WIC Income Limits 2026–27 and Calculator: Who Qualifies and What You Get

You can likely get WIC if you are pregnant, had a baby in the last six months (up to a year if you breastfeed) or have a child under 5, and your household’s income is at or under WIC’s limit or you get SNAP, Medicaid or TANF. The limit, before taxes, is $4,212 a month for three people and $5,088 for four in the 48 states and DC, and WIC gives food, not cash.

Who can get WIC?

WIC is for five groups of people: pregnant women, women in the six months after a pregnancy ends, breastfeeding women until the baby’s first birthday, babies under 1, and children from their first birthday until they turn 5. Those are the groups the federal rules define in 7 CFR 246.2. Anyone else, such as men, other women and children 5 or older, cannot get WIC. WIC is short for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children.

Being in one of those groups is the first of four tests, set out in 7 CFR 246.7. To get WIC, you also need to:

• live in the state where you apply (there is no rule about how long you have lived there);
• have household income at or under WIC’s limit, or get SNAP, Medicaid or TANF;
• be at nutritional risk: a health or diet need, which a health professional at the WIC clinic decides on.

The calculator checks the group and the income. It cannot check nutritional risk, which only the clinic can judge, so its “Likely” for WIC means likely if the clinic finds that need too.

Some states also limit WIC to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals and “qualified aliens”, the law’s term for some immigrants. The federal rule leaves that choice to each state, so ask your state’s WIC office if it matters to you.

How long does WIC last for each person?

Each person on WIC is approved for a set time, called a certification period, and then the clinic checks again. The periods in 7 CFR 246.7 are:

• Pregnant women: the whole pregnancy, and up to the end of the month the baby turns six weeks old (or the month the pregnancy ends).
• Mothers who are not breastfeeding: up to the end of the sixth month after the baby is born or the pregnancy ends.
• Breastfeeding mothers: about six months at a time. A state may keep you on until the end of the month your baby turns 1, or until you stop breastfeeding, if that comes first.
• Babies: about six months at a time. A state may approve a baby under 6 months old until the end of the month of the first birthday.
• Children: about six months at a time (a state may choose up to a year), ending on the last day of the month of the fifth birthday.

So a mother who is not breastfeeding can stay on WIC until six months after the birth, not a year, while her baby stays on. The calculator’s box “Had a baby in the last year” counts a mother as on WIC for the whole year. If you are not breastfeeding, expect six months.

What is the WIC income limit for my household?

The limit is 185% of the federal poverty guidelines for your household’s size, counted before taxes: $2,461 a month for one person, $3,337 for two, $4,212 for three and $5,088 for four in the 48 states and DC. USDA set these limits in a Federal Register notice, and they apply from July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027. The poverty guidelines are the yearly income lines the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sets for each household size.

A pregnant woman counts the baby (or babies) she is expecting. Anyone on SNAP, Medicaid or TANF meets the income rule.

Sources: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): 2026/2027 Income Eligibility Guidelines (91 FR 23050-23052, FR Doc. 2026-08323, 29 Apr 2026) (USDA Food and Nutrition Service (Federal Register notice)); The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (Economic Information Bulletin 304, June 2026) (USDA Economic Research Service). Checked October 31, 2026.

Your income can equal the limit and still pass: WIC asks for income at or below it. Gross income means income before taxes or anything else is taken out. WIC counts the gross cash income of everyone in your household, including:

• wages, salary, commissions and fees;
• net income from self-employment or a farm;
• Social Security, unemployment benefits and public assistance;
• pensions and retirement pay, including military and veterans’ payments;
• child support and alimony;
• dividends, interest and net rental income;
• regular money from people outside the household.

It does not count:

• help that is not cash, such as free housing;
• most loans;
• energy assistance payments (LIHEAP);
• federal student aid used for school costs such as tuition and fees;
• combat pay.

A state may also leave out the military’s housing allowance and its overseas cost-of-living allowance (7 CFR 246.7).

The office may look at your income over the past 12 months or at what you earn now, whichever better shows your situation. If a parent has lost a job, it may use the income since the job ended.

A state may use its own health care income guidelines instead of these limits, but they can be no higher than the table and no lower than the poverty line itself. So the table is the highest limit a state can use.

Your household, for WIC, is your family: people, related or not, who live together as one economic unit (one household that shares its money). People living in a homeless shelter or an institution are not all counted as one family (7 CFR 246.2).

