Federal Student Loan Cap Calculator (2026)
Since July 1, 2026, federal law caps how much graduate students, professional students, and parents can borrow from the federal government for school — amounts that used to be available up to the full cost of attendance through PLUS loans. Grad PLUS is gone for new borrowers. Graduate students now get $20,500/year ($100,000 aggregate), professional students $50,000/year ($200,000 shared pool), Parent PLUS $20,000/year ($65,000 per student), and everyone faces a $257,500 lifetime cap. Enter your program's numbers to see your year-by-year federal borrowing capacity, exactly which cap binds each year, and the resulting funding gap — computed straight from the statute (20 U.S.C. §1087e(a)) and ED's final rule, with citations. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
For general information only — not financial aid, legal, or borrowing advice. This calculator presents the federal caps and the arithmetic gap between program cost and available federal borrowing; it does not recommend borrowing any amount or any funding source. Figures are statutory (not inflation-indexed). Your school may set lower program-wide limits (34 CFR 685.203(m)(2)), less-than-full-time enrollment prorates the annual amounts, and no federal loan can ever exceed cost of attendance minus other aid. Confirm your own numbers with your financial aid office and your servicer (StudentAid.gov shows your loan history).
The myth-bust: two different kinds of "cap"
What people assume: "the $100,000 graduate cap is a lifetime limit," and "Parent PLUS escaped the new caps."
What's actually true: the $100,000/$200,000 graduate and professional aggregates are restorable pools — undergraduate loans don't count against them, old Grad PLUS balances don't count against them, and ED's final rule says a borrower at the limit can borrow again once loans "are repaid, whether in full or in part." The $257,500 lifetime cap is the opposite kind of number: a true odometer that counts every federal loan you ever borrowed for your own education, "without regard to any amounts repaid, forgiven, canceled, or otherwise discharged." And Parent PLUS didn't escape anything — it's excluded from the $257,500 but got its own caps: $20,000/year and $65,000 total per dependent student, combined across all parents, also counted without regard to repayment. Mixing up which caps restore and which don't is the most consequential mistake you can make when planning around these rules — it's why this calculator asks for outstanding principal for the pool but ever-borrowed totals for the lifetime and Parent PLUS caps.
How the July 1, 2026 borrowing caps work
P.L. 119-21 §81001 (enacted July 4, 2025 — the same law this site's 2025-tax-law calculators cover, widely known as OBBBA; the Department of Education now styles it the "Working Families Tax Cuts Act") rewrote 20 U.S.C. §1087e(a) for periods of enrollment beginning on or after July 1, 2026, implemented by ED's RISE final rule (91 FR 23768). Four separate limits now stack, and every federal loan is additionally capped at cost of attendance minus other financial assistance:
- Annual caps: $20,500 per academic year for graduate students, $50,000 for professional students (Direct Unsubsidized only — Grad PLUS ended; graduate subsidized loans ended back in 2012). Parent PLUS: $20,000 per academic year per dependent student, all parents combined.
- The $100,000 / $200,000 pool: a graduate student who has never been a professional student gets a $100,000 aggregate; everyone else draws on one shared $200,000 graduate + professional pool. Undergraduate loans and old Grad PLUS balances are excluded, and repayment — full or partial — restores room.
- The $257,500 lifetime cap: all federal loans ever borrowed for your own education (Direct + FFEL, subsidized + unsubsidized, undergraduate + graduate + professional, including old Grad PLUS), never restored by repayment or forgiveness. Parent PLUS loans borrowed on your behalf, the consolidation-loan shell, and HEAL/health-professions loans are excluded.
- The $65,000 Parent PLUS aggregate: per dependent student, across all parents, never restored by repayment.
The legacy ("grandfather") exception: a borrower enrolled in a program as of June 30, 2026, for which any Direct Loan was made before July 1, 2026, keeps the old rules — including Grad PLUS and Parent PLUS up to cost of attendance — for the lesser of 3 academic years or the remaining program length (the clock runs from July 1, 2026, so never past roughly June 30, 2029). While it lasts it switches off all the new limits, including the $257,500; withdrawing or ceasing enrollment cancels it. Exception-era unsubsidized borrowing still counts against the new pool afterwards, and everything counts against the lifetime cap.
Undergraduates' own limits didn't change: dependent undergraduates still get $5,500/$6,500/$7,500 per year ($31,000 aggregate); independent undergraduates $9,500/$10,500/$12,500 ($57,500). Only the parent side changed.
See the full table → — every 2026 annual and aggregate cap in one sortable reference you can cite or embed.
