New York Alimony Calculator
Estimate spousal support in New York, where statutory formula decides the award. Includes likelihood, a modeled amount range, duration, and the statutory factors that decide what a court awards.
Last updated: New York filing fee checked ; other cost figures are our own estimates
New York divorces typically cost about the same as the national average of $12,900.
Alimony in New York
- How New York decides it
- Statutory formula
- What our estimate is
- Modeled national approximation
- Fault considered
- No
- Domestic violence factor, in our record
- No
- Equal parenting presumption, in our record
- No
- Waiting period before final
- No statutory waiting period
Modeled estimate, not a state calculation. This figure is ours rather than New York's. The arithmetic behind it is a national approximation that runs the same way in every state: 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes, scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage. What has been read of New York's own law is N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1), and none of it is applied inside this figure. Read it as a planning band rather than a figure a court has committed to, because a New York judge applying New York's own law can land somewhere else.
Our record classifies New York as one of the small group of states that write a spousal support formula into the statute itself, and that calculation has been read here: N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1). This estimate is not that calculation and does not implement it. What stops us running it is set out on this page rather than summarised away here, because the reasons are New York's own rather than general ones. We would rather give you the statute's terms to run on your real figures than print arithmetic of ours under New York's name. Where the two differ, the statute is right and we are not.
Alimony Calculator in New York: What You Should Know
New York sets maintenance by a two-part calculation running on the payor's income up to a statutory cap, and the percentages inside it are the statute's own: section 236(B)(6)(c) was read on 2026-09-01 and both routes are reproduced here in the order the section puts them. Which route a case takes turns on two facts and not one, and this is where most summaries go wrong, including ours until now. The first route needs child support to be payable AND the paying spouse to be the non-custodial parent: there, the amount is the lower of 20 percent of the payer's income minus 25 percent of the payee's, or 40 percent of the two incomes combined minus the payee's. Every other case takes the second route, and that includes a paying spouse who has the children the majority of the time: there, the amount is the lower of 30 percent of the higher earner's income minus 20 percent of the lower earner's, or the same combined-income test. Either result stops at zero rather than going negative. One further floor the section sets and our page did not used to mention: if the guideline amount would take the paying spouse below the self-support reserve for a single person, the amount becomes the difference between their income and that reserve, and if they are already below it there is a rebuttable presumption of no maintenance at all. Duration is set against a separate schedule keyed to marriage length. That schedule is ADVISORY in the statute's own word, which is the thing to know about it before planning around a number: section 236 says the court may determine duration in accordance with it, permissively rather than as a direction, and adds that nothing in it prevents non-durational maintenance in an appropriate case. The schedule runs 15 to 30 percent of the marriage length for a marriage of up to and including 15 years, 30 to 40 percent for more than 15 up to and including 20 years, and 35 to 50 percent above 20 years. Note where the first boundary sits: a marriage of exactly 15 years is in the bottom band, not the middle one, and our own page had that wrong until we read the section. The amount formula runs on income up to a statutory cap, and the cap is on the payor's income rather than on the two incomes combined. That distinction is the one most summaries get wrong, including ours until recently: the combined-income cap people quote belongs to the Child Support Standards Act, which is a different rule in a different statute, and reading it into the maintenance section changes the answer in every case rather than only in high-earning ones. We are not printing a figure for the cap. The statute raises it every two years on March 1 by the change in the consumer price index for all urban consumers, rounded to the nearest thousand dollars, and directs the Office of Court Administration to publish the current amount. Several of those adjustments have run since the number we used to show was set, and we have not been able to retrieve the current one, so the honest thing is to send you to the Office of Court Administration's own publication or to a New York attorney for it.
Key point: New York's maintenance cap applies to the payor's income, not to the two incomes combined. It rises every two years on March 1 with the consumer price index and the Office of Court Administration publishes the current figure, so take the number from there rather than from any summary, including this one.
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Locked to New York on this page.
Use your gross (before-tax) annual income.
Use their gross (before-tax) annual income.
This estimate is for planning purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Consult a licensed family law attorney in your state for guidance specific to your situation.
How New York awards spousal support
Our New York record classifies it as a statutory formula state, which means the legislature has written an arithmetic starting point into the statute, so two cases with similar incomes and a similar marriage length should land in a similar place. Here is what that looks like in practice.
