent.
0:45 The last year paid only 33 percent of a scheduled award.
0:49 Together, that is 533 percent.
The lifetime limit
0:53 Pell Grants stop at 6 scheduled awards.
0:56 That is 600% of lifetime eligibility used, and you cannot receive more.
1:01 Take 533% away from the limit of 600%, and 67% is left.
1:08 Pell Grants are also counted in semesters, so each full-time semester uses 50%.
1:14 Divide what is left by that, and you get about 1.3 full-time semesters.
1:19 Part-time terms count too.
1:21 A term taken at a fraction of full time uses only that fraction of a semester.
1:26 At half time, a term uses 25%.
Your award in the last year
1:30 Your last award is the scheduled award times the share you have left.
1:34 With the maximum scheduled award, $7,395 times 67% gives about $4,950.
1:44 A school that pays whole dollars rounds down, never up, to $4,954.
1:50 Rounding up could put you over the limit.
Where the award starts to fall
1:52 Now try a lower level of lifetime eligibility used, about 412%.
1:58 The regular award is still the full $7,395.
2:03 Year-Round Pell lets one year hold more than one scheduled award.
2:08 So the chart draws a line for each award, and at your level the Year-Round line is higher: the regular award is $7,395, and the Year-Round Pell maximum is about $11,100.
2:21 The Year-Round line starts to fall after 450%.
2:26 At 500% it comes down to the regular award, which starts to fall there, and both run together to zero at 600%.
2:34 The levels table lists the steps.
2:36 By 500 percent, the Year-Round maximum has fallen to the regular award, $7,395.
2:44 At 525 percent, both are down to about $5,500.
Try your own numbers
2:51 To try your own numbers, enter the Pell Grant you received each year, oldest first, and the scheduled award for each one.
2:58 If you already know your percentage, switch the form to start from it, and type it.
3:02 So remember: each year adds a share of a scheduled award, and the total stops at 600%.
3:08 Confirm your own percentage on your FAFSA Submission Summary, and try your numbers at fastcalc.us.
Lifetime Eligibility Used formulas
LEU for one year = Pell Grant received ÷ scheduled award × 100, to three decimals LEU = the sum of the years; left = 600% − LEU (never below 0%) semesters left = left ÷ 50% (12 semesters = 600%; 34 CFR 690.6(e), 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)) regular award = scheduled award × min(left, 100%), rounded down to the cent Year-Round Pell maximum = scheduled award × min(left, 150%), rounded down to the cent
Worked examples
The Handbook's own case: a student with 533% LEU has 600% − 533% = 67% of a scheduled award left, which is 67 ÷ 50 = 1.34 full-time semesters. The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, uses a $7,455.00 scheduled award: “your school multiplies $7,455 by 0.67, which equals $4,994.85”. A school that pays whole dollars truncates it to $4,994.00.
Handbook Example 1: a full-time student with a $7,500.00 scheduled award and 599.500% LEU is “eligible for the remaining 0.500% which is $37.50”. A school that pays whole dollars pays $37.00, because $38 would pass the limit.
The defaults: five awards of $7,395.00 on a $7,395.00 scheduled award add 500.000%, and a sixth year paid $2,440.35 adds 33.000%. The total is 533.000%, the same 533% as the Handbook's case.
Check your FAFSA Submission Summary and ISIR
The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says the FAFSA Processing System “reports the Pell Grant LEU limit flags and percentages on FAFSA Submission Summaries and ISIRs”. It adds that LEU is visible in NSLDS, and that your school can see it in the COD system.
Federal Register 2026-10013 says the Summary's comments give approximate usage “at 50 percent intervals”. Its example for a student between 100 and 150 percent says the limit is “the equivalent of six school years” and that you have received Pell Grants for “between one and one and one-half years”. Use the exact percentage from your ISIR or NSLDS when you have it, and enter it under “I know my LEU percentage”.
The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says your LEU changes whenever you receive a Pell Grant disbursement and may change whenever a scheduled award is adjusted, up or down. A figure from an old ISIR can therefore be out of date.
Year-Round, part-time, Workforce and restored Pell Grants
Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-01 says a student “may be eligible to receive Pell Grant funds for up to 150% of the student’s Pell Grant scheduled award for an award year”. The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 5 page, adds that such students “are subject to the normal duration of eligibility rules and LEU limits”. A year at 150% adds 150.000%, so four such years reach 600%, two years sooner than six regular ones. What is left, not the 150%, sets your most: at 533.000% used, Year-Round Pell adds nothing to your regular award. Year-Round Pell does not raise the amount paid in each term, so reaching 150% takes extra terms that you enroll in.
Part-time years use less. A year paid $3,697.50 on a $7,395.00 scheduled award adds 50.000%, which matches 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(A), where only the same fraction of a semester counts. Twelve such half-time years would use the 600%.
Workforce Pell Grants count too. 20 U.S.C. 1070a(k)(5), added by Pub. L. 119-21 for award years from July 1, 2026, says a period of study covered by one “shall be included in determining a student’s duration limit under subsection (d)(5)”. Add its amount as another award year.
Some Pell Grants do not count. 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(B) leaves out a Pell Grant paid for a period at a school that closed before you finished. It also leaves out a period of false certification and a period covered by a loan that was later discharged. The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says neither restoration process “requires student intervention”.
Before 2024-25, the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant was tracked on its own. The same Handbook page says each recipient's percentage was combined with the Pell Grant percentage in spring 2024. If that applies to you, enter the combined figure under “I know my LEU percentage”.
