The short answer
Supplemental Security Income pays a monthly federal benefit of up to $994 for an individual and $1,491 for a couple in 2026. Your payment is that figure minus your countable income, and not all income counts. Separately, you generally cannot hold more than $2,000 in countable resources, or $3,000 for a couple.
No work credits, no insured status
This is where SSI parts company with the rest of Social Security. SSDI pays people who worked long enough and recently enough to be insured, and it is funded by payroll taxes. SSI has no work requirement of any kind and is paid out of general tax revenue, which is why someone who has never held a job may qualify.
If you are applying on the basis of a disability, Social Security applies the same definition it uses for SSDI, and how that determination is made is a subject of its own with its own article. What follows here is the other half of an SSI claim, the financial test, and it is the half that settles most cases.
The federal benefit rate is a ceiling you subtract from
For 2026 the federal benefit rate is $994 a month for an individual and $1,491 for a couple, after the 2.8% cost-of-living adjustment in January. Nobody receives more than that from federal SSI funds, and most people receive less.
The arithmetic is a subtraction: the federal benefit rate minus your countable income for the month is your payment. This is why SSI is not a fixed cheque. Income arriving in one month reduces that month's payment, and a month without it restores the payment.
Not all income counts
Two exclusions do most of the work. The first $20 of almost any income in a month is ignored, whatever its source. Then, of money you earn from working, the first $65 is ignored and only half of the remainder counts against you.
The effect is that earnings are treated far more gently than a pension or another benefit of the same size. It is also why the point at which earnings alone end an SSI payment for an individual sits at about $2,073 a month in 2026, well above the federal benefit rate that people assume is the cut-off.
The resource limit is the rule that catches people
You generally cannot hold more than $2,000 in countable resources as an individual, or $3,000 as a couple. Resources are things you own that could be turned into cash for food or shelter: bank balances, a second vehicle, property you do not live in.
Those two figures have not changed since 1989, so they have not moved with prices for more than three decades. Not everything counts, and the exclusions matter: the home you live in, generally one vehicle, and household goods are normally excluded. A modest inheritance or a balance that builds up in an account, on the other hand, can end eligibility in the month it appears.
Where you live, and who you live with
SSI looks at whether somebody else is providing your shelter. If you live in another person's household and they pay for it, your payment may be reduced under the rules on in-kind support and maintenance. Since September 2024 food is no longer counted that way, so help with groceries from family or a community no longer reduces an SSI payment.
Most states add a supplement of their own on top of the federal payment, and a few do not. The amount depends on the state and often on your living arrangement, which is why a figure quoted by someone in another state may not be the one you would receive.
At 65 there is no disability test
SSI is for people who are aged 65 or older, blind, or have a disability. Someone who has reached 65 does not have to establish a disability at all. Age is the qualifying condition, and only the income and resource tests remain.
For a couple, both members' income and resources are considered together, and the couple rate is less than two individual rates. Part of a spouse's or a parent's income may also be attributed to an applicant who does not receive SSI themselves, which is called deeming and often explains an unexpected refusal.
What our calculator works out
Our SSI calculator applies the arithmetic above. It takes your earned and unearned income, applies the $20 general exclusion and the $65-and-half earned income exclusion, subtracts the result from the federal benefit rate for your situation, and checks your resources against the limit.
What this does not tell you
This is an estimate of a federal payment. Social Security makes the determination, and if you are applying on the basis of a disability or blindness there is a medical decision that no calculator can anticipate.
The calculator does not model your state's supplement, in-kind support from someone you live with, deeming from a spouse or parent, or the exclusions that apply to particular kinds of resource. Each of those can move the figure in either direction.
Official sources
What you can do next
If your income and savings are low and you are 65 or older, blind, or living with a disability, the resource limit is usually the rule worth checking first. Run the figures here, then apply through Social Security, which makes the decision.