FAFSA Questions and Answers

Yes. The FAFSA is always free at StudentAid.gov. You never have to pay to file it. Any site that charges you to file is not the official one.

The 2026-27 form opened on September 24, 2025. The federal deadline is June 30, 2027, but state and school deadlines come much earlier, some as early as October 1, and much aid is first-come, first-served. File early.

It uses 2024 income, the prior-prior year. The form pulls your 2024 tax data from the IRS once every contributor gives consent.

The Student Aid Index replaced the old EFC. It is a number colleges use to measure aid eligibility, not a bill. It can be negative, down to a floor of negative $1,500.

Yes. Every contributor must give consent and approval through FA-DDX so the form can pull IRS data. Without it, the student gets no federal aid, even if a parent did not file taxes.

For divorced or separated parents, it is the parent who provides more financial support, not the one the student lives with most. Use the Who's My FAFSA Parent? wizard if you are unsure.

Yes. There is no income cap. Filing unlocks federal loans, work-study, and state and school aid no matter your income. Skipping it is a common and costly mistake.

The maximum is $7,395 and the minimum is $740. An SAI of $14,790 or more means no Pell, with a narrow exception for dependents of certain deceased servicemembers and public-safety officers.

Yes. File the FAFSA, then ask the school for a special-circumstances appeal. The aid office can adjust your inputs and rerun the formula with numbers that match your life now.

Not on the FAFSA. A grandparent-owned 529 is invisible to the federal formula. It is not counted as an asset, and payouts are not counted as student income. The CSS Profile may still count it.