Modeled estimate, not a state calculation
This figure is ours rather than New York's. The arithmetic behind it is a national approximation that runs the same way in every state: 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes, scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage. What has been read of New York's own law is N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1), and none of it is applied inside this figure. Read it as a planning band rather than a figure a court has committed to, because a New York judge applying New York's own law can land somewhere else.
Our record classifies New York as one of the small group of states that write a spousal support formula into the statute itself, and that calculation has been read here: N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1). This estimate is not that calculation and does not implement it. What stops us running it is set out on this page rather than summarised away here, because the reasons are New York's own rather than general ones. We would rather give you the statute's terms to run on your real figures than print arithmetic of ours under New York's name. Where the two differ, the statute is right and we are not.
A formula state gives the court a calculation to run rather than a list of considerations to weigh. The arithmetic works off the gap between the two incomes, not off either income on its own, which is why a raise for the lower-earning spouse cuts the award as surely as a pay cut for the higher earner does. Close the gap and the figure falls, even when neither household is worse off in total.
The formula is a starting point rather than a ceiling or a floor. A judge can depart from it, and departing generally means putting a reason on the record. That is what makes support in a formula state worth planning around in a way it is not elsewhere. What it does not mean is that every figure on this page is that formula. We have read one state's maintenance statute, Illinois', and there the duration is the statute's own arithmetic while the amount is still ours. Everywhere else both figures are a national approximation applied the same way in all fifty states. The panel above the calculator says which of the two you are looking at, beside every number it returns.
Length of marriage enters twice. It scales the amount, and separately it sets how long payments run. That second effect is the one people underestimate: the difference between a nine-year marriage and an eleven-year marriage is often larger in total dollars than a sizable difference in income would be.
One caveat matters more here than anywhere else on this page. Several states run a formula for temporary support while the case is open and then hand post-judgment support back to the court to decide on the statutory factors. Where that is how the state works, the arithmetic is a good guide to what gets paid during the case and a weaker guide to what gets ordered at the end of it. Check which of the two you are looking at before you plan around the number.
What New Yorkcourts weigh, in our data's order
These are the 3 factors our New York record carries, listed in the order it records them. They are the ground a support argument is actually fought on, so the side that documents them is the side arguing where the statute points.
- Length of the marriageThe strongest single predictor of both how much support is awarded and how long it runs. Short marriages point toward limited, time-boxed support aimed at getting the lower earner back on their feet. Long marriages point toward larger awards over longer terms, and are where indefinite support is still argued for.
- The income difference between the spousesThe figure the calculation is applied to. What matters is the gap, not either income by itself, so a rise in the lower earner's income reduces support just as a fall in the higher earner's does. Two couples with the same household total can reach very different results depending on how that total is split.
- Standard of living during the marriageThe benchmark the court measures need against. It is why the same income gap supports a larger award for a couple who lived expensively than for a couple who saved. Documenting how the household actually spent, through statements rather than recollection, is what makes this factor usable in a hearing.
Does conduct matter in New York?
No. Marital fault does not appear in the New York factor list, so the analysis runs on need, ability to pay, and the other factors above rather than on who was to blame for the marriage ending. That is worth knowing before you spend money on it: evidence of an affair or of who left first has little purchase on the support question here, and the same money spent documenting the marital standard of living or a career interrupted for the household does far more work.
Grounds are a separate question from support, and the two do not always line up. Our record has New York letting you file on fault grounds as well as no-fault grounds, our own record rather than New York's own law on divorce grounds, so conduct could enter the case through the petition itself. It does not follow that it reaches support: conduct is not in the support factor list here, so a fault filing can change the shape of the case without changing the number.
Support and the property split are one conversation
Our record has New York dividing marital property by equitable distribution, which means the split starts near even and moves with the same kinds of factors that drive support: length of marriage, each spouse's earning capacity, and what each contributed. That is our own record rather than New York's own property division law. Because the two questions run on overlapping facts, they are usually negotiated together. Trading a larger share of the estate for a smaller or shorter support award is one of the most common settlement structures there is, and it is often the one that gets a case resolved. Real outcomes in a formula state are less spread out than under open discretion, so a planning band means more here than it does elsewhere. That is a fact about the state rather than about this figure. Unless the panel above says otherwise, the estimate is the same national approximation every state on this site gets. A judge can depart from the statutory result anyway, and most support terms are settled by agreement rather than decided at a hearing.