Does a pregnancy count as an extra person for WIC?

Yes. If a pregnant woman’s household is over the limit for its size, WIC counts each baby she is expecting as another person. If the household then fits under the limit for the larger size, she meets the income rule (7 CFR 246.7). Twins count as two.

The office may use the same larger count for her family members who are in WIC’s groups, such as a toddler. You can also ask the office not to count the unborn baby: the rule says the state must let you.

The calculator adds one person for each pregnant woman in the household. If you are expecting twins or more, the office counts each baby, so your limit may be higher than the calculator shows.

Does SNAP, Medicaid or TANF qualify you for WIC?

They meet WIC’s income rule for you: WIC must accept you as income-eligible, without counting your income, if you show that one of these is true (7 CFR 246.7):

• you are approved for SNAP (food stamps);
• you are approved for Medicaid or TANF (cash help for families with children), or let in early while your application is finished, which is called presumptive eligibility;
• someone in your family is approved for TANF;
• a pregnant woman or a baby in your family is approved for Medicaid.

This is called adjunctive eligibility. You must bring proof that you get the program. You still need to be in one of WIC’s groups and to have a nutritional risk. A state may also accept other state programs that check income, if their limits are at or under WIC’s.

It matters most for families whose income is over the limits in the table. If one of these programs covers you when WIC approves you, your income does not decide WIC at all. In the calculator, a “Likely” for SNAP, Medicaid or TANF counts as meeting WIC’s income rule; the WIC office will check who in the family is on which program.

What does WIC give you?

WIC gives food, not cash. Each person on WIC gets a food package, and its value differs for a pregnant woman, a new mother, a baby and a child, and from state to state.

Because WIC is food, its dollar value differs from family to family. The calculator counts it at USDA’s national average: what WIC food costs per person each month, averaged over everyone on WIC in the country, from a yearly report by USDA’s Economic Research Service. It counts that amount once for each person in your household who can get WIC. Your state’s packages may be worth more or less, so treat the amount as a guide.

The calculator adds WIC to your month’s budget, because it pays for food you would otherwise buy. The examples below show the amount for two people and for three.

What does WIC look like for a pregnant mother with a toddler?

For a pregnant mother, the baby she is expecting can be what brings the family under WIC’s limit. Take a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old in North Carolina, earning $3,900 a month, paying $1,100 rent with heating.

Counted as two people, she would be over WIC’s limit for two, $3,337 a month. But she is pregnant, so WIC counts the baby she is expecting: her household is three people, and the limit for three is $4,212. Her pay of $3,900 is under it, so she meets the income rule.

Both she and her 2-year-old are in WIC’s groups. If the clinic finds a nutritional risk for each of them, both can get WIC. The calculator counts their WIC food at $129 a month: the national average for one person, twice.

WIC would not end for her at WIC’s own limit. A pregnant woman who gets Medicaid meets WIC’s income rule without the table, and so does everyone in her family (7 CFR 246.7(d)(2)(vi)), and in her state her pregnancy Medicaid goes higher than WIC’s limit. So in the calculator, WIC ends for both of them at $4,578 a month of pay, where her pregnancy Medicaid ends, and her month is $138 lower there than at one dollar less.

After the birth, her household is three people in fact. The baby can join WIC, and she can stay on for up to a year if she breastfeeds, or six months if she does not.

How much is WIC worth to a family with a new baby?

In the calculator, WIC is worth $194 a month to a family with three people on it, such as a couple in Ohio with a 3-month-old baby and a 3-year-old, one parent earning $4,600 a month, paying $1,200 rent with heating.

They are four people, and the pay of $4,600 is under WIC’s limit for four, $5,088. Three of them are in WIC’s groups: the mother, who had the baby three months ago, the baby, and the 3-year-old.

That is also what the family would lose all at once, but not at WIC’s own limit. A family in which a baby gets Medicaid meets WIC’s income rule without the table (7 CFR 246.7(d)(2)(vi)), and in their state children’s Medicaid goes higher than WIC’s limit. So in the calculator, WIC ends for all three at $5,804 a month of pay, where the children’s Medicaid ends, and the family’s month is $203 lower there than at one dollar less. If the mother is not breastfeeding, her own WIC ends six months after the birth anyway, while the children stay on.

When does WIC end as your pay goes up?

WIC ends at the first dollar over the income limit, unless SNAP, Medicaid or TANF still covers you. WIC does not shrink bit by bit as your pay rises: at or under the limit you can get the whole food package, and over it you get none.

