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Texas Alimony and Spousal Maintenance Calculator

Texas Family Code Chapter 8

Texas Spousal Maintenance Calculator

Texas asks two questions in order. First, does a court have the power to award maintenance at all. Only then, how much and for how long. This tool works the same way.

1Eligibility
2Marriage
3Income
4Estimate

Will the spouse asking for support lack enough property to meet minimum reasonable needs?

This is the threshold every request has to clear. The court looks at what that spouse will actually walk away with after the property is divided, separate property included. Section 8.051

Which ground applies?

Meeting the property test is not enough on its own. One of these four grounds also has to be true. Select every one that applies. Section 8.051(1) and (2)

Answer both questions above to continue.

How long has the marriage lasted?

Measured from the date of marriage to the date the divorce is filed. Length drives the maximum number of years a court can order. Section 8.054

Under 10 years is not automatically a dead end. A marriage shorter than 10 years still supports court-ordered maintenance when the ground is family violence, an incapacitating disability, or care of a disabled child. It is only the 10-year ground that depends on length.

Enter the number of years the marriage has lasted.

What does the paying spouse earn?

Gross income, not take-home. Chapter 8 defines this differently from child support, so do not reuse a net resources figure here. Section 8.055(a-1)

$
Includes overtime, tips, bonuses and commissions. One hundred percent of it counts.
$
Business receipts less ordinary and necessary business expenses.
$
$
Rent received less ordinary and necessary expenses, including depreciation and operating expenses, but not including noncash items.
$
Severance, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, unemployment benefits, interest on notes, gifts and prizes, and maintenance or alimony being received.
Leave these out. Chapter 8 gross income does not include return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, federal public assistance or TANF benefits, foster care payments, VA service connected disability compensation, supplemental security income, Social Security benefits, disability benefits, or workers compensation benefits. Several of those do count toward child support, which is why the two figures rarely match.

Enter at least one income amount to calculate.

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Maintenance is argued, not computed.

The ceiling is arithmetic. What a Travis County judge actually orders turns on minimum reasonable needs, earning ability and the eleven statutory factors, and that is evidence work. Bring us your numbers.

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This calculator estimates the statutory ceiling on court ordered spousal maintenance under Texas Family Code Chapter 8. It does not estimate what a court will order. A court orders only the amount needed to meet the receiving spouse's minimum reasonable needs, up to that ceiling, and for the shortest reasonable period. Contractual alimony agreed between spouses is not subject to these limits.

This tool is provided for general information by Deyerle Silva Smith, PLLC and is not legal advice. Using it does not create an attorney client relationship. Statutory figures current as of September 30, 2026.

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Does Texas have alimony?

Yes, but less of it than almost anywhere else, and the state does not call it alimony.

Texas recognizes two different things. Court ordered spousal maintenance is what a judge can impose over the other spouse’s objection, and it lives in Chapter 8 of the Texas Family Code. It is capped, time limited, and hard to qualify for. Contractual alimony is what two spouses agree to in a divorce settlement. It is a contract, and none of the Chapter 8 limits apply to it.

Most support that actually gets paid in Texas divorces is the second kind. We cover the distinction in the two sides of spousal support in Texas.

The calculator above deals with the first kind, because that is the one with rules you can compute. It asks the eligibility question before it asks about income, which is the order a Texas court asks them in.

Who qualifies for spousal maintenance in Texas

Two things have to be true at the same time. Most people fail on one or the other.

First, the threshold. Under Section 8.051, the spouse asking for support has to lack sufficient property, separate property included, after the divorce to provide for their minimum reasonable needs. This is measured against what they walk away with once the estate is divided, not against what they had during the marriage. A spouse who receives half of a substantial community estate usually fails here no matter how long the marriage lasted.

Second, one of four grounds. The same section requires one of these:

  1. The other spouse was convicted of, or got deferred adjudication for, a criminal offense that is also family violence against this spouse or this spouse’s child, committed during the marriage, and it happened either within two years before the divorce was filed or while it has been pending.
  2. The spouse seeking support cannot earn enough to meet minimum reasonable needs because of an incapacitating physical or mental disability.
  3. The marriage lasted 10 years or longer and that spouse lacks the ability to earn enough to meet minimum reasonable needs.
  4. That spouse is the custodian of a child of the marriage, of any age, who needs substantial care and personal supervision because of a physical or mental disability, and that care prevents the spouse from earning enough.

Note what is not on that list. Not fault. Not adultery. Not a large gap in earnings. Not a long marriage on its own. A twenty-five year marriage where the lower-earning spouse can support themselves produces no maintenance under Chapter 8.

Note also what the list does not require. Grounds one, two and four say nothing about how long the marriage lasted. A four-year marriage with a family violence conviction supports maintenance. Only ground three depends on the ten-year mark.

