California Alimony & Spousal Support
Only a handful of states publish a formula for spousal support. Some cap the amount without publishing a formula, and most publish a factor checklist and no number at all. Pick your state to see which of the three it is, run whatever math it does publish, and read the factors a court actually weighs.
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Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for California spousal support, shown as a range. Your actual outcome depends on facts, evidence, and decisions this page cannot see.
California: Statutory factors — no formula
California publishes no spousal support formula, and no ceiling either.
This state publishes no formula and no ceiling for the amount of spousal support. The court decides it on the statutory factors below. Any site that shows you a dollar figure for this state has applied a guideline the state did not adopt.
What a California court actually weighs
Transcribed from Cal. Fam. Code §4320. These are the statutory factors, in the statute’s own order.
- 01The extent to which the earning capacity of each party is sufficient to maintain the standard of living established during the marriage, taking into account the marketable skills of the supported party, the job market for those skills, the time and expense required to acquire the appropriate education or training, and the extent to which the supported party's earning capacity was impaired by periods of unemployment during the marriage devoted to domestic duties
- 02The extent to which the supported party contributed to the attainment of an education, training, a career position, or a license by the supporting party
- 03The ability of the supporting party to pay spousal support, taking into account that party's earning capacity, earned and unearned income, assets, and standard of living
- 04The needs of each party based on the standard of living established during the marriage
- 05The obligations and assets, including the separate property, of each party
- 06The duration of the marriage
- 07The ability of the supported party to engage in gainful employment without unduly interfering with the interests of dependent children in the custody of the party
- 08The age and health of the parties
- 09All documented evidence of any history of domestic violence between the parties or perpetrated by either party against either party's child
- 10The immediate and specific tax consequences to each party
- 11The balance of the hardships to each party
- 12The goal that the supported party shall be self-supporting within a reasonable period of time
- 13The criminal conviction of an abusive spouse, as provided in §4324.5 or §4325
- 14Any other factors the court determines are just and equitable
Spousal support and child support are set separately and interact — in New York the child-support arrangement chooses which maintenance formula applies. Run your state’s child support guideline alongside this, and build the parenting schedule that feeds it with the custody planner.
Verified 2026-08-03 against California Family Code §4320 (circumstances the court shall consider in ordering spousal support), with §4336 on retained jurisdiction after a marriage of long duration (effective 2026-01-01)
Source of record
- USA.gov — Divorce and separation ↗Federal
- California Family Code §4320 (circumstances the court shall consider in ordering spousal support), with §4336 on retained jurisdiction after a marriage of long duration ↗State legislature
Run it against the official tool: California Courts Self-Help — Spousal support ↗
Courts retain discretion — guideline results can be adjusted or deviated from. This is the published guideline math, not a prediction of your order.
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A state-by-state answer to a question most alimony calculators skip: does your state publish a formula for spousal support at all? A few do. Some publish no formula but cap the amount by statute. Most publish a list of factors and no number whatsoever, and this tool says so rather than borrowing a guideline from somewhere else.
How it works
Each state page is driven by a rule pack transcribed from that state’s own statute, and the pack records which of three kinds the state is. A formula state — Illinois and New York among the few — computes a guideline amount from both incomes, usually a share of the payor’s income less a share of the payee’s, then limits the result so the payee does not end up above a set share of the parties’ combined income. New York applies its formula only to the payor’s income up to a cap the Unified Court System republishes every two years, and switches between two formulas depending on whether the payor is also the non-custodial parent paying child support. A cap state publishes no formula but does set a ceiling: Texas at the lesser of $5,000 a month or twenty per cent of the obligor’s average monthly gross income, Florida at thirty-five per cent of the difference between the parties’ net incomes or the obligee’s reasonable need, whichever is less. A factors state publishes neither, and the page shows the statutory checklist instead.
Getting the most from it
- Start with the badge at the top of your state’s page. It tells you which of the three kinds you are in before any figure appears.
- Enter annual incomes on the basis the page names — gross or net differs by state, and using the wrong one produces a confident answer to the wrong question.
- Enter the length of the marriage. Every state that publishes anything about duration keys it to this.
- Read the factors. In most states they are the entire answer, and they are what a lawyer will ask you about first.
Reading your result
A guideline figure is presumptive, not an order — a court can depart from it and explains why when it does. A ceiling is something else again: it is the most the statute permits, so an award at the ceiling is the exception rather than the expectation, and many spouses are not eligible for any award at all. Where the page shows no number, that is the finding, not a gap in the data.
What it can't tell you
This does not predict what a court will order, does not decide whether you are eligible, and does not account for property division, tax treatment, or the conduct-based provisions several states attach to spousal support. It cannot weigh factors — that is the judicial act itself. Temporary support during a case often runs on entirely different local rules than the post-divorce figures shown here. A family lawyer licensed in your state is the person who answers your question.
Frequently asked questions
Because most states publish no formula for the amount of spousal support — the statute lists factors and the court decides. Where that is true, the honest output is the factor list and whatever ceiling or duration limit the statute does set. A site that shows you a dollar figure for one of those states has applied a guideline the state never adopted.
Related calculators
Custody Planner
Build a parenting schedule from the standard rotations courts see most — 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3, week-on-week-off, or every other weekend — then count the overnights exactly. The percentage carries straight into your state’s child support calculator, and the calendar exports and prints.
Child Support
Every state sets child support with a published guideline formula — income shares, percentage of income, or the Melson formula. Pick your state to run its own math step by step, see which figures the statute actually uses, and open the official worksheet it comes from.
Change alerts — when a state revises the guideline or deadline behind this page
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