📊California Child Support Calculator

What it is

A child support calculator runs your state’s published guideline formula on the income figures its statute counts, and shows the arithmetic. It reports what the guideline produces — not what a court will order, and not what either parent can afford.

How it works

States use one of three published models. Income shares, used by most states, estimates what both parents together would have spent on the child at their combined income, then splits that amount in proportion to each parent’s income. Percentage of income, used by Texas among others, applies a fixed percentage to the paying parent’s income and does not look at the other parent’s income at all. The Melson formula, used in Delaware, Hawaii and Montana, first reserves a self-support allowance for each parent, then covers the children’s primary needs, then adds a standard-of-living adjustment from whatever remains. Each state page names its model and links the worksheet the state publishes.

Getting the most from it

1. Pick your state — the model, the income definition, and the treatment of parenting time all change with it.
2. Enter income the way that state defines it. Texas counts “net resources”; California uses “net disposable income”; others use gross. The page tells you which.
3. Enter overnights if your state adjusts for parenting time. The custody planner counts them exactly if you are not sure.
4. Open the state’s own calculator from the source box and run the same numbers there. If the two disagree, the state’s answer is the one that matters.

Reading your result

The figure is a guideline amount: the formula’s output for the numbers you typed. Treat it as the point a court starts from, not the point it lands on. Every state’s statute lists reasons a judge may order something different, and the amount also moves when the underlying income figures are established differently in court than you estimated them here.

What it can't tell you

This cannot tell you what a judge will do, whether a deviation applies to your situation, how income should be imputed to someone unemployed or self-employed, or how support interacts with custody, filing status or arrears. It cannot see the facts a court would weigh. For any of that, talk to a lawyer licensed in your state.