If you are working through the property side of this at the same time, our division of property page covers how the estate gets split, and the two questions are decided together rather than in sequence.

The 10-year marriage rule, and the presumption that comes with it

The ten-year ground is the one most people arrive with, and it carries a burden the others do not.

Section 8.053 creates a rebuttable presumption that maintenance is not warranted on the ten-year ground unless the spouse seeking it has exercised diligence in either earning enough to meet their minimum reasonable needs, or developing the skills to do so during the separation and while the divorce has been pending.

In practice that means evidence. Job applications, interviews, enrollment in a program, a certification in progress, a documented job search. A spouse who has not worked during a two year separation and cannot show what they did about it will struggle, even on a thirty year marriage.

This presumption does not attach to the family violence ground, the disability ground, or the disabled child ground. On those three, the diligence question does not arise.

We answer the most common version of this question in do I qualify for spousal maintenance in Texas after a 10 year marriage.

How much spousal maintenance a Texas court can order

Section 8.055(a) sets a hard ceiling. A court may not order monthly maintenance greater than the lesser of:

  • $5,000 per month, or
  • 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income

The two limits cross at $25,000 a month in gross income, which is $300,000 a year. Below that, the 20 percent figure governs. At or above it, the flat $5,000 governs and the number stops moving. A spouse earning $400,000 and a spouse earning $4 million face the same statutory ceiling.

Texas Family Code Section 8.055(a)

The ceiling on Texas spousal maintenance

A Texas court may not order monthly maintenance greater than the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse's average monthly gross income. The two limits cross at $300,000 a year. Below that, the percentage governs. At or above it, the number stops moving.

Maximum monthly spousal maintenance a Texas court may order, by the paying spouse's gross income, under Texas Family Code Section 8.055(a)
Paying spouse's gross income 20 percent Statutory ceiling Maximum a court may order
$60,000 / year $1,000 / mo $5,000 / mo $1,000 / mo
$120,000 / year $2,000 / mo $5,000 / mo $2,000 / mo
$200,000 / year $3,333 / mo $5,000 / mo $3,333 / mo
$300,000 / year The limits meet here $5,000 / mo $5,000 / mo $5,000 / mo
$1,000,000 / year $16,667 / mo $5,000 / mo $5,000 / mo

The gold rule marks the limit that governs that row. Greyed figures are the limit that does not bite. A spouse earning $400,000 and a spouse earning $4 million face the same ceiling.

This is a maximum, not an award. A court orders only what the receiving spouse needs to meet minimum reasonable needs, up to this figure, and most Texas awards land well below it.

Source: Texas Family Code Section 8.055. The $5,000 figure is written into the statute and is not indexed to inflation.

Two things worth knowing about that $5,000. It is a flat number written into the statute, not indexed to inflation, and it has not been raised since the 2011 legislative session. And it is a ceiling, not a target. Nothing in Chapter 8 entitles anyone to the maximum.

For a high earning household the practical consequence is that maintenance is a rounding error next to the property division, which is where the real money moves. That is the conversation our high net worth divorce attorneys have regularly, and it is usually the reason contractual alimony gets negotiated instead.

What counts as gross income under Chapter 8

This is where people reuse the wrong number. Spousal maintenance runs on gross income under Section 8.055(a-1). Child support runs on net resources under Section 154.062. They are different definitions, and they exclude different things.

Gross income for maintenance includes:

  • 100 percent of all wage and salary income and other compensation for personal services, overtime, tips, bonuses and commissions included
  • Interest, dividends and royalty income
  • Self employment income
  • Net rental income after ordinary and necessary expenses
  • All other income actually being received, including severance pay, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains, unemployment benefits, interest from notes regardless of source, gifts and prizes, and maintenance or alimony being received
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It does not include return of principal or capital, accounts receivable, benefits under federal public assistance programs, TANF benefits, foster care payments, Department of Veterans Affairs service connected disability compensation, supplemental security income, Social Security benefits, disability benefits, or workers compensation benefits.

That last group is the trap. Social Security benefits other than SSI do count toward child support net resources, and they do not count toward maintenance gross income. So does workers compensation. A disabled veteran’s VA service connected compensation is excluded from maintenance gross income entirely. Run the same person through both statutes and you get two different numbers, which is why our Texas child support calculator and this one do not share an input.

Business owners are the hardest cases here as well, because gross income for a self employed spouse starts with business receipts less ordinary and necessary expenses, and which expenses are ordinary and necessary is exactly what gets fought over. See how Texas courts value a family owned business in divorce and, for the rental side, can I keep my rental properties after a Texas divorce.

