Is the EFC still used anywhere?

You’ll still see the term in older articles, some state program descriptions, and conversations with people who went through the process before the change. Colleges that use the CSS Profile also compute their own institutional number, which is a separate calculation altogether. The federal formula, though, produces an SAI.

Is the SAI calculated the same way the EFC was?

The skeleton is familiar — income plus a share of assets, minus allowances — but the tables and rules were rewritten. The biggest practical differences: the negative floor, the end of the sibling-in-college division, and more generous automatic paths to Pell Grants for lower-income families.

Why does my old EFC estimate differ from this SAI?

Three usual reasons: the old calculator used retired tables, it divided the parent share by children in college, and it could not go below zero. If your family has more than one student enrolled, the difference can be significant — in either direction — so it’s worth re-estimating with current rules.

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EFC calculator — the number is now called SAI

If you’re searching for an EFC calculator, you’re one acronym behind — and that’s fine, most articles online are too. The Expected Family Contribution was retired and replaced by the Student Aid Index (SAI). The estimator below runs the current formula in your browser; nothing you type is stored.

This is an estimate, not a guarantee.

Parent finances

Parent income (AGI)Adjusted gross income from the 2024 tax return — the FAFSA uses income from two years before the aid year.Parent untaxed incomeParent federal income tax paidChild support receivedParent cash and savingsParent investmentsDo NOT include retirement accounts or the home you live in — they are not counted.Business or farm valueA family business with 100 or fewer full-time employees, or a farm your family lives on, is not reported for 2026–27 — enter 0 for those.

Student finances

Student income (AGI)Student untaxed incomeStudent federal income tax paidStudent cash and savingsStudent investments

Household

Household sizeFamily members in collegeState

What replaced the EFC

The FAFSA Simplification Act replaced the Expected Family Contribution with the Student Aid Index, starting with the 2024–25 FAFSA. The role is the same — an eligibility index that colleges subtract from their cost of attendance to size your need-based aid — but the name change came with real formula changes, so an old EFC estimate is not just mislabeled, it can be meaningfully wrong.

What actually changed in the math

Three differences matter most for families. The SAI can go as low as −1,500, where the EFC stopped at zero — a negative number signals the highest need. The old division of the parent contribution across siblings enrolled in college at the same time is gone from the federal formula. And Pell Grant eligibility is now tied more directly to income and family size, so some families see grant eligibility an EFC-era calculator would have missed.

Common questions

Is the EFC still used anywhere?: You’ll still see the term in older articles, some state program descriptions, and conversations with people who went through the process before the change. Colleges that use the CSS Profile also compute their own institutional number, which is a separate calculation altogether. The federal formula, though, produces an SAI.
Is the SAI calculated the same way the EFC was?: The skeleton is familiar — income plus a share of assets, minus allowances — but the tables and rules were rewritten. The biggest practical differences: the negative floor, the end of the sibling-in-college division, and more generous automatic paths to Pell Grants for lower-income families.
Why does my old EFC estimate differ from this SAI?: Three usual reasons: the old calculator used retired tables, it divided the parent share by children in college, and it could not go below zero. If your family has more than one student enrolled, the difference can be significant — in either direction — so it’s worth re-estimating with current rules.

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