One practical cost sits underneath that trade. Where the asset being swapped for support is a retirement account, dividing it takes a qualified domestic relations order, which runs $750 to $3,000 in New York on top of whatever else the case costs. Worth pricing in before you agree to take retirement money instead of monthly support, along with the fact that the two are taxed very differently when you eventually draw on them.
New York spousal support examples
These three examples run through the same New York calculator on this page, so the figures match what the tool returns for the same entries. Each is a different shape of case rather than a small variation on the one before, because the two things that move support most, the income gap and the length of the marriage, tend to move together in real households.
Read the range, not the middle figure. We draw the band comparatively narrow here, because a formula leaves less room between the high and low outcomes than open discretion does. The width is our judgement about that spread rather than anything the state publishes. In the second example below, the top of the band is about 1.3 times the typical figure.
Example 1: Four-year marriage, modest standard of living
A short marriage with a real but moderate income gap and no caregiving history. This is the case where support is most often brief or refused outright.
- Higher earner
- $85,000/yr
- Lower earner
- $38,000/yr
- Marriage length
- 4 years
- Likelihood
- Possible
Estimated range: $573 to $955 a month, typically around $764 ($9,168 a year), running 0.8 to 2 years.
Short marriages in New York may result in limited rehabilitative alimony. Our record classifies New York as a formula state, so real outcomes there are less spread out than under open discretion. That is a fact about New York rather than about this number, which is our own approximation and not the state's calculation.
- The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, New York included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
- Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.
Example 2: Twelve-year marriage, one spouse the primary caregiver
The most common shape of a contested support case: long enough that a career was reshaped around the household, not long enough to reach the territory where indefinite support gets argued.
- Higher earner
- $120,000/yr
- Lower earner
- $45,000/yr
- Marriage length
- 12 years
- Likelihood
- Likely
Estimated range: $1,406 to $2,344 a month, typically around $1,875 ($22,500 a year), running 2.4 to 6 years.
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Primary caregiver for children | Pushes up |
Medium-length marriages with a significant income gap frequently result in temporary alimony in New York. Our record classifies New York as a formula state, so real outcomes there are less spread out than under open discretion. That is a fact about New York rather than about this number, which is our own approximation and not the state's calculation.
- The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, New York included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
- Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.
Example 3: Twenty-four-year marriage, high standard of living, health limits
A long marriage, a wide income gap, and a documented health issue limiting the recipient's return to work. This is the combination that produces the largest and longest awards.
- Higher earner
- $185,000/yr
- Lower earner
- $30,000/yr
- Marriage length
- 24 years
- Likelihood
- Very likely
Estimated range: $4,069 to $6,781 a month, typically around $5,425 ($65,100 a year), running 4.8 to 12 years.
| Factor | Effect |
|---|---|
| Long marriage (20+ years) | Pushes up |
| Age or health limitations | Pushes up |
Long marriages with an income gap often result in extended or permanent alimony in New York. Our record classifies New York as a formula state, so real outcomes there are less spread out than under open discretion. That is a fact about New York rather than about this number, which is our own approximation and not the state's calculation.
- Marriages of 20+ years may result in indefinite or permanent alimony in New York.
- The two employment statuses you entered have not changed the estimate above. You had to answer to get here, and whichever answer you picked the figure is the same: we calculate on the income figures you entered and impute nothing to either parent. Courts can impute. Where a judge finds a parent voluntarily unemployed or under-employed, a court may set support on what that parent could earn rather than on what they currently bring in, and an imputed figure is set at or above actual earnings rather than below them. Which way that would move your case depends on whose income gets imputed, and that is the part we cannot answer for you: if it is the paying party's, the figure above tends to sit below what a court would order, and if it is the receiving party's it can move in either direction depending on the state and on the two incomes, so we do not put a direction on it. We have read the imputation provision in Illinois and in no other state, New York included, so nothing on this page is adjusted for one.
- Whether the paying spouse has business income has not changed the estimate above. We ask because it shapes the case rather than the arithmetic: business income is the single most argued-about number in a support case, because what a business pays its owner and what a court treats as that owner's income are frequently different figures, and establishing the second usually takes disclosure or a forensic accountant. Nothing in the figures on this page is adjusted for your answer, so do not read the estimate as having priced it in.