Texas Family Code Section 8.054

How long Texas spousal maintenance can last

The length of the marriage sets the outside limit. Four of these five rows are hard caps measured from the date of the order. The fifth is not a term at all.

Maximum duration of court ordered spousal maintenance in Texas, by length of marriage and eligibility ground, under Texas Family Code Section 8.054
Length of marriage Eligibility ground Maximum duration
Less than 10 years Family violenceThe only ground under 10 years 5 years
At least 10, not more than 20 years Any 5 years
At least 20, not more than 30 years Any 7 years
30 years or more Any 10 years
Any length No fixed limit Incapacitating disability, or care of a disabled child of the marriage As long as the ground continues

The statute overlaps at exactly 20 and 30 years. The tiers are written as "at least 10 but not more than 20" and "at least 20 but not more than 30," so a marriage of precisely 20 years sits in both. A court has room to read it either way, and it is worth arguing.

The last row is not a longer term, it is a different rule. Where eligibility rests on an incapacitating disability or on care of a disabled child of the marriage, Section 8.054(b) lets maintenance run for as long as that spouse keeps meeting the eligibility criteria, and Section 8.054(c) lets the court order periodic review.

These are maximums, not terms. Section 8.054(a)(2) directs the court to order the shortest reasonable period that lets the receiving spouse earn enough to meet minimum reasonable needs, unless that ability is substantially or totally diminished by disability, by caring for an infant or young child, or by another compelling impediment. A 10 year cap on a 32 year marriage does not mean 10 years gets ordered.

Source: Texas Family Code Section 8.054. Duration runs from the date of the order, not the date of separation.

Contractual alimony is a different thing entirely

Everything above describes what a judge can impose. Spouses can agree to something else, and they often do.

Contractual alimony is a term of the divorce settlement. It is not bound by the $5,000 ceiling, not bound by the 20 percent ceiling, and not bound by the duration tiers. It can run longer than ten years. It can exceed $5,000 a month. It can be structured as a lump sum or a declining schedule.

The trade is enforcement. Court ordered maintenance can be enforced by contempt under Section 8.059, and income can be withheld from the paying spouse’s earnings under Section 8.101. Contractual alimony is enforced as a contract, which means a breach of contract suit rather than a contempt motion. And a court cannot enforce by contempt, or order withholding on, the portion of an agreed order that goes beyond what Chapter 8 would have allowed. Sections 8.059(a-1) and 8.101(a-2) both say so directly.

This is why the drafting matters more than the number. A well drafted agreement often orders the Chapter 8 maximum as maintenance, with contempt available on that piece, and handles the rest as contractual alimony. Our property agreements practice drafts these, and if there is a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement in the picture it may already control the question.

What a court weighs when it sets the amount

Clearing eligibility gets you to the argument, not to a number. Section 8.052 lists eleven factors the court considers:

  1. Each spouse’s ability to provide for their own minimum reasonable needs independently, considering the financial resources on dissolution
  2. The education and employment skills of the spouses, the time needed to acquire sufficient education or training, and whether that is feasible
  3. The duration of the marriage
  4. The age, employment history, earning ability, and physical and emotional condition of the spouse seeking maintenance
  5. The effect on each spouse’s ability to meet their own needs while paying child support
  6. Acts by either spouse resulting in excessive or abnormal expenditures, or destruction, concealment or fraudulent disposition of community property
  7. The contribution by one spouse to the education, training or increased earning power of the other
  8. The property each spouse brought to the marriage
  9. The contribution of a spouse as homemaker
  10. Marital misconduct during the marriage
  11. Any history or pattern of family violence

Factor ten is the one that surprises people. Texas is a no-fault divorce state, and fault still enters the maintenance analysis. Factor six is the one that matters most in contested high asset cases, because money spent on an affair or moved out of reach before filing shows up here as well as in the property division. See can I get reimbursed if my spouse used community money on an affair and, on factor eleven, how domestic violence impacts custody cases.

Most Texas maintenance awards land well under the statutory ceiling, because the ceiling answers a question about the paying spouse’s income and factor one answers a question about the receiving spouse’s needs. It is the smaller of those two that ends up in the decree.

When spousal maintenance ends early

Under Section 8.056, the obligation to pay future maintenance terminates:

  • On the death of either party
  • On the remarriage of the receiving spouse
  • On a court finding that the receiving spouse cohabits with another person in a dating or romantic relationship, in a permanent place of abode, on a continuing basis

The first two are automatic. The third is not. It requires a motion, evidence and a finding, and “permanent place of abode on a continuing basis” is a real evidentiary standard rather than a weekend. Amounts that accrued before the termination date are still owed.

Changing a spousal maintenance order

Section 8.057 allows modification on a showing of a material and substantial change in circumstances occurring after the date of the order, filed in the court that rendered it. Two limits are worth knowing.