That makes WIC a cliff: a point where a little more pay leaves you with less in total, because a benefit worth more than the extra pay ends. The size of WIC’s cliff is the value of the food for everyone on WIC in your household, so it is bigger when more of you are on it. The guide to the benefits cliff explains which programs have cliffs and how to find yours.

1. Your pay goes upA raise, more hours, a second job
2. Taxes take a littleAbout 7.65% for Social Security and Medicare, then income tax
3. Help shrinksSNAP, tax credits and marketplace help fall a little with each dollar
4. A limit is crossedSome help stops all at once at a set income: Medicaid, child care help, CHIP
5. The cliffOne dollar more in pay, hundreds less in help
6. The climb backThe pay where you are ahead again: the calculator finds it

Two things soften it. First, SNAP, Medicaid or TANF can keep you eligible above the limit, for as long as one of them covers you. Second, the limit grows with your household: a new baby, or a pregnancy, raises it.

Whether a raise leaves you ahead depends on everything that changes with it: taxes, tax credits, SNAP, health coverage and WIC. The calculator works out your own household at every level of pay and marks each point where your total falls, so you can see what a raise really leaves you. Ask your WIC office how and when it looks at a change in your pay.

What are the WIC limits in Alaska and Hawaii?

Alaska and Hawaii have their own limits, higher than in the 48 states, because their poverty guidelines are higher. DC, Guam and the other territories use the same limits as the 48 states.

A pregnant woman counts the baby (or babies) she is expecting. Anyone on SNAP, Medicaid or TANF meets the income rule.

Sources: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): 2026/2027 Income Eligibility Guidelines (91 FR 23050-23052, FR Doc. 2026-08323, 29 Apr 2026) (USDA Food and Nutrition Service (Federal Register notice)); The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (Economic Information Bulletin 304, June 2026) (USDA Economic Research Service). Checked October 31, 2026.

A pregnant woman counts the baby (or babies) she is expecting. Anyone on SNAP, Medicaid or TANF meets the income rule.

Sources: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC): 2026/2027 Income Eligibility Guidelines (91 FR 23050-23052, FR Doc. 2026-08323, 29 Apr 2026) (USDA Food and Nutrition Service (Federal Register notice)); The Food and Nutrition Assistance Landscape: Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Report (Economic Information Bulletin 304, June 2026) (USDA Economic Research Service). Checked October 31, 2026.

How do you apply for WIC?

You apply with your state’s WIC office, and USDA’s page on how to apply for WIC is the place to start. Applying is free.

Part of applying is the nutritional risk check by a health professional at the WIC clinic. If SNAP, Medicaid or TANF is how you meet the income rule, bring proof that you get it. Otherwise the office looks at your household’s income, as above.

This site takes no applications and sends nothing to any office. Only the WIC office can decide whether you qualify and what you get.

Figures checked October 31, 2026.

Questions people ask

Can I get WIC if I work?

Yes. WIC looks at your household’s income, not at whether you have a job. If your pay and other income are at or under the limit for your household size, or you get SNAP, Medicaid or TANF, you meet the income rule.

Does WIC count my partner’s income?

WIC counts the income of everyone in your family, which its rule defines as people, related or not, who live together as one economic unit. If your partner lives with you and you share money, expect the office to count their income. Only the WIC office decides.

Can I get WIC and SNAP at the same time?

Yes, and getting SNAP means you meet WIC’s income rule without counting your income. You still need to be in one of WIC’s groups and have a nutritional risk.

Is WIC cash?

No. WIC gives food. The calculator puts a dollar figure on it, USDA’s national average food cost per person on WIC, only to show what it is worth to your budget.

When does my child stop getting WIC?

At the end of the month of the child’s fifth birthday.

Can I get WIC if I am not breastfeeding?

Yes, until six months after your baby is born. If you breastfeed, you can stay on until your baby’s first birthday. Your baby can get WIC either way.

Do I have to be a U.S. citizen to get WIC?

It depends on your state. The federal rule lets each state choose whether to limit WIC to U.S. citizens, nationals and “qualified aliens”. Ask your state’s WIC office.

Does the calculator tell me for sure if I get WIC?

No. It gives an estimate from the published rules and what you type. Only the WIC office decides, after it checks your income or your SNAP, Medicaid or TANF, and a health professional checks your nutritional risk.

Updated November 1, 2026