Set the first and third examples side by side and the scale of what marriage length does becomes clear. The estimate moves from around $764 a month running 0.8 to 2 years to around $5,425 a month running 4.8 to 12 years. Part of that is the wider income gap. Most of it is the twenty extra years.
How long spousal support lasts in New York
Duration is the question people ask second and worry about first, and it is decided differently from amount. Amount answers what the lower earner needs and what the higher earner can pay. Duration answers a narrower question: how long it should reasonably take the lower earner to get where they can stand on their own, and whether that is realistically possible at all.
The table below runs one couple through the New York estimate at seven marriage lengths. Incomes are held at $110,000 and $40,000 a year with no children and no health limits, so the only thing changing between rows is how long the marriage lasted.
| Marriage length | Band | Typical monthly | Estimated duration | Likelihood |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 years | Very short marriage | $700 | 0.5 to 1 years | Unlikely |
| 5 years | Short marriage | $1,138 | 1 to 2.5 years | Possible |
| 10 years | Mid-length marriage | $1,488 | 2 to 5 years | Likely |
| 15 years | Long marriage | $1,750 | 3 to 7.5 years | Very likely |
| 20 years | Long marriage, common statutory threshold | $2,100 | 4 to 10 years | Very likely |
| 25 years | Very long marriage | $2,450 | 5 to 12.5 years | Very likely |
| 30 years | Very long marriage, retirement in view | $2,800 | 6 to 15 years | Very likely |
Two things are worth reading off that table. The first is that a five-year marriage and a twenty-year marriage are not the same case with a different number attached: at five years the estimate runs 1 to 2.5 years and support is only possible, while at twenty years it runs 4 to 10 years and is very likely. The second is that the ranges stay wide at every length, because duration is where courts exercise the most judgment and where settlements do the most trading.
Support also ends on events, not only on dates. Across states the usual terminating events are the death of either spouse, the recipient remarrying, and in many places the recipient living with a new partner in a marriage-like arrangement. Retirement in good faith at a normal age is the other common ground for cutting support off or reducing it. Whether New York treats each of those the same way is a question for a licensed attorney there, and it is worth asking before you sign an agreement rather than after.
Support while the New York case is still running
New York imposes no statutory waiting period before a divorce can be finalized, but a contested case here runs about 1.5 years on average against 4 months when both spouses agree. You also need one year of residency in New York before you can file at all. That stretch of time is the reason temporary support exists. A court can order support early in the case, well before anything final is decided, so the lower-earning spouse is not left covering a separate household on one income for about 1.5 years while the rest gets sorted out. If money is tight now, asking for a temporary order is almost always faster than waiting for the judgment, and the months spent waiting are rarely made up afterwards.
New York's own durational rule has been read, and it is not a cap. N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(f)(1) and N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(f)(2) set out a schedule expressed as a share of the length of the marriage, and the statute calls it advisory, so a court may depart from it. The provision is reproduced in the statute's own words on this page. The duration column above is still our general model rather than that schedule, because we do not compute from it.
The kinds of spousal support a court can order
Support is not one thing. States use different names for the categories below and not every state recognizes all of them, but the underlying purposes are consistent, and knowing which one is being discussed tells you what the argument is really about.
- Temporary support, while the case is open
- Ordered after filing and before judgment, purely to keep two households running while the case is decided. In New York that window matters more than people expect: a contested case averages about 1.5 years, so this is often the largest block of support anyone actually receives. It ends when the final judgment lands, and it does not commit the court to continuing at the same figure.
- Rehabilitative support
- Time-limited support tied to a plan: finishing a degree, renewing a license, completing a training program, or re-entering a field after years away. It is the most common outcome for short and mid-length marriages. Because it is tied to a plan, the strongest version of this request comes with the actual program, its length, and its cost rather than a general statement about needing time.
- Durational or term support
- A set number of years, usually pegged to the length of the marriage, without needing to be tied to a specific rehabilitation plan. This is the category most reform legislation over the past decade has been about, generally replacing open-ended awards with a term the statute caps.
- Indefinite or permanent support
- Support with no end date written into it, reserved for long marriages where the age, health, or work history of the lower earner means self-sufficiency is not a realistic outcome. Indefinite does not mean unchangeable: it stays modifiable on a substantial change in circumstances, and it generally ends on the usual terminating events.