A modification applies only to payments accruing after the motion to modify is filed. Waiting to file costs money that cannot be recovered.

And a modification cannot increase maintenance beyond the amount or the remaining duration of the original order. The original order is a ceiling on itself. That makes the first order the one that matters, and it is the reason to get it right rather than plan to fix it later.

Section 8.057(d) closes a door people ask about. If a former spouse loses a job or becomes disabled after the divorce is final, that is not grounds to start spousal maintenance that was never ordered in the first place. Our post-decree modifications practice handles these filings.

How spousal maintenance and child support interact

They are separate orders with separate math, and they touch in three places.

Maintenance being received counts as income for child support net resources, and maintenance being received also counts as gross income for a later maintenance calculation. Section 8.052(5) makes the effect of paying child support on the paying spouse’s own ability to meet their needs an express factor in the maintenance analysis. And under Section 8.101(c), a withholding order for maintenance can be combined with one for child support only when the receiving spouse is the managing conservator with whom the child primarily resides. When they are combined, Section 8.101(d)(4) sets the priority: current child support first, then current maintenance, then child support arrearages, then maintenance arrearages.

If child support is also on the table in your case, run the other number on our Texas child support calculator, and remember that the income definitions are not the same.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Texas have alimony?

Texas has court ordered spousal maintenance under Chapter 8 of the Family Code, and it has contractual alimony that spouses agree to in a settlement. Texas does not have open ended alimony of the kind some states award. Court ordered maintenance is capped at the lesser of $5,000 a month or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income, and it is limited to five, seven or ten years depending on the length of the marriage.

A Texas court may not order monthly spousal maintenance greater than the lesser of $5,000 or 20 percent of the paying spouse’s average monthly gross income. The two limits cross at $300,000 a year in gross income. Below that the 20 percent figure governs, and at or above it the flat $5,000 governs. The ceiling is a maximum, not an entitlement, and most awards come in below it.

The spouse asking for support must lack enough property after the divorce, separate property included, to meet their minimum reasonable needs, and one of four grounds must apply. Those grounds are a family violence conviction or deferred adjudication against the other spouse within two years before filing or while the case is pending, an incapacitating physical or mental disability, a marriage of 10 years or longer combined with an inability to earn enough, or custody of a child of the marriage of any age who requires substantial care because of a disability.

No. The 10 year rule applies to only one of the four eligibility grounds. A marriage shorter than 10 years supports court ordered maintenance when the ground is family violence, an incapacitating disability, or care of a disabled child of the marriage. It is only the general inability to earn ground that requires 10 years.

Five years for a marriage of at least 10 but not more than 20 years, seven years for at least 20 but not more than 30 years, and 10 years for 30 years or more. A marriage of less than 10 years supports up to five years when the ground is family violence. Where eligibility rests on an incapacitating disability or on care of a disabled child, maintenance can continue for as long as that ground continues. A court is directed to order the shortest reasonable period in every case.

Gross income under Section 8.055(a-1), which is all wage and salary income and other pay for personal services, interest, dividends and royalty income, self employment income, net rental income, and all other income actually being received including severance, retirement benefits, pensions, trust income, annuities, capital gains and unemployment benefits. It excludes return of capital, accounts receivable, federal public assistance and TANF, foster care payments, VA service connected disability compensation, supplemental security income, Social Security benefits, disability benefits and workers compensation. Note that several of those excluded items do count toward child support net resources.

No. Court ordered spousal maintenance is imposed by a judge under Chapter 8 and is subject to the $5,000 and 20 percent ceilings and the duration limits. Contractual alimony is agreed between the spouses in a settlement and is not subject to any of those limits. The trade off is enforcement. Maintenance can be enforced by contempt and by income withholding. Contractual alimony is enforced as a contract.

It can. Marital misconduct during the marriage is one of the eleven factors a court weighs under Section 8.052 when setting the amount and duration of maintenance. Adultery does not create eligibility on its own, and a spouse who does not meet the threshold property test and one of the four statutory grounds gets no maintenance regardless of the other spouse’s conduct. Where an affair was funded with community money, that spending is also relevant as an excessive or abnormal expenditure.

The obligation to pay future maintenance ends on the death of either party, on the remarriage of the receiving spouse, and on a court finding that the receiving spouse cohabits with another person in a dating or romantic relationship in a permanent place of abode on a continuing basis. Payments that accrued before termination are still owed.

Only within the original order. A court can modify maintenance on a material and substantial change in circumstances after the date of the order, but it cannot increase the amount or extend the duration beyond what the original order provided. Modifications apply only to payments accruing after the motion to modify is filed, so delay in filing is not recoverable.

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