ACA (Obamacare) Health Insurance Subsidy Calculator 2026

Calculate your estimated premium tax credit and health insurance costs under the Affordable Care Act — the marketplace coverage most people know as Obamacare.

The 2026 ACA cliff sits at 400% of the Federal Poverty Level — $84,600 for a household of two. Cross it by $1 and you lose the entire premium tax credit, typically $12,000-$25,000 per year for early retirees. OBBBA restored the cliff and eliminated the repayment cap. The calculator below shows your exact subsidy and how close you are to the cliff.

How This Works

Enter your household information to estimate your ACA subsidy (Premium Tax Credit). The calculator uses 2026 Federal Poverty Level guidelines and the ACA subsidy structure with the 400% FPL cliff. Your subsidy is based on the second-lowest-cost Silver plan (benchmark plan) in your area.

For detailed technical documentation on ACA subsidy calculations, income thresholds, and cliff optimization strategies, see the QuantCalc Methodology page.

Your Information

Annual Household Income Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI)

Household Size Number of people in your tax household

💍 Two earners considering marriage timing? Filing single each at the HH=1 cliff often beats filing MFJ at the HH=2 cliff. Compare scenarios →

Your Age Age of primary enrollee

Spouse / Partner Age (Optional) Used only when your household is 2 or more. The marketplace prices each enrolled adult separately, so a couple's benchmark premium is the sum of two age-rated premiums.

State Affects Federal Poverty Level

Monthly Benchmark Premium (Optional) The second-lowest-cost Silver plan in your area. Leave blank to use age-based national average. Find your actual premium at healthcare.gov.

Your Estimated ACA Subsidy

Monthly Subsidy

Annual Subsidy

Your Monthly Cost

% of Income

Detail	Value
Federal Poverty Level (FPL)	$0
Income as % of FPL	0%
Expected Contribution (%)	0%
Benchmark Premium (Monthly)	$0
Expected Annual Contribution	$0

Important: This is an estimate. It uses the poverty guidelines that govern 2026 coverage (the 2025 HHS guidelines, per 26 CFR §1.36B-1(h)) and the national-average benchmark Silver premium, age-rated per enrolled adult. Your actual subsidy depends on the specific Silver plans available in your area. Visit Healthcare.gov for official enrollment and exact subsidy amounts. This calculator runs current law for 2026: the indexed statutory contribution schedule (2.10% to 9.96% of income) with the 400% FPL cliff in force. The enhanced American Rescue Plan / Inflation Reduction Act structure — an 8.5% cap and no cliff — expired after 2025 and is not assumed here.

The ACA cliff is a Roth-conversion timing problem

Staying under 400% FPL while still converting to Roth is a year-by-year sequencing puzzle. The Roth Conversion Planner models your exact pre-Medicare bridge — how much to convert each year to fill your tax bracket without tripping the subsidy cliff or IRMAA.

Plan my ACA-cliff Roth strategy → or try the free Roth optimizer

Ready to Plan Your Full Retirement Strategy?

Now that you know your ACA subsidy, optimize your full withdrawal strategy to stay under the cliff while funding your retirement. QuantCalc's Monte Carlo planner shows you exactly how much you can safely withdraw from taxable, Roth, and traditional accounts each year.

Try FREE Monte Carlo Planner Go PRO — $59 once

PRO unlocks: 10,000 simulations, forward-looking forecasts from multiple publicly available sources, portfolio optimizer, and PDF reports.

See this in your state

ACA cliff threshold (400% FPL) is federal, but the dollar damage of crossing it depends on state tax. Top-tax states (worst stack-up) and no-state-tax states (cleanest math):

California (13.30%) New York (10.90%) New Jersey (10.75%) Oregon (9.90%) Hawaii (11.00%) Florida (no tax) Texas (no tax) Wyoming (no tax) All 51 state guides →

Each state page has the federal-state-ACA stack-up worked out with a state-specific Roth conversion example, plus the state's 30-year Monte Carlo retirement success rate (from our 51-state research).

Related Tools

IRMAA Surcharge Calculator Social Security + ACA Roth Conversion Ladder Inflation Calculator All QuantCalc Tools Early Retirement Healthcare Roth Conversion Optimizer 2027 ACA Subsidy Percentages

Next decision: Ladder conversions without losing subsidies — plan your Roth conversion ladder →