Data pending verification. Our New York record does not list which of these categories New York recognizes by name or what it calls them, so the descriptions above are the general framework rather than a New York list. We would rather say that than name four New York categories we have not checked.
How spousal support is taxed
This changed in a way that still catches people out. Under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, for any divorce or separation agreement executed after December 31, 2018, alimony is not deductible by the spouse paying it and is not taxable income to the spouse receiving it. The federal rule is the same in New York as everywhere else, because it is federal.
Two consequences follow, and both are worth understanding before you negotiate. Support is now paid out of after-tax dollars, so a given monthly figure costs the payer considerably more than the same figure did before 2019. And the older advice that a large award could be made cheaper by the deduction no longer applies at all. Agreements executed on or before December 31, 2018 generally keep the old treatment, though modifying one can bring it under the current rule if the modification says so.
State income tax is a separate question from the federal one, and it is not something this page models. Check the federal treatment against the IRS guidance below, and check the New York treatment with a CPA or a licensed family law attorney in the state.
- IRS Topic No. 452, alimony and separate maintenance, the federal rule on deductibility and taxability.
What it costs to argue about support in New York
Support is the issue most likely to turn a divorce contested, and it is also the one where the arithmetic of fighting is easiest to get wrong. Below are the New York figures set against what is actually in dispute.
- Attorney rate
- $300 to $700/hr
- Mediation session
- $375
- Uncontested case
- $2,500 to $8,000
- Contested case
- $17,000 to $80,000
Put those next to the second worked example above, where the estimate came to $1,875 a month, or $22,500 a year. A contested case in New York runs $17,000 to $80,000, which is the equivalent of roughly 9 to 43 months of that support. Ten billable hours on each side, which a single contested motion can consume, costs $3,000 to $7,000 per side at New York rates. Two mediation sessions cost $750 shared between you.
The sharper way to read those figures is as a difference rather than a total. An uncontested New York divorce runs $2,500 to $8,000 and takes 4 months. Contesting it adds $14,500 to $72,000, or roughly 8 to 38 months of the support in that example, and stretches the case to about 1.5 years. That difference is the actual price of the argument, and it is the number to hold against whatever separates your position from your spouse's.
None of that means give up a position worth holding. Where the gap between the two sides is large, where one spouse's income is hard to pin down, or where the marriage was long enough that duration is the real question, representation earns its cost several times over. But where the two positions sit a few hundred dollars a month apart, the arithmetic usually says settle: the fight can cost more than the difference it is about. Our record does not have New York requiring mediation before a contested hearing, but at $375 a session against a contested case starting at $17,000, it is usually the cheapest serious attempt at a resolution available. That is our own record rather than New York's own court rules. Our record carries collaborative divorce as available in all fifty states, so it says nothing specific about New York; whether trained collaborative attorneys practise near you is a local question. Where it is on offer, both sides commit in writing to settle without litigation and share one financial expert instead of hiring two.
New York spousal support authority
The New York spousal support authority in our data is DRL 236B maintenance formula. That authority controls. The estimate on this page models how support is decided in New York, it does not reproduce the statutory text, and where the two differ the statute is right and we are not.
One thing to be straight about, because it is not visible from the page. This page states New York's maintenance percentages as our copy states them, 30 percent of the higher earner's income less 20 percent of the lower earner's or 40 percent of combined income less the lower earner's, and a durational schedule of 15 to 30 percent, 30 to 40 percent and 35 to 50 percent of the marriage length by band. None of that has been read out of New York's own law: it came into our copy at the original build, and while N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1) have been read here, they carry none of it. It may well be right, and we are not going to present it to you as New York law on the strength of a reading that does not reach it. If the exact figure matters to your situation, what would settle it is N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(5-a) and (6), the temporary and post-divorce maintenance provisions, and a New York family law attorney can read it against your facts.
Where to check this yourself
- New York courts, the state judiciary site from our New York source record.
- American Bar Association, Section of Family Law, which publishes state-by-state family law comparisons.
- IRS Topic No. 452, alimony and separate maintenance, for the federal tax treatment described above.
Alimony in New York - Frequently Asked Questions
Does New York have an alimony formula?
