How We Calculate

Monthly compensation

10% and 20%: one amount each. Dependents don't change it, because extra pay for dependents starts at a 30% rating (38 U.S.C. 1115).
30% to 100%: the basic rate comes from VA's table for your rating, whether you have a spouse, and how many dependent parents you have (0, 1 or 2). If you have at least one child under 18, we use the table row that includes one child.
Each other child under 18 adds VA's "additional child under age 18" amount for your rating.
Each child 18 to 23 in a school program adds VA's school-child amount. The law sets the amount for a school child "notwithstanding" the other child amounts (38 U.S.C. 1115(1)(F)), so as we read it, when your only child is a school child, we add the school amount to the rate without children instead of using the one-child row. VA's table doesn't show this case separately, and we haven't found VA guidance that settles it, so the calculator flags it and also shows the total if VA counts the school child as the first child.
A spouse who gets Aid and Attendance adds VA's amount for your rating.

An adult child who became permanently unable to support themselves before 18 counts as a child under 18 in the calculator, as in VA's table. We count up to 20 children in each box.

Where the rates come from

A small program copies the numbers from VA's own rate pages on va.gov into a data file, so nothing is typed by hand. The same file feeds the calculators, the charts and the CSV downloads. We have VA's tables for every year from 2018 (effective December 1, 2017) to 2026 (effective December 1, 2025).

A few cells on VA's past-rate pages contradict the rest of the same VA table: in 2019, two rows for a child and parents at 80% to 100% are shifted, and in 2021 and 2023 one amount at 80% is off by 10 cents and $1. For those cells we use the amount that follows from that year's own 100% amounts under 38 U.S.C. 1115. A test checks that every year's table is consistent this way.

The 2027 estimate

Until VA publishes its 2027 table, our 2027 figures are an estimate built the way VA builds its table. The basic amount for each rating (38 U.S.C. 1114) and the 100% amounts for dependents (38 U.S.C. 1115(1)) go up 3.6%, rounded to the cent. For 30% to 90%, each dependent amount is that share of the 100% amount, rounded down to the whole dollar (38 U.S.C. 1115(2)). Built this way from the 2024 and 2025 tables, the method gives VA's 2025 and 2026 tables to the cent. The 3.6% is the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2027, announced October 14, 2026. The 2027 compensation bill in Congress (S. 4487 and H.R. 8552) would raise VA rates by that same percentage from December 1, 2026. As of November 7, 2026 it isn't law. If the final raise isn't 3.6%, the figures will change. We will replace the estimate with VA's table as soon as it's published.

Combined ratings

VA doesn't add ratings together. It combines them with the combined ratings table in 38 CFR 4.25, and adds a bilateral factor for some conditions that affect both arms or both legs (38 CFR 4.26). Our math for combining ratings is tested against every value in the 4.25 table.

What the estimate leaves out

Special monthly compensation (SMC) for certain severe disabilities.
Amounts VA withholds or offsets, for example for a debt, or when military retired pay or separation pay is involved.
The dates VA decides for your award and for each dependent. Your VA decision letter shows your actual amount.

Your data

The calculators run in your browser. What you enter isn't sent to us or stored. If you share a result, the numbers go in the link itself.