The last award: rounding and tiny balances
The FSA Handbook, Volume 7, Chapter 8 page, says there is “no de minimis award amount for purposes of determining a student’s award because of the 600% LEU limitation”. At 599.999% used, 0.001% is left, and a $7,395.00 scheduled award still pays $0.07.
Rounding goes down at the limit. When a school pays whole dollars, the Handbook has it truncate the amount, so a balance that would pay $4,994.85 pays $4,994.00, not $4,995.00. This page shows the cents amount and the whole-dollar amount.
Assumptions and what this page leaves out
- Rounding: COD uses three decimals, and the Handbook does not say how it rounds. This page rounds each year's share half up to the nearest thousandth of a percent. It rounds an award down to the cent, never up, because rounding up could pass 600%. Your school may round differently when it pays whole dollars.
- Readings of the sources: this page prints the Handbook's flags as written, including the gap at exactly 400%. It reads the “greater than 450%” sentence as describing Year-Round Pell, and it shows both the regular award and the Year-Round Pell maximum.
- The next-award-year rows assume full-time enrollment and the same scheduled award each year. Your scheduled award changes with the yearly maximum and your Student Aid Index. Your cost of attendance can limit it too. Your school's financial aid office can tell you your scheduled award.
- Not modeled: Pell Grants under the Special Rule in Higher Education Act (HEA) section 401(c), for dependents of certain deceased servicemembers and public safety officers. Restorations and disputes are not modeled either, so enter the corrected percentage. The same goes for the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant conversion, where you enter the combined percentage.
- Also not modeled: the end of eligibility when non-federal grants and scholarships meet or pass your cost of attendance.
- Limits on the inputs are this page's own choices, not limits from the sources: up to 40 award years, amounts up to $1,000,000.00, and a known LEU up to 2,000%. The official LEU is the one in COD, and your school and the Department of Education decide your eligibility.
These figures are estimates for learning and planning, not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Terms of use.
What to do with your Pell Grant balance
Get your exact LEU before you plan. Find it on your ISIR or in NSLDS, then enter it under “I know my LEU percentage”. At 450.000% or less, you can still receive the full $7,395.00, and with Year-Round Pell up to $11,092.50 if you enroll in the extra terms and your school awards them. Past 500.000%, a regular award starts to fall.
Plan by semester. With 67.000% left, one full-time semester pays $3,697.50 and uses 50.000%. The 17.000% after it pays $1,257.15. To set that against a paid job, the hourly wage calculator turns a rate and hours into pay.
See the size of the gap. A full award is $7,395.00 and yours is $4,954.65, so next year's award is $2,440.35 smaller. The take-home pay calculator and the federal income tax calculator show what work income looks like after tax. The earned income credit calculator shows a tax credit that applies to some workers.
Look ahead to the end of Pell. Once the limit is reached, a $7,395.00 award is $0.00. The emergency fund calculator sizes a cushion for costs that change. If your pay changes, the pay raise calculator shows what a raise adds.
Pell Grant lifetime limit questions
How many semesters of Pell Grant can I get?
You can get 12 full-time semesters, or their equivalent, under 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(A). At 300.000% used, half of that is gone, so 6.00 semesters are left.
What does 600% Pell Grant lifetime eligibility mean?
It means six scheduled awards, because one scheduled award counts as 100%. LEU is not a share of the total. At 300.000% you have used 3.00 scheduled awards, which is 50.000% of the 600.000% total.
Where do I find my Pell Grant LEU?
Look on your FAFSA Submission Summary, your ISIR or NSLDS. The summary's comments are approximate, in steps of 50 percent, so a figure like 412.250% comes from the ISIR or NSLDS. Enter it under “I know my LEU percentage” to see 187.750% and 3.76 semesters left.
How is my last Pell Grant calculated when I am near the limit?
Your school subtracts your LEU from 600% and multiplies your scheduled award by what is left. At 525.000%, that is $7,395.00 × 75.000% = $5,546.25.
Does going part time save Pell Grant eligibility?
Yes, but it also pays less. Only the same fraction of a semester counts for a term taken at a fraction of full time, under 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(A). A year paid $1,848.75 on a $7,395.00 scheduled award adds 25.000%, a quarter of what a full-time year adds. A part-time year also pays a smaller award, so the saved eligibility comes with less money in that year.
Does Year-Round Pell use up my lifetime limit faster?
Yes. A year can hold up to 150% of a scheduled award, and it counts against the same 600% limit. Two such years use 300.000%, as much as three regular years.
Can Pell Grant eligibility be restored after I reach the limit?
Sometimes. If the Department restores 100.000% to a student at 560.000%, LEU falls to 460.000% and 140.000% is left again. The Department adjusts your LEU itself, and 20 U.S.C. 1070a(d)(5)(B) lists the Pell Grants that do not count.
Sources
- FSA Handbook, 2026-27 Volume 7 Chapter 8: Pell Grant Lifetime Eligibility Used (LEU) (page modified Aug 26, 2026)
- FSA Handbook, 2026-27 Volume 7 Chapter 5: Summer Terms, Crossover Payment Periods, and Year-Round Pell (page modified Jul 29, 2026)
- FSA Handbook, 2026-27 Volume 7 Chapter 6: Transfer Students and Remaining Eligibility (page modified Jul 29, 2026)
- Dear Colleague Letter GEN-26-01, 2026-27 Federal Pell Grant Maximum and Minimum Award Amounts (page modified Feb 18, 2026)
- 20 U.S.C. 1070a, Federal Pell Grants: amount and determinations (Cornell LII text) (current version)
- 34 CFR 690.6, duration of student eligibility (Cornell LII text) (current version)
- Federal Register 2026-10013, Accountability in Higher Education and Access Through Demand-Driven Workforce Pell (form dated May 19, 2026)
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