Yes, and the statute is open in front of us. N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1) sets out the calculation itself, so this is not our classification of New York, it is what the section says. There are two arithmetic routes, one for a case with a child support order where the paying spouse is the non-custodial parent and one for everything else, each taking the lower of two figures and stopping at zero, and the court must order the result up to a statutory income cap unless it finds that amount unjust or inappropriate and says why in writing. What this page does not do is run it, for two reasons that have nothing to do with the arithmetic. The cap runs on the paying spouse's annual income alone, not on the two incomes combined, and the section prints only the base figure it was written with: that base is raised every two years on March 1 by the change in the consumer price index, and the New York State Office of Court Administration publishes the current amount. We do not hold that amount, so we are not printing one. And the statute's "income" is the child support definition, which takes eight named deductions off gross, while this calculator collects gross: the guideline amount is a difference between the two spouses' weighted incomes, so substituting gross moves the answer up for some couples and down for others and there is no single direction we could warn you about. The estimate here is our own national approximation and every panel that shows one says so. One thing to carry away about the term: the duration schedule in the same subdivision is advisory in the statute's own word, and the amount rule is not. The authority in our data is DRL 236B maintenance formula.
How is spousal support calculated in New York?
By the calculation N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 236(B)(6)(c) and § 236(B)(6)(e)(1) sets out, which is on this page in the statute's own words and which this page does not run. Where a child support order is in play and the paying spouse is the non-custodial parent, the section takes 20 percent of that spouse's income less 25 percent of the other's; in every other case it takes 30 percent less 20 percent. Either way it also works out 40 percent of the two incomes combined less the receiving spouse's, takes whichever of the two figures is lower, and stops at zero. A separate floor keeps the paying spouse above the self-support reserve. Two things stop us running it. The income cap it works up to is published by the Office of Court Administration rather than printed in the section, and we do not hold the current figure. And the section's "income" is the child support definition, which comes off gross by eight named deductions, while this calculator collects gross: the answer is a difference between weighted incomes, so the substitution has no single direction to warn you about. The statutory factors our New York record carries are length of the marriage, the income difference between the spouses, and standard of living during the marriage, and what our estimate does instead is 30 percent of the difference between the two incomes, scaled by a factor for the length of the marriage. Read it as a planning band and take the statutory figure to a family law attorney licensed in New York.
How long does alimony last in New York?
Duration scales with the length of the marriage more than with anything else. Running the same couple through our New York estimate at different marriage lengths, a 10-year marriage produces support of 2 to 5 years and a 20-year marriage produces 4 to 10 years. Short marriages under 5 years usually produce brief rehabilitative support or none at all. Long marriages are where indefinite support is still argued for, particularly when age, health, or years out of the workforce mean the lower earner cannot realistically become self-supporting. Support also ends on events rather than only on dates: the death of either spouse, the recipient remarrying, and in many states the recipient cohabiting with a new partner.
How much alimony is typical in New York?
There is no single figure, because the answer depends on the gap between the two incomes and how long the marriage lasted. As a worked example, a 12-year New York marriage where one spouse earns $120,000 a year, the other earns $45,000, and the lower earner was the primary caregiver produces an estimate of $1,406 to $2,344 a month, typically around $1,875, running 2.4 to 6 years. Our record classifies New York as a formula state, so real outcomes there are less spread out than under open discretion. That is a fact about New York rather than about this number, which is our own approximation and not the state's calculation. Run your own figures in the calculator on this page.
Can alimony be modified in New York?
Yes. Either spouse can ask the court to modify alimony based on a substantial change in circumstances, such as a significant change in income, retirement, the recipient's remarriage or cohabitation, or a serious health change. New York courts typically require the change to be material and not anticipated at the time of the original order.
Does fault affect alimony in New York?
No. New York does not weigh marital fault in setting alimony. Courts focus on financial need, ability to pay, and the other statutory factors rather than blame for the divorce.
Is alimony tax deductible in New York?
For divorces finalized after December 31, 2018, alimony is no longer deductible by the payer or taxable to the recipient under the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This federal rule applies in New York as it does in every state. Older orders entered before 2019 generally retain the prior tax treatment unless modified.
This estimate is for planning purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Consult a licensed family law attorney in your state for guidance specific to your situation.
How we calculate this estimate
Alimony is the least formula-driven number in a divorce, and outside one state this estimate is a national approximation rather than any state's own rule. It works from the gap between the two incomes, scaled by how long the marriage lasted, with the share of that gap set by how your state is recorded as deciding support and by the standard of living during the marriage. The other inputs, employment status on both sides, caregiving history, age and health, and marital fault where your state weighs it, move the factors and the likelihood rather than the arithmetic. The output is a monthly range with a duration range, a likelihood rating, and the specific factors pushing your case up or down.
