The FAFSA's largest single grant, the Federal Pell Grant, maxes out at $7,395 for the 2026–27 award year — but Pell is only one of five channels the same form opens. The others are other federal grants, Federal Work-Study, federal student loans, and the state and college aid that most states and colleges award using FAFSA data.
Figures below are for the 2026–27 award year (July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027) and are quoted from Department of Education sources, listed at the end. Aid rules change by award year, so check the year before reusing a number.
For 2026–27 the maximum Federal Pell Grant is $7,395 and the minimum is $740. Those are not two unrelated figures: the minimum is defined as ten per cent of the maximum, rounded to the nearest $5, which is why it lands exactly a tenth of the way along the track below. Between the two sits a calculated award based on your Student Aid Index. The maximum has not moved from the previous award year.
The same submission is what a school uses to consider you for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (usually $100 to $4,000 a year, rising to $4,400 for a study-abroad term, from a limited pot the school allocates to its lowest-SAI Pell recipients first), for Federal Work-Study, and for Direct Subsidised and Unsubsidised Loans. Beyond the federal programmes, the official FAFSA form itself says that “most states and colleges use information from the FAFSA form to award nonfederal aid” — so one form is also the gate on your state's grant programmes and on your college's own institutional money.
The Department's own handbook splits Title IV aid in two. The need-based programmes are the Pell Grant, FSEOG, Federal Work-Study and the Direct Subsidised Loan. The non-need-based programmes are the Direct Unsubsidised Loan, Direct PLUS and the TEACH Grant — and a family income that rules out the first list does not rule out the second. It is also worth knowing that the Pell thresholds reach further up the income scale than most people assume: for 2026–27, a dependent student with married parents can qualify for the maximum Pell on adjusted gross income up to 175% of the poverty guideline for their family size and state, and for the minimum Pell up to 275%. The Student Aid Index itself can go as low as −1,500.
The Department's deadline notice sets one date: a 2026–27 FAFSA must reach the FAFSA Processing System by June 30, 2027. Almost nobody should aim at it. The state deadline table printed in the official 2026–27 FAFSA form lists dates more than a year earlier — Texas asks for priority consideration by January 15, 2026, and Missouri by February 2 — and twelve states in that table carry the phrase “awards made while funds exist,” which means the money can run out before any date they print. That table is also not one wave, and the differences are exactly the kind that cost people money: Indiana's Frank O'Bannon Grant and 21st Century Scholarship close on April 15, 2026 outright, while New Jersey gives renewal Tuition Aid Grant recipients until April 15, 2026 but new applicants until September 15, 2026. Filing before the federal deadline keeps your Pell Grant. Filing before whatever your own state's entry actually says is what keeps the rest — and you have to read the entry, not a summary of it.
Everything above is reached by a single form submitted once. Private scholarships are not in that set: each is its own application, with its own deadline and usually its own essay prompt, and no federal form applies to any of them. That is the gap this site works on — if you have already written one scholarship essay, ScholarDuck helps you adapt it to the next prompt rather than starting from a blank page each time. It has nothing to do with your FAFSA, and it will not increase your federal aid. File the FAFSA first; it is free, and it is the larger number.
$7,395, unchanged from the previous award year. The minimum is $740, which is ten per cent of the maximum rounded to the nearest $5. The award year runs July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027.
Usually yes. The Department classifies the Direct Unsubsidised Loan, Direct PLUS Loan and TEACH Grant as non-need-based, so income does not rule them out. Separately, the official FAFSA form states that most states and colleges use FAFSA information to award their own nonfederal aid, so skipping the form can cost you state and institutional money that was never means-tested the same way.
The federal deadline is June 30, 2027. State deadlines in the table printed on the official form run far earlier — some as early as January 15, 2026 — and twelve states say awards are made while funds exist, so the state date is often the one that decides how much you actually get. Those state dates are spread right across the year rather than clustered at the start, and several states set different dates for renewal and first-time applicants, so look up your own state's entry rather than trusting a single headline date.
No. The FAFSA covers federal aid and is used by most states and colleges for their own aid, but private and outside scholarships are separate applications, each with its own deadline and usually its own essay.
It is a range, not a switch. For 2026–27 a dependent student with married parents can receive the maximum Pell on adjusted gross income up to 175% of the poverty guideline for their family size and state, and the minimum Pell up to 275%; single-parent thresholds are 225% and 325%. Amounts between the floor and the ceiling are calculated from the Student Aid Index, which can be as low as −1,500.