"Graduate" vs. "professional" is in federal court right now
Which set of caps you get turns on whether your program awards a "professional degree" — and that definition is mid-litigation. ED's RISE rule defined it narrowly (doctoral level, ~6+ academic years, licensure, 11 listed fields). On June 24, 2026, Judge Beryl Howell (D.D.C.) preliminarily stayed that definition in consolidated challenges brought by a nursing coalition and 25 states + D.C. During the stay, ED's interim guidance (FSA Electronic Announcement, updated July 10, 2026) recognizes 29 programs as professional-degree programs — the stayed rule's 11 fields plus MSN and DNP nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, audiology, speech-language pathology, athletic training, anesthesiologist assistant, and additional psychology specializations. This can change while the case proceeds — an appeal, final judgment, or revised rule could move programs between the $50,000/$200,000 and $20,500/$100,000 tiers. This calculator therefore never classifies your program: you select your status, and professional-mode results carry a date-stamped caveat. Check ED's current list and confirm with your financial aid office. (Page last reviewed: July 12, 2026.)
A worked example: the four-year M.D. funding gap
A medical student starting in fall 2026 at a school with an $85,000 annual cost of attendance and no grant aid has $340,000 of program cost. As a professional student she can borrow $50,000 per year — the annual cap binds in each of the four years — and her cumulative borrowing reaches the shared $200,000 pool exactly at the end of year four. Federal loans cover $200,000 of the $340,000: a $140,000 funding gap that, before July 1, 2026, Grad PLUS would have covered up to the full cost of attendance. Under the old rules that remain available to grandfathered students, the same four years would have carried no gap at all.
Compare a two-year master's student at $45,000 per year with $5,000 in scholarships: the $20,500 annual cap binds both years, so federal loans cover $41,000 of the $80,000 net cost — a $39,000 gap. And a part-way case: a student one year into a five-year doctoral program who qualifies for the legacy exception keeps full-cost borrowing for the first three remaining years, then drops to $20,500 in year four — the exception's three years of unsubsidized borrowing ($61,500) having already consumed most of the $100,000 pool.
Where the gap gets covered is outside this tool's scope. Students in this position typically look at institutional aid, outside scholarships, assistantships, employer education benefits, savings, or private/institutional loans. Those options differ enormously in cost and protections, and this calculator doesn't evaluate or recommend any of them — it only computes the federal arithmetic.
Common questions
Is the $100,000 graduate cap a lifetime limit? No — it's a graduate-level aggregate. Undergraduate loans don't count against it, old Grad PLUS balances don't count against it, and paying it down frees up room. The only true lifetime number is $257,500 — and that one never resets, even after repayment or forgiveness.
Did Parent PLUS escape the new caps? It escaped the $257,500, but got its own: $20,000/year and $65,000 total per child — combined across both parents — and repaying doesn't restore it.
I'm already in grad school, so nothing changes for me, right? Only if you were enrolled in your program on June 30, 2026 and a Direct Loan was already made for that program. Then the old rules follow you for up to 3 more academic years (or until your program ends, if sooner) — but withdrawing cancels the protection.
Can med/law students still borrow whatever school costs? Not anymore (unless grandfathered): $50,000/year and $200,000 total — while many four-year professional programs cost well above that. The difference is the funding gap this tool computes.
My master's program counts as "professional," right? That exact question is in federal court. ED's interim list (July 10, 2026) recognizes 29 programs — including MSN/DNP nursing, PT, OT, and PA — but the list can change while the litigation runs. Check with your aid office.
Do graduate and professional students each get their own pool? No — they share one $200,000 pool; borrowing in one status shrinks the other.
Does my school have to lend me the full capped amount? No. Schools may set lower, consistently-applied program-wide limits, no loan can exceed cost of attendance minus other aid, and less-than-full-time enrollment prorates the annual amounts.
Is anything saved or uploaded? No. The calculator is fully client-side — your numbers never leave your browser.
Sources: 20 U.S.C. §1087e(a) (HEA §455(a), as amended by P.L. 119-21 §81001) — all caps, the shared pool, the "without regard to any amounts repaid" odometer language, and the interim exception, verbatim; ED RISE final rule, 91 FR 23768 (May 1, 2026) — 34 CFR 685.102/685.203 regulatory text plus the preamble's restorable-pool counting method; FSA Electronic Announcements: NSLDS eligibility processing (Apr 24, 2026, updated May 7, 2026 — lifetime-cap composition, per-student Parent PLUS) and the professional-degree program list under the court stay (Jun 29, 2026, updated Jul 10, 2026); CRS R48727 (undergraduate limits unchanged).