What the estimate assumes for New York
- One state's own calculation is implemented, in half. Six states write a spousal support calculation into their own statute. We have read one of them, 750 ILCS 5/504, and the duration our Illinois calculator returns is that statute's arithmetic rather than our model's: the length of the marriage multiplied by a factor the statute fixes for each year of it, wherever the guideline route reaches the case. The Illinois AMOUNT is still ours, because the statute works it out from net annual income and this calculator collects gross. Everywhere else, both figures are the same national approximation. Every alimony figure we return says which of the two it is, beside it.
- The share of the income gap our estimate applies depends on which of three groups our record puts your state in, and the marriage-length factor then multiplies it in every case. A formula state takes 30 percent of the gap, which the factor moves to between 12 and 48 percent of it. A discretionary state takes between 22 and 38 percent depending on the standard of living during the marriage, moving to between 8.8 and 60.8 percent. A hybrid state averages the two, landing between 10.4 and 54.4 percent. Those are the figures before any ceiling a state sets, every one of them is ours, and no state publishes any of them.
- Duration is modeled at about a third of the length of the marriage, with a band around it and a cap at the length of the marriage, in forty-nine states. How wide that band runs depends on the same grouping: a formula or hybrid state gets 20 to 50 percent of the length of the marriage, a discretionary state 13.3 to 66.7 percent. Several of them set duration as a share of the marriage by statute and none of those shares is a third. Illinois is the exception: its ladder runs from .20 below five years to .80 at nineteen and opens up at twenty, we have read it, and our Illinois duration is that calculation rather than the model.
- State limits are applied in five states and shown without being applied in six more. Delaware, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana and Texas each set a ceiling on the amount or the term, we have read that ceiling out of the state's own instrument, and where our arithmetic ran past it the ceiling is what produced the figure. Florida, Louisiana and Texas are the ones whose ceilings are worked on a base the instrument does not use: their rules measure an income this page does not collect, so what we apply is a generous version of the state's own limit, which is why we are willing to bring a figure down to it and never up to it. Each of those pages says so beside the figure. Massachusetts and Maine's limits are rebuttable presumptions rather than ceilings, so they are shown beside the figure rather than applied to it. Massachusetts carries a second reason on top of that one, set out on its own page beside the figure, and it is the harder of the two: what the rule measures is not what this page collects. Indiana, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Utah have limits our own pages state and nobody here has opened the document behind, so those are worked out on your entries and set beside our estimate without changing it. We do not clamp a number to a figure we could not read. The other 39 states have no limit in our records, which is a statement about our records rather than about their law: where your state limits an amount or a term and we hold nothing for it, the limit still controls and this estimate can exceed it.
- Which of the three approaches a state takes came into our data at the original build. It has since been checked against the state's own rendered instrument in 4 states, Florida, Illinois, New York and Texas, and each of those pages names the instrument that settled it. In the other 46 it is still our record's classification with no statute behind it.
- Fault is only factored in for states where our record says fault can affect a support award.
- The one cost-table figure this page uses is your state's waiting period, and it is our own record rather than a reading of the statute. Nobody here has opened a dissolution statute to check the number, and the same field carries two different things across the fifty states, a wait that runs from filing and a separation requirement that runs from the day you separated. Confirm it with the clerk of court where you will file.
- The estimate is pre-tax. It does not model how support affects either spouse's tax return.
Where the estimate stops
Outside the Illinois duration, this is our model rather than your state's. In a state that publishes its own calculation the number to plan around is that calculation, and a family law attorney licensed there can run it on your figures. Even where a guideline applies, a judge can depart from it and most support terms are negotiated rather than tried, so treat the range as a planning band rather than a prediction of your order.
Read the full methodology for how every calculator on the site is built.
Sources
New York courts and statutes
- nycourts.gov
- DRL 236B maintenance formula
- N.Y. Dom. Rel. Law § 240(1-b)
- N.Y. Fam. Ct. Act § 413
Where to read more
Background reading, not where the figures above came from. No number on this page is taken from any of these.
About this page
Written by Barron Hansen
I am an app developer who is dedicated to building the highest-value, most accurate web apps possible